Draft single-family house (EFH), 2 full stories, gabled roof, no basement, double garage

that you don't stand directly in front of the toilet when you come in.

DIY designs are often torn apart here and in other forums

We have already been at 2 general contractors (GU)

Prejudice

A lot is dried on stands in our house

The attic is planned as storage space for Christmas decorations etc. via a pull-down ladder and would be quite generous.

The age-related repurposing is a thing

For me, such an entrance situation/driveway to the house would be a no-go in a free house planning. A house entrance does not necessarily have to look presidential, but here it feels rather squeezed to me and directly next to the cars driving by. never! 5.60m garage width with bicycles, tools, etc. for two cars is little. Now, we also raised children in the then newly built house, but in your room requirements in my opinion the term "playing" appears extraordinarily often. Children will find their place and usually look for completely different places than the assigned ones, and this kind of playing only takes place over a limited period of time. Whether I would create that much extra space for it with €3-3,500 per sqm... I don’t know, especially if I could quickly run out of money elsewhere. In a really fancy house you can easily hide €100-200,000 more permanently and sensibly with the same area. When children become teenagers, they need exactly the opposite most of the time.

As a repeat offender, I believe I read that you currently want to plan the jack-of-all-trades, which is absolutely understandable with such a project. But you still have a while until "age," and from my own experience and many others around me I would rather discard the planning of a separable upper floor. Nobody wants to eventually climb such a chicken ladder there, plus needs usually arise quite differently than one intends. Rather I’d find the idea interesting to be able to separate the children’s area with its own shower/WC from the rest of the house or perhaps even the house entrance, this for one’s own peace and privacy as well as for the young people. Currently you have a U-shape, but this is pressed directly against the interior wall, an expensive, often unattractive sliding door solution without real sound reduction.

First of all, I would wish for a drawn sketch (and I know that also from some participants here) especially with individual dimensions, above all also with the furniture dimensions of the real! furniture. These floor plans from the PC look nice but are less suitable for a deeper floor plan discussion. Floor plan: You have to walk around the front door to get to the stairs, which is not very comfortable. The entry to the (why?) straight staircase is very close to the wall and does not create a nice spatial feeling and looks cramped. The ground floor shower is apparently 140cm and must then produce the unpopular glass solution because the passage must already be about 70cm; moreover, the door almost hits the toilet, which you approach directly... all this becomes apparent when you draw in the real measurements. Apparently, the living room will mainly be a TV room, so I would consider whether it should be there at all, especially since it should also be acoustically separated. I once lived like that, where the living room was on the other side of the house in a quiet room—I found that nice for everyone. I do not mean a 1:1 swap, but such an idea would bring freedom in the dining/kitchen area and this living room could then be significantly smaller, while the open-plan area without a living room would be bigger.

In the upper floor, I see that the drawn doors are probably not to scale, so please draw accurately here as well, again with furniture, TV wall, etc. The bathroom is huge at 13 sqm but poorly planned, you don’t need the T to get a nice bathroom; the toilet is far from the window and also cramped. The shower of 180cm is also not enough for the desired glass-free solution. We have done it here with 140x90 plus passage width; you do not have that here. I would rather push the shower behind the toilet and move the toilet to the other side. The three children’s rooms or extra rooms could be rearranged so that each child’s room has about 14 sqm. The middle one could perhaps also (initially?) remain a nice, open area for old and young or if needed then become the third room; that could be easily prepared.

This could once again become an exciting and constructive discussion that is unfortunately becoming less and less. I think it is good that you share your mental background because these are precisely necessary to truly design a house individually.

I would seriously take advantage here of the fact that the stair location is optimal to save an additional acrobat ladder. Not everything that has to be carried up and down is just a symbolic load that you can easily put on your shoulder.

Shower facing inward, toilet facing outward. That is optimal. But otherwise, it doesn’t matter. There is a toilet lid after all. And those who are too lazy can be punished. Joking aside: there is a door.

..because they cannot be built.

Not from the general contractor anyway. They have their model homes and offer common modifications.

Which prejudice regarding basements?

It doesn’t have to be to the point where neither can go upstairs anymore. Sorry, but you’re not Siamese. If one can’t go anymore because of illness, he stays downstairs. The partner doesn’t have to get sick right away and can still use the rooms upstairs. Grandchildren and visitors of course. What would bother me, if I had to stay downstairs due to age, is the very small bathroom without any freedom of movement. With osteoporosis, the elbows get crushed right after combing or diaper changing. Drying off and a poop-filled diaper pants should then be taken off in front of the shower-bath? So, that needs to be thought through.

In principle, however, it is a nice entrance area INSIDE, and the design would also please me. So, let’s put it this way: there are hardly any things that restrict you or force you to do pirouettes in order to be able to live in the house.

HOWEVER: I join in the criticism of the access situation, it is just tight and not nice with the garage - but it can be changed. What I personally don’t like at all is this totally sober and boring exterior facade, that scares me. But the architect should also be able to manage that.

I especially like the entrance, i.e. hallway situation on the ground floor. What I would like to mention: we also have the office in this spot, right at the front by the entrance, and I would not do it that way again if I had had options. I would swap office and technology room. The utility supply lines are also overbuilt, that would not be allowed for us here in Lower Saxony.

I would also prefer a 200m² larger plot where the combination would be easier.

Thank you very much. Then I am a DIY exception.

- Garage:
5.6m is indeed too short, but due to the mentioned 17m building line above it’s difficult.

The cabinets all have 0.5m depth,

therefore the T-solution

However, I planned the shower rather consciously towards the window on gut feeling because of the light.

means window in the east to put a mirror cabinet on the south wall?

I put it this way: In our area there is still often the opinion that a house without a basement is basically no house.

You are absolutely right and thank you very much for the realistic representation, that opens eyes and we were probably too naive in the current considerations. We rather thought of when you are still mobile but the children already out of the house. But I would really try to exclude the topic of age separation from now on.

The exterior facade is actually very conservative and I was glad to get it symmetrical or at least depict it that way in the app, but we hope for more from the professional side.

however, we thought that the utility room could also be used as storage/pantry and one goes that way much more often.

The short way from the kitchen just through the door next door pleased us very much. And on the other side, we also want to store seasonal clothes in the office.

I would be very interested in your background.

The approach is known not to be the right one, but I don’t want to waste more time with countless conversations in which the essential things get lost again anyway.