DIY floor plan design for 2 people

Hello dear forum community,

after reading quietly for a long time, we have now also registered here and want to share our house planning with you.
First of all, we would like to say a big THANK YOU, the information you get here is really worth gold.

Now about us, we are both around 50 and the two adult children have left the house. We currently live in my parents' house, but want to fulfill our own dream of building a house. We are very fortunate to be able to afford the house construction without problems, the building plot belongs to us, the local building authority has so far given an oral approval for the construction (there is no development plan as it is currently farmland). We only have to share the development costs proportionally, but that is okay for us.
Our children and guests like to visit, so we want to set up a guest apartment in the basement, for old age we designed our draft so that we can convert the ground floor into a barrier-free space anytime with minor measures, including an elevator if needed. In case of emergency, we can also provide the guest apartment for a caregiver, which hopefully will never be necessary.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size 2,100 m²
Slope Yes, see views
Site coverage ratio no development plan
Floor area ratio no development plan
Building window, building line and boundary no development plan, we keep at least 6.0 m all around
Edge development No
Number of parking spaces 2
Number of floors 1 floor, basement
Roof shape Suggested "shed roof"
Style ???
Orientation North/South
Maximum heights/limits No specifications
Other specifications No valid development plan, approval will be granted for normal residential construction

Requirements of the builders
Style, roof shape, building type 1-story bungalow with basement (prepared for barrier-free)
Basement, floors Basement yes, 1-story with open roof structure
Number of persons, age 2, me 50, her 48, 1 dog
Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor See floor plan
Office: family use or home office? I occasionally work from home
Overnight guests per year Many
Open or closed architecture Rather open
Conservative or modern construction Special
Open kitchen, cooking island Definitely yes
Number of dining seats min. 8
Fireplace Yes
Music/stereo wall No
Balcony, roof terrace No
Garage, carport Integrated in the house
Utility garden, greenhouse No
Other wishes/particularities/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should not be

House design
By whom is the design: DIY
- Planner from a construction company
- Architect
- Do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why? Optimized to our personal wishes We have incorporated all our wishes
What do you not like? Why?
Price estimate according to architect/planner:
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: We assume about 700-800 k€ construction costs, but this should not become the topic here, financing is secured
Preferred heating technology: Not finally decided yet, definitely photovoltaic and solar on the roof, air-to-water heat pump or geothermal

If you have to do without, which details/extensions
-can you do without: Good question, in doubt the pool if a whirlpool comes out of it...
-can you not do without: The large all-purpose room and the guest apartment

Why did the design turn out the way it is now? e.g.
Standard design from the planner? No, we simply planned according to our preferences, open roof construction, large all-purpose room because we like to entertain guests, wellness area is a must
Corresponding/which wishes were implemented by the architect?
A mixture of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion?

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

Doesn't an extension of the inner core development area first require the involvement and consultation of the municipal council, etc.?

Basically, great property.
For a flexible budget, I have to say the design is actually very conservative and very large for two people.
In old age, everything must also be maintained, and even more importantly, lived in.

I would orient the building more towards the property. A full south side is important to many at first, but when the hot sun comes every summer, it becomes a problem that is solved with awnings, blinds, sails, etc., which rarely looks nice.
Personally, I find small niches distributed everywhere more interesting.

With the many skylights, I would consider designing it fundamentally differently.
It feels like you don’t need a gable roof if you’re going to cut it up again with glass anyway.

I would always place the garage on the boundary. Even if it’s secondary with this property size. You never know where you’ll want to put a nice pool ;)

Overall, I find it very convoluted. Lots of hallway space (dead space). But of course, that's a matter of taste.

Is the budget net? I find it hard to imagine that it’s enough for this size.
We have 153 m2 of living space and a 50 m2 garage for the same amount. Without outdoor facilities and expensive extras like KNX, conservatories, etc.

But I’m curious to see how your project develops.

Hello Malunga,

Thank you for your feedback. The large roof areas facing north provide light without direct sunlight. I was inspired by my company there, we still have an old hall with a shed roof and windows on the north side, the indoor climate is great especially in summer.... What do you mean by convoluted? Basement or ground floor?

If budget is no object, I would recommend that you write down all your wishes, preferences, and requirements purely in text form and take them to an architect / professional planner. This is not without reason a separate profession, and you would certainly be amazed at what they can achieve.

You can still implement the architect’s design later with a construction company of your choice, but I would let the professionals handle it. There isn’t much to say about the floor plans themselves at this point, since the dimensions are missing, but at first glance you can already see some corners that appear awkward and/or too narrow as passageways. When building so generously, you really shouldn’t include such bottlenecks.

Edit: I found the dimensions. ;)

I also find it too convoluted. Entrance area situation: it feels like you can barely get in with the slalom path to the stairs and then further. For a wardrobe that can be well filled, I find the "Entrance" room too convoluted.
Regarding the basement in general: that will already be a full floor, right? So overall a two-story building… but it looks like the windows are not sufficiently large.

Overall, you could probably remove some walls and doors everywhere. For example, the access to the dressing room. The hallway in front of the walk-in closet is somehow "too much." Bathtub in the bathroom?
Those are the washing machine and dryer in the dressing room, right? That would be a no-go for laundry: despite ventilation, the room becomes very humid during the drying process and is not good for clothing. I would also look here for a direct drying option for laundry that cannot be dried in the dryer. I would generally rotate the bed towards the entrance so that you do not enter the room from the head area.
The toilet is close to the sauna path 4! Doors removed. In principle, I find the arrangement of the sauna/wellness area in a separate wing good, but with fewer doors and possibly an accessible relaxation area with a potential fitness area for later.

The kitchen/dining area is too restless for me. From the table, you look at the stair lift, from the kitchen into the dressing room anteroom, … and on top of that, a half-high partition wall to the living area. Window bars… despite the size and panorama windows, it does not seem generous. The open roof adds even more to the restless view.

The roof is a matter of taste. The roof pitch will probably be somewhat too high/too much effect-wise. It will look like a church. I like open roofs, i.e., air space. However, I would rather plan a nice gallery with a large room where you can look down, not a small chamber that you enter via a staircase. And a room that is wider than it is tall is usually perceived as more pleasant. -> Is the sauna 3? Times as tall as it is wide?
(We have an open 26-degree roof, and at a room size of 4.5 meters, its effect is borderline; next time, I would plan it flatter.) However, with today’s policies that will probably force us to behave more sustainably, I would avoid empty volume that needs to be heated.

Basically, what would be a no-go for me is the “hanging” of the living floor in the air: if I plan a living level, I want to be able to go outside almost everywhere and have garden access. Don’t you? Especially when the plot is large enough to allow an exit from the bathroom and/or bedroom, exit from the kitchen and living area. As far as I can see, this is only possible to the terrace from the dining area? The concept is reflected in the roof windows. Almost nothing is connected with the garden or the property. This could somehow have a “burrow effect,” as if you are enclosed and only see the sky.

und wollen Euch unsere Hausplanung nicht vorenthalten.

I scrolled back up and wonder if you really want to hear criticism or just want to present your house project without ifs or buts.
I would definitely hire an architect for the planning, without bringing a drawing. If you are lucky enough, through good financial means, to afford quite a house, then that should also be visible in the professional planning. Sight lines, for example, do not exist at all. Just because standard houses cannot afford them does not mean an individual house should do without these valuable details.
However, I must also say that I do not see a house like the one you have drawn within that budget.

Phew, a lot of information at once. But that's how it should be. Thanks for that.


Architect is of course a given, we are still at the very beginning and wanted to try it ourselves first. It's just a hobby of mine...


The entrance area is actually more like an airlock and the way to the stairs is unfortunate, we need to work on that again. Possibly also make it visually more open with glass elements and a door recess, but we do not want the entrance to be completely open. Thanks for the hint about the full basement floor, I'll take that into further planning.

A continuous access to the garden obviously has its charm, but at the moment I can’t imagine how that would work on a sloping plot like ours if you consider the natural terrain and don’t want to fully bury the basement. We now have direct access from the kitchen and from the hallway/wellness area to the south/east terrace, do you think that’s too little?

What do you mean by 4 doors from the sauna to the toilet? Of course we also use the guest toilet ourselves and don’t always go through the dressing room into the main bathroom. About the bathroom, actually the bathtub doesn’t play a big role for us, we’re more shower people. Normally we could completely omit the tub, but maybe one day the back will complain after all ;)

Regarding your question about criticism, we want to hear your honest opinions and gladly accept criticism. Admittedly, we are already convinced of the open roof design and would prefer not to change it, but if for whatever reasons it makes no sense at all, we will rethink the whole thing. Currently, we also have an open gable roof with a 45° pitch and about 4.20m ceiling height under the ridge and find that great. But whether the extra meter and the roof windows negatively affect the overall impression is hard for me to estimate.

I noticed that yesterday I didn’t include the building section with the room heights, I’m making up for that here now. There you can also see, for example, that the roof in the wellness area is not open all the way up to the ridge, the room height is about 3.50m.