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

A lot of drying is done on racks here

However, this should come to an end in a new building. It doesn't do any good; where should the moisture go? The ventilation system supplies fresh air to the living rooms and exhaust air from the wet rooms. One should be prepared for that.

For this exact reason, we have exhaust air in the walk-in closet. How else are you supposed to dry laundry? Only a few items can go in my dryer because the materials can't handle it.

We have exhaust air in the walk-in closet room for exactly this reason. How else are you supposed to dry the laundry?

But there is no walk-in closet room here. Basically, it is part of it that you sometimes have to deal with such things when you move into a new building. How everyone dries their laundry is individual. New dryers or even 10-year-old devices can be set to gentle drying. A small rack in a damp room also works, otherwise outside. You just have to adapt and not follow old habits.

If you change something in one, perhaps even small, spot, it often has consequences for the entire floor plan. You pull here and something falls down there.....that should not scare you.
I still want to encourage you to draw on graph paper and to enter correct measurements there. In the shower, for example, I see no piece of wall, even though there should be one if you don’t want glass, and that usually has about 70mm thickness; you shouldn’t just “omit” that, because especially in a tight bathroom layout, such things can be crucial.

I would also prefer a plot 200m² bigger

My own plot is considerably larger, but the planning was no less complex for that reason.

The only alternative would be a complete redesign with access in the south?

There are always several alternatives if you let go of unnecessary fixed ideas in your head.

- Garage:
5.6m is really too little,

Then I won’t build it that way, especially not with your existing theme "car mechanic," which is important to you, or you could permanently rent something suitable next door. In principle, I’m not a fan of garages at all (especially because of the high costs, which usually pinch somewhere else), unless I am a car mechanic.

- Playing:
Good hint, it’s of course more of a topic at the moment and quickly shifts in another direction. We are currently too strongly focused in that direction.

If you already recognize "too strongly," that’s good. It doesn’t just change over time, but children do not need all sorts of stuff from the very beginning to develop well. I am still waiting for the study that proves that the thousands of trampolines in townhouse gardens have had a more positive effect on development than the simple playing in the sandbox.
I know families where 12-year-olds were allowed to choose the building site or partially decide the shape of the windows, etc.

Division by age will be initially ignored

You don’t have to completely dismiss that, and therefore I would build a house that fits especially me as an adult and can still be comfortable in 20 years. With all due understanding, children will eventually leave your house and build their own (life), and until then they live in a nice house with their own space always. With that, they are already riding quite high on the wave and rather need more interpersonal things for good development.

We are rather skeptical about the trend "children’s bathroom," after all, everything has to be maintained, and there would be another shower downstairs

Trends are bananas in housebuilding because they are ephemeral. The question is whether I simply copy a trend or whether I would actually need something sensible from my own individual life. A typical "children’s bathroom" here, I never had (had), rather a parents’ bathroom or an area that is clearly the parents’ privacy. Conversely, I did not just walk into the children’s rooms at will but knocked beforehand.
You wanted to separate things here, so I rather thought that teenagers could have an "own" bathroom or area to provide privacy for them and us.
A mistake we made ourselves many years ago and I now chuckle about: Don’t only imagine life with toddlers, but just as much or even more clearly life with teenagers who confront you or don’t even want to listen to you; distance is sometimes also good for both sides in the house. If it turns out differently, that’s nice.

Sliding doors and sound: I agree with you. The thought was that a double-leaf normal door would constantly be in the way

So nothing like that and nothing else either. Then why is it in the plan? It is actually difficult to foresee how some things will settle in. We are two, and for example, recently had the luxury of two bathrooms, which I liked. In the new house, I use it differently than expected; no idea why that is. But if it wasn’t there, I would certainly miss it, as I know myself.

I had also drawn a lot on paper and then switched to the app because of speed and flexible change options.

Show me what you drew.
With an eraser and pencil, I see no real disadvantages. On the contrary, I know that one often struggles unnecessarily long with the technical requirements of a system or is limited. But it is visible that you have many measurements missing, which can cause your sub-project to fail (wall thicknesses, facing walls, door widths, measurements of objects....), ergo up to that point it’s just pretty play. If, for example, the shower then doesn’t fit there because of 8cm, the bathroom plan collapses or other changes in the building plan must follow.
And.....speed is by no means an advantage in construction planning, but rather accuracy!

Front door is oriented this way to immediately put down jackets and shoes on the left

I understand that your thoughts always pursue a particular intention. But usually, there are several necessities, and these don’t disappear just because one of them is fulfilled.

The staircase became a straight one because a landing staircase in the north would have taken away the space for technology & pantry.

No - wrong. It became that way because you got stuck on some other things or simply reached your planning limits (understandably).

So far, sometimes it sounds to me as if you said: "I know it’s not good and not beautiful, but I had to build it like this because it couldn’t be done otherwise."

Yes, unfortunately it was a time-consuming learning effect, although at the beginning everything felt very individual

As with the planning app instead of drawing, I also read about "wasted" time here. I see it differently and believe that you have to go through many things yourself to approach your goal. Is someone/something driving you or do you feel time pressure? Enjoy taking time for individual details so that you can enjoy them for a long time afterward.

I’ll put it this way: In our area, the opinion still often holds that a house without a basement is not really a house. But we have long since overcome that. Although I was used to it and took a long time to understand that it simply makes more sense.

It is indeed difficult to free oneself from such perceived requirements, and I also repeatedly read about that here. I would always want to see it as a purely factual decision, one way or the other, depending on the plot, intended use, and also cost.

We have exhaust air in the room where the laundry is washed and dried. Only part of the laundry goes into the dryer. Not everything is suitable for the dryer.

There is a window missing above in the hallway - see if you can still somehow fit that in.
The T makes the bathroom look very cramped. I don't really like T-solutions anyway.
Is it really necessary to have a replacement [Evlt. Zimmer] both upstairs and downstairs? One is fine, I would also plan for that.
Consider the separate living room. I find it good and practical to have it open. It's also a matter of taste.

The garage is very narrow. Not much more than a public parking space. Even with 2 small cars, it is difficult to get trash bins, bicycles, and so on out without scratches.

The floor plan is really not bad. Did you draw all the existing and desired furniture to scale? Have you taken your shoe collection, the books and the yoga mat into account?

Regarding the basement discussion: Yes, people used to have one and needed it. But where is the oil storage? The wood storage? The winter supply of fruits and vegetables? My grandma needed space. Casks of cider, apple and elderberry juice, loads of preserved food, plus stored fruits and vegetables. She had a separate potato cellar alone. The drying attic. Bedding used to hang longer until it was dry. Nowadays, you just throw it in the dryer. So a lot of what the basement was used for before is obsolete. Then the party basements of the 80s/90s. They had something rugged about them but were not exactly practical. Especially if the basement didn't even have a toilet.

Thank you very much for the further responses. Since many things are similar, I will now respond generally without quoting (please forgive me if I have forgotten to address something).

Of course, I do not feel like an architect’s apprentice and I accept any criticism as well as the positive feedback. I also do not want to save on the architect at all costs and run with my design to the general contractor or draftsman. But when I look at houses or floor plans from freelance architects within my circle of acquaintances, I often wonder what they were actually thinking. So it is extremely difficult to come across one that suits us. To avoid going through hundreds of iterations and burning huge sums of money and time, I chose this path. By the way, we also had a detailed preliminary conversation with a freelance architect, but even there the first ideas were sobering.

In my previous answers, I was too focused on explaining the background as well as possible and in detail, without emphasizing again that it is primarily about the general orientation, the room program, and the basic things. So, something like a "preliminary draft." Of course, I have drawn the floor plan as best and as completely as possible with to-scale furniture that we can imagine in everyday life or already own. Yes, I mistakenly planned the cabinets with 50 instead of 60 cm depth. But the wall thicknesses are also only roughly assumed at 40 / 20 cm. I did not focus on the last 10 cm, but I would consider that it still works. However, naturally, a professional plan would have to be checked precisely for functionality.

The same applies for the bathroom. I think in a room of about 3.6x3.6 m something usable should be possible for experienced people. Regarding the T-solution, I lack the technical know-how, for example how the wall thicknesses of the wall panels behave and what the measurements will be in detail. But yes, in the planning, an unpopular glass solution would probably be necessary. Although with 1.8 m length and 0.7 m access in this constellation, I had hoped that it would work with the splash area.

Regarding drying laundry without a dryer: On the wish list is a controlled residential ventilation system, and I actually considered that as unproblematic (with appropriate planning).

But here I have already drifted much too far into detail again. Please see this as a somewhat more detailed "preliminary draft," and therefore back to the basics or why the compromise of the narrow garage arose and why I wrote the sentence about the larger plot:

- the building envelope is "only" 17 m wide (21 m plot width minus 4 m distance to the western neighbor)
- ridge direction is predetermined from the left side of the plan to the right side of the plan, meaning
- the driveway is from the south

With our prerequisite of a double garage, 6 m garage width leaves 11 m on the south side for the house. Every additional meter of garage width reduces the south side of the house. Moreover, for example, a 7 m wide garage would mean, due to the maximum overall boundary construction of 15 m, a reduction of the garage length to 8 m.

Maybe I have a mental error here and am already stuck. Does anyone have another approach?

This would lengthen the driveway and behind the cars there might be no space left for a workbench, tools, and, for example, two-wheelers. I am not a real "car mechanic," but due to my experience most things are repaired or even built by myself, and over time a lot of tools/accessories have accumulated.

Regarding getting bicycles, garbage cans, etc. out: On the north side (top of the plan) there is a relatively wide pedestrian/bike path, and 25 m further east the street is located. We have considered that one could start from the rear part of the garage with a bicycle towards the path at the back.

Regarding the basement discussion: Yes, one used to have one and needed it. But where is the oil storage? The wood storage? The winter supply of fruit and vegetables? My grandmother still needed space. Cider barrels, apple and elderberry juice, countless jars, plus stored fruit and vegetables. She alone had a potato cellar. The drying attic. Bed linen used to hang longer until it was dry. Nowadays you just throw it in the dryer. So many things the basement used to be used for are obsolete. Then the party basements of the 80s/90s. They already looked a bit run down and were not exactly practical. Especially if the basement didn’t even have a toilet.

Very aptly described, only some still need to understand that.

But when I look at houses or floor plans from independent architects in my circle of acquaintances, I often wonder what they were actually thinking.

I understand that, so I would always want to see my very own needs implemented in such a floor plan and would take enough time to find an architect but at least spend time on developing my own ideas. You don't have to explain your planning ideas at all. We made our basic plan ourselves or significantly also here and the general contractor then implemented it accordingly. That is very tedious, exhausting, and also nerve-wracking but ultimately it was fun for us.

But yes, in the planning, an unpopular glass solution would probably be necessary.

No, you just have to want to plan it that way and then you will find a solution. But that may also have an impact on walls; we have less than 10 sqm with such a walk-in shower and bathtub as well. You just shouldn’t fix the room in advance.

Very aptly described, only a few still have to understand that.

No, only you. I wouldn’t really wait for others to understand that or even me. You might worry a bit too much about the forum. You can think things through back and forth, change, and start again; most people do that; such things take time and develop only gradually. I already mentioned that my wife probably drew about 100 DIN A4 pages, changing them over and over. She copied a template of the floor area several times and then kept puzzling it together again and again. If you want to do it that thoroughly yourself (which was the case with us), it takes a lot of energy and also precision, or you just go to an architect and let their imagination work. We had an extremely weak general contractor, but at least he kept implementing our ideas repeatedly in his program so that we could continue.

I simply didn’t concentrate on the last 10 cm, but I would still be of the opinion that it works.

No, it doesn’t, and yet there is still enough room for a finished architect’s plan, which you of course should not do yourself. It is difficult for outsiders to read your plan. Door widths, all sorts of distances in the living room or bathroom, number and dimensions of the stair steps (do they fit at all, what about story height, etc.?) are missing. You also don’t want to keep searching through the whole thread for the respective information, and if I don’t have a dimensioned plan from the general contractor, I have to create it myself. You have to provide maximum information so that the municipality has it as easy as possible to imagine things or maybe to compare with their own and report. You did get drafts or drew something, so please post that, maybe something will come out of it. By the way, I would not plan with doors smaller than 1 m. If you don’t want glass in the shower, I absolutely understand that; that was exactly my specification in our current house as well; it works wonderfully, looks nice, and is inexpensive too. In your upstairs bathroom, that would already be roughly feasible now if you swap the toilet and shower. You can see it in the excerpt here, and it is really comfortable in every respect.