Apartment for parents: 210 m² single-family house and 80 m² apartment

No, seriously, I’ll start from the bottom. If I understood correctly, the hallway is about 7m long and approximately 1.50m wide thanks to the cupboards, with the door facing north? Daylight then only through a side window on the west at the very end, opposite the heating system (why is it in the hallway?)

The door faces west. Opposite the heating system is a door to get to the garden. Yes, it’s in the hallway for now because I’m still looking for a place for it, although I know someone who also has it in the hallway.

Guest bathroom in a shared hallway for 2 residential units? I also find that strange.

No, it’s supposed to be just a small toilet for the single-family house for children coming in from the garden so they don’t have to walk through the whole house. The granny flat only has one entrance from the hallway because my parents will live there for the first 5 years and then possibly move into our house (personal reasons). After the 5 years, we are allowed to rent out the granny flat. It’s only an internal passage.

Why does it have to be so long at all? Can’t you at least shorten it? Then you’d have square meters that would do the granny flat an extreme favor, because the utility room is too small and the bathroom could also benefit from an extra square meter.

Long so you can get through the door at the back into the garden.

That’s what I see at first glance. Otherwise, I imagined living there and find it somehow creepy. Sorry.

We just want a single-family house in a city villa style and a garage and a granny flat on the property. We have taken the sunny side into account. Sure, building completely differently would maybe suit the layout better. The main entrance should also be on the street side.

At first we had the garage on the south side next to the kitchen, but that was also heavily criticized.

From 210/80 sqm it has now rather become 160/just under 60 sqm. Have you already made first price inquiries?

Unfortunately, the rooms in the single-family house above the hallway are not labeled. The narrow corridor there seems very pointless to me.

In the kitchen/dining area, access to the terrace doors is extremely poor, as you always have to curve around the table. In general, two tables next to each other also seem somehow pointless with the not so generous room layout.

The bathroom on the ground floor... I would not want to have to use the shower there. I also don’t see space for a wardrobe.

Overall, everything is quite tiny, oddly shaped. 85 cm doors, none of the bedrooms consider that ideal closet spaces are found. In the master bedroom it’s very tight on one side of the bed and on the other side the head of the bed is next to the entrance door.

If there really is a 5 m car in the garage, you can’t even get past the car to the shelf.

The bathroom of the granny flat is for contortionists, no wardrobe present.
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Has there already been a visit to the architect?

Has there been a visit to the architect yet?

I don’t get that impression yet, nevertheless:

Could you evaluate this plan again?

With pleasure. It seems to me that it is improving. It was worth restricting the symmetry dogma to the "main house." The angle fetish also only comes into play in a reduced way – still, the floor plans seem to me as if devised by a packaging engineer (which greatly dampens spaciousness in the room experience).

since my parents will live there for the first 5 years and then possibly move into our house (personal reasons). After the 5 years we are allowed to rent out the apartment.

Oh, I see. Yes, that explains why the arrangements of the building parts always gave the impression that the apartment was the little kids’ table. Now just go to the architect, and the matter will be settled.

From 210/80 sqm it has now rather become 160/just under 60 sqm. Have you already made initial price inquiries?

Yes, and the bank is clearly calculating with prices that are too high. We would get the money from the bank, but by now we think we will build as small and as large as necessary so that the credit will be smaller and it will be paid off faster.

In the kitchen/dining area, access to the terrace doors is extremely poor because you always have to curve around the table. Overall, 2 tables next to each other also seem somehow pointless given the not so spacious room layout.

Yes, 2 tables only fit in there because the plan was bigger before, but probably only 1 table would fit now.

The bathroom on the ground floor... I would not want to have to use the shower there. I also don’t see any cloakroom space.

The shower should only be for guests if there are any occasionally.

Has there already been a visit to the architect?

No, we have "only" a draftsman who more or less draws what we present to her. We would have to pay again if we went to the architect.

No, we only have a draftswoman who more or less traces what we present to her. If we were to go to an architect, we would have to pay everything again.

Are you serious?

Depending on the architect, you would finally get a reasonable floor plan. There are people with the talent to draw good floor plans even without an architecture degree. But you can’t do that.

An architect could possibly deliver a significantly different but much better result, from the house shape to orientation, staircase choice, and room layout.

You are saving now and then spending hundreds of thousands on something more than suboptimal? Does that make sense?

You can hardly change a floor plan later. Better fittings can always be done later. If money is tight, you shouldn’t save on the architect but somewhere else.

... There are people with the talent to draw good floor plans even without an architecture degree. But you can't do that.

An architect could possibly deliver a significantly different, but significantly better result, from house shape to orientation, stair choice to room layout.

You are saving now, and then spending hundreds of thousands on something more than suboptimal? Does that make sense?

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Hehe, #2 22.4.2017
Maybe still indirectly, several more times directly