City villa floor plan 160 sqm, without basement - Your opinions on that?

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 626 sqm
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.35 + 50% for ancillary facilities
Floor space index:
Building window, building line and limit: 3m, no special requirements
Edge development: permitted
Number of parking spaces: no specification
Number of floors: 3
Roof shape: -
Style: -
Orientation: -
Maximum heights/limits: 12 meters
Further requirements: 1 tree per started 300 sqm

Requirements of the builders
Town villa, hip roof/tent roof
2 full floors
Persons: 2, about 30 years old, 1-2 children planned
Space requirements in the
Ground floor: kitchen/dining/living/pantry/guest room (office)/utility room/guest WC
Upper floor: 3 rooms/dressing room/storage/bathroom
Office: on the ground floor, also as a guest room
Guests per year: sporadic
Open or closed architecture: partly/partly
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island, possibly small pantry
Number of dining seats at least 6
Fireplace: yes
Music/stereo wall: home cinema area
Roof terrace: possibly later planned on the garage
Garage: yes, double garage with workshop/storage area: 9m * 6.50m with access to the house, planned as own work, driveway large enough for 2 cars
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should not be:
For primarily optical reasons, there should be a small bay window. Not deeper than 50 cm because of the roof overhang. There will be a canopy at the front door as a visual relief, so the bay should face the garden.
Ground floor:
bright hallway,
large kitchen with island (with seating, e.g. stools) and ideally a small pantry (possibly also accessible through a "fake" kitchen cabinet) and a small "bench" made of low cabinets at the window, double-wing interior wall-guided sliding door as separation to dining/living area
bright dining area,
generous living area, ideally a panoramic fireplace as room divider (not next to the TV)
Guest room/office,
generous utility room with space for possibly two electrical distributions, water softening system, ground source heat pump, washing machine (possibly dryer) and laundry rack
Guest WC with shower

Upper floor: at least 2 children's rooms, 1 storage room, bedroom can be quite small. Instead spacious bathroom with 2 washbasins (or 1 long one with 2 faucets), bathtub up to 2m and shower. WC with privacy, e.g. with T.
Walk-through dressing room between bedroom and bathroom. Sliding door on the wall between bedroom and dressing room and room door between dressing room and bathroom. Bathroom also accessible from the hallway.

General: many windows (included in the house price without piece or size limitation), some floor-to-ceiling, possibly preparation for an exit to the (eventually) planned roof terrace on the garage from the bedroom,
Lift-and-slide door system as passage from living/dining area to the terrace
Doors at least 1m wide on the ground floor
The terrace should be on the left side of the house, i.e. facing south. And depending on the location of the kitchen, possibly also a little narrower at the top around the corner.
Ultimately we think it might be nicer if the kitchen was on the left and you could look out into the garden from the kitchen and go directly onto the large terrace. But this criterion changes with every change of the floor plan :|

House design
Who made the planning:
Designs for the house mainly come from us with some inspiration from the internet.
So far there has been no real professional involved. The upper floor plan was found directly online. However, here the house width is only 10m instead of 10.50m. Also, of course the bay window on the left is not included. It would be great to realize a small storage room here.
What do you particularly like? Why?
What don't you like? Why?
The above two points are not really answerable yet. We have often shifted the kitchen from right to left and vice versa, but nothing was really ideal.
Likewise, we are not quite sure if the garage should stand so far forward and whether you can still store something behind the garage without it being in view from the garden, or if it should be moved about 2 meters further back (3 meters to the boundary) to have some privacy from the diagonal neighbor. We are also grateful for innovative ideas on how to place the garage. It is certain that it must have access to the house.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 230,000
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: 240,000 (without garage, but including base plate)
Preferred heating technology: geothermal

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions
- can you do without: hard to say, maybe the pantry? Although then the supplies would have to be stored in expensive kitchen cabinets that offer less space.
- cannot do without: guest room on the ground floor, possibility to place a laundry rack in the utility room (never want to have such a thing in a living room again!)

Why did the design turn out as it is now?
The design emerged through a lot of freehand drawing on paper and tinkering on the computer to get the best out of it. Unfortunately, we are stuck now.
Which wishes were implemented by the architect?
A mix of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?
Bad is that the planning downstairs and upstairs hardly fit together, mainly because of the stairs. We think the division upstairs is quite good, except that it will be difficult to fit a second door in the bathroom.
Downstairs we have been constantly swapping. Kitchen at the front left and guest room at the top right or vice versa. We were not quite sure which would be better to furnish.

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?

How do we fit all our wishes in the best mix of space, aesthetics and function in the floor plan?

And: It may be that the design fails in every respect according to the users. The criticism will mostly be given to you unfiltered – so prepare yourselves. Nobody means it badly, but wants to present their point of view or open your eyes.

Thanks already for your help

What I forgot to mention is that the staircase should have a reinforced concrete slab; it doesn't have to be straight. It can also be half or quarter turn. It just has to be easy to walk on, so no extremely narrowing steps.
In addition, the shell height has been increased to 3.00 meters.

I also just saw in the offer that the external dimensions of the house are 10.50m*9.50m. However, these are not set in stone. They can vary as long as the floor area remains the same.
Of course, it is best if the house is taller rather than wider so that there is more garden space remaining on the left side. Unfortunately, all the rooms are already elongated with the current floor plan.
But for now, I am waiting for your responses.

How much personal contribution do you want to make?
Is the 240,000 including additional construction costs?

A few measurements are missing

Ground floor
What is the niche behind the entrance door for?
The staircase seems to be too short
Pantry not really furnishable. Looks too narrow for freezer and shelf opposite the door
Have you furnished the living/dining room already? I find it quite small, especially with the panoramic fireplace
Kitchen has a lot of unused space. Why not an open-plan kitchen?
Swap kitchen and guest room.
Kitchen belongs to the terrace.

Upper floor does not match the ground floor
Staircase different location, different dimension
Upper floor not dimensioned

EG and OG must be planned together.

EG ... kitchen approx. 4 sqm dead space, utility room at least 3 sqm dead space due to the garage passage into the house.

Stairs are much too short at just over 3m length with a raw building storey height of 300 cm.

What is the small "bulge" in the guest room supposed to be? Cloakroom storage? Too small for a family.

Indicate the planned furniture in the living area.

Roof terrace from the bedroom ... distance regulations must be observed and the connection of the garage to the house must also be designed and planned accordingly. Just saying because of the planned DIY effort.

I am somewhat confused about the mentioned house price. I know that home builders or BU first estimate the price based on the square meter price and the roof shape, which then determines what the house will cost with the (basic) construction service description standard.

Now you mention a limit of 240,000 including additional equipment without garage, but also special and additional equipment that is quite substantial. It starts with the costs of wider doors, filter system, sliding door, bay window, increasing the rooms on the ground floor, panoramic fireplace... the latter alone costs about 12,000€ with a chimney two stories high. I’ll leave the roof terrace aside.

Then there is the mandatory program with driveway, terrace, house pedestal, entrance canopy, and splash protection all around; not to mention the special equipment resulting from the individual trades of tiling, sanitary, and electrical.

You wanted to discuss a floor plan, but you should address the costs for a 160sqm house before discussing details within this sqm. The calculation is 1,800-2,000€ per sqm in standard equipment, but this can vary regionally. I can’t see on my phone right now where you want to build...

If your house is promised to be cheaper, other unforeseen costs may await you elsewhere, which could affect you in the mentioned special equipment or chosen house size.

Regarding the ground floor design: It makes sense to eliminate the separation if the pantry and utility room are located next to each other. The traffic flow is much better that way. In the guest toilet, you can already see that the dimensions are too narrow to pass through, but the hallway is more than generous. This recess is probably intended to represent a wardrobe niche? I would make it five times as wide. I would do without the bay window; it is good for nothing. I also see the kitchen rather in the south; then it can be somewhat smaller. Or you are consistent and plan an eat-in kitchen, but then the living room no longer needs a dining area. The copied upper floor: with two doors in the bathroom, privacy is reduced.