DIY floor plan design for 2 people

We want the living area on the ground floor to be spacious, also to have barrier-free access later if necessary. It is supposed to be our retirement home hopefully into old age.

It may be more important for you than for others, the barrier-free access.
But your basement is anything but barrier-free. The garage is your room divider, practically a central hallway, from which other rooms radiate out like spokes, more or less narrow. However, the car will then be in the way, around which one - whether in a wheelchair or on healthy legs - constantly has to struggle to get around.

Note the corners in the basement of the exterior walls (I spared myself the trouble of adjusting the wall thickness)
and note the artificially built-in corners inside the basement. I don’t understand why one does that. There is virtually nothing in a line or alignment.
And then, because of the desired barrier-free access, note the car that even blocks the way for a healthy person, no matter whether the car is parked crosswise or straight.

The surrounding farmland belongs to us and is designated as outside area – no one will build there anymore. Only the depicted separated piece can be converted into building land if the municipality cooperates. It would then be classified as edge development (in the second row) since there is already development to the west and north.
That is the current verbal statement from the building authority. An official application has not yet been submitted.
There is no survey plan yet; we have leveled the terrain ourselves – here are the rough data:
East-west slope approx. 60cm / 10m,
South-north slope approx. 1.0m / 10m

The garage/workshop is to be integrated into the thermal building envelope; the garage door is actually a topic here.
The main use will be as a workshop, therefore there is the consideration to build an external garage in the medium term.
Depending on how costs develop, either directly or delayed in time relative to the house.

The storage room for drinks, canned goods, etc. is in the basement. Of course, fresh food is directly in the kitchen.
That means a short distance from the trunk to the storage room, is that idea wrong?


I did not want to justify myself, just explain the idea behind the design.
We already find environmental pollution harsh, of course free-standing single-family houses are always a topic of discussion – after all, they are still the construction standard in rural areas.


You are of course right, the basement is not really barrier-free – here we actually only focused on the short way from the car to the door into the hallway. Otherwise, our attention was only on the ground floor and the terrace.
And as already said, there will very rarely if ever be a car in the house; we just want to keep the option open. Otherwise, workshop use.

Do you think the sleeping area in the guest apartment will be too dark? Here we have planned a window element in the upper third of the partition wall to the bathroom (above the head of the bed) to capture additional light from the bathroom.

I think the guest area generally won't have much charm, as the windows in the living area with their sill height of 150 cm simply convey a "BASEMENT" feeling.

I could rather imagine a 3-part division of the basement floor plan:
Seen from in front of the house:

[*]right: in the west, a granny flat, living space facing forward and sideways, sleeping area more towards the back
[*]center: entrance and stairs up, possibly a storage cellar in the rear area
[*]left: technical room, passage to garage/workshop

Basically, I can understand that you want to integrate the garage like this. Because only through this does the overall size of this basement correspond to the room requirements you desire on the ground floor.

A total slope of 160 cm at one corner of the building is not really that much either. You can also see this in the lines showing the terrain profiles in post 1.

Have you ever thought about going mostly on one level? The plot itself doesn't seem to be the problem if you own everything there. This also saves options for possibly an elevator, space for stairs, etc. And, one could consider to set up a separate garage-workshop wing. By the way, what is supposed to be done in the workshop? Any particular hobby?

Granny flat... children and guests... do they always stay so long that you have to think about living with a kitchenette and sleeping area? Or is this perhaps also an option for a caregiver in the house?

I hope you have looked at your pension statements ;) The house will consume a lot of electricity for heating just because of the large window areas... especially in the wellness area, which has to be kept at a minimum of 25°C even in winter to be comfortable.

It is not barrier-free anyway, the ground floor alone has 170m². Even you, as average fit retirees, can hardly keep that in shape yourselves.

I am also not aware that the health insurance pays for a caregiver living in the granny flat? So it seems that one is extra or do you have the money for a full-time caregiver from abroad in old age?

Depending on how the costs develop, either directly or delayed relative to the house.

Honestly, I can't imagine that your plan as it is fits the indicated budget.

The storage room for drinks, canned goods, etc. is in the basement. Of course, we have fresh food directly in the kitchen.
That means a short way from the trunk to the storage room, is that idea wrong?

Well, we are far from retirement and have tried in our draft to avoid stairs in everyday life as much as possible.
For example, by having a utility room on the floor with the bedrooms, so that you can wash the laundry on the floor where it usually accumulates.
I’d rather carry the supplies down one flight of stairs to the storage room once a week and then have them within easy reach than run down to the basement every day, possibly several times, for drinks or supplies.

Of course, detached single-family houses are always a point of discussion – it is still the building standard in rural areas.

Detached single-family houses, yes, but not ones with a garage in the middle of the house. ;)
That is quite extravagant – and also difficult to implement according to current energy standards – so the property could somehow have a resale problem. That’s what the previous poster meant, I think. Probably hardly anyone else can use the house like that, and from an environmental point of view, it’s hard to justify why you accumulate so much concrete if it can’t remain that way for long.

And as already said, the car in the house will rather not/very rarely happen, we just want to keep that option open. Otherwise workshop use.

So for "it actually shouldn’t happen," I wouldn’t stress too much about somehow integrating a garage door into an insulated building envelope. That’s elaborate and extremely expensive. A workshop can get a normal door and that’s it, much cheaper. Make it a 6m lift-and-slide veranda door, then you can also drive the car in if necessary. ;)

Otherwise, our focus was only on the ground floor and the terrace.

An architect did not develop the design, did they?