Draft single-family house with garage/carport - please provide evaluation

Sorry I don't like it either. Maybe just not my type of house but this layout is, in my opinion, questionable. Especially the already mentioned hallway is an absolute disaster. This huge house looks like a shoebox. Definitely reconsider!

Thank you very much for all the responses! That helps us a lot!

I think that the hallway and the related circumstances are a consequence of the entrance being at the corner. In addition, there is supposed to be a path to the office that does not lead through living spaces. With the current arrangement, this will inevitably result in a hallway. So further planning should probably begin by reconsidering the layout of the extension. Originally, the plan was to relocate the office to a basement granny flat (with a level plot and light well), but I find the idea of spending most of my daytime "above ground" much more appealing. This opens up many more possibilities for bringing light into the room. Not least, the decision about purchasing the plot is also connected to this: if we had a plot of 830 sqm, we could certainly build more area than we otherwise would. I once had a draft (with pencil and graph paper, which are definitely intensively used here ;-) ) where the extension was placed between the garage and the house, resulting in a shared entrance area (a main entrance door and then a "distributor", from which you can go directly into the garage, the office, and the house). I think that positioning the office on the entrance side is definitely more advantageous and saves traffic area. The guest room actually functions as a kind of ironing/laundry room (it also houses the vacuum cleaner and other cleaning supplies), in which someone can occasionally spend the night. For this reason, I face strong resistance at home when it is suggested to move it to the upper floor or basement. Then it would rather be completely removed and instead a storage room would be planned.

So we will go back to square one and make a new attempt. Maybe we will just sit down again with the architect friend and develop some new ideas.

Until then, thank you very much for all the suggestions and criticism. We will surely come back :-)

Oh yes: I was especially pleased that the exterior design and particularly the arrangement of the windows are appreciated not only by me. It’s nice that there was at least something positive to discover :-)

Hello,

since you have already noticed yourselves that you will be starting "back at square one" again, here are maybe a few suggestions for the new planning:
- reconsider whether you really need a pantry; if not, the space could benefit the kitchen, which could then accommodate more with additional cabinets. Many want a pantry because they believe it is cooler there, but this is often not the case, and since you are building with a basement, you could still put a shelf there for food that should be kept cooler.
- you had originally planned to store the vacuum cleaner, iron, etc. in the study. However, I would personally prefer to plan a utility room for such purposes on the ground floor, because what if someone quickly needs the vacuum cleaner or cleaning supplies while you are trying to concentrate in the study? That would only disturb your concentration.

Best regards

Hello,

If I were you, I wouldn’t completely dismiss the idea of the office in the basement yet.

Our guest room is also in the basement, but thanks to a large light well and a correspondingly large window, it has more than enough daylight to work or read in without artificial light.

With proper planning, this shouldn’t be a deal breaker.

Best regards,

Dirk

We have since thought further and, after running into many dead ends, changed the concept so that the office moves to the basement and is supplied with daylight through a light well. This eases the situation on the ground floor and makes the planning much easier. For the attached draft, we were inspired by the floor plan of a friend's house, as we have always really liked it there. Nevertheless, we have changed some things so that the whole thing—at this point—fits exactly to our ideas.

Some notes:
- The guest room on the ground floor should definitely go there as it should also serve the function of an ironing/laundry/storage room. Possibly, it could also be lived in later if we cannot/want to afford a stairlift.
- The pantry is limited towards the kitchen by elements that visually belong to the kitchen and are partly designed as built-in cabinets. This way, the refrigerator disappears into the front corner, next to it is the sliding door for access, and above it are the mentioned built-in cabinets for additional kitchen storage. We noticed this implementation very positively at our friend's place.
- The wardrobe goes into the entrance hall; there are no furniture items shown there in the plan yet.
- The basement is currently only roughly divided; only the office is fully developed. So there is definitely still work to be done here. In particular, the hallway area probably needs to be reduced. There should be direct access from the basement to the light well, as a drying rack can also be set up there occasionally.
- On the upper floor, we are currently still considering integrating a small storage room. For this, the bathroom would have to shrink a bit. But we are still undecided whether it is really necessary.
- We experimented with the roof shape for a while and ultimately decided on the shown staggered shed roof. A gable roof would also be conceivable, but in my opinion, the guest room/parents’ area would then have to be executed as a two-story annex with a flat roof. Visually, however, we were not really convinced by that.

Now we look forward to any criticism and of course hope that our ideas are not completely off :-)

Just quickly ... I quite like the floor plan overall. What I don’t find quite right yet is the hallway on the ground floor, which is basically just the corridor to the guest room. But I can’t think of another solution right away. On the other hand, despite the vestibule, I’m missing a bit of wardrobe storage, because shoes and jackets, hats, etc. for 4 people take up quite a bit of space.

Upstairs, I would rotate the bed in the bedroom by 90°, so the headboard isn’t under the window and there’s more space around the bed. How wide is the walk-in closet?

And, the bathroom, I would probably include a bit more of the hallway and plan for one slightly bigger and one smaller bathroom.