First floor plan draft living kitchen - discussion, feedback

I basically agree with marv45 on this. I can't imagine that some rooms, including the bathroom upstairs, work like that. The hallway and stair situation on the ground floor are also awful, as is the orientation of the entire house. According to the plan, north is at the top of the plan. The living room feels like a pretty dark retreat. But that's probably intentional. It's not my thing. The children's rooms are neither optimally oriented nor well laid out. I think reset to zero! In my opinion, the negative aspects of the design outweigh the positives here. Hire an architect or take a look at some floor plans with a similar room program!

best regards, Basti

Regarding the orientation, we said that we do not need a west or south orientation. Currently, the shutters are down from morning until evening because we only come home in the afternoon and all the windows face the west side. The sun "blasts" in there like that.

The way to the toilet is debatable - I see it similarly to Musketier (it is my workplace and not my wife's).

Regarding the upstairs hallway with the wasted space, I see it the same way - improvements would be needed there. Regarding the upstairs bathroom, I also need the exact measurements and heights to be able to assess the functionality.

Thanks and regards Markus

Regarding the orientation, we said we don't need west and south orientation.

But having the living room facing north and the terrace facing east is not really ideal. Especially when you come home in the evening, you want to sit on the terrace again and enjoy the sunset.

We discussed the topic of the terraces and agreed (when we were still in the preliminary planning phase) that the activity of sunbathing does not necessarily have to take place directly at the house. We like to sit outside in the shade and play a bit - so far we have always used the sun umbrella for that.

Regarding the placement, I had already created a topic .

Regards Markus

Apart from the orientation of the house (although I did follow the link to the property, it currently takes me quite a long time to compare the written description with the site plan): I find the design awful. The projections and recesses in the facade don’t make sense to me; the slanted exterior wall in the entrance area - I believe - was popular in the 90s in entrance areas to loosen up a semi-detached house a bit and create space for a WC. Then this long, narrow hallway, winding unnecessarily through the whole house with a 90-degree turn, dividing the ground floor into two parts. A study is placed among all these utility rooms - is the lady of the house supposed to while away her time there? This somewhat reduces its living value (even though the room faces the garden), and it seems that two-thirds of the ground floor area consists of utility rooms. The hallway just seems to have been extended continuously to provide access to every room. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with design. What resulted is a small labyrinth. When I enter the house, I ask myself where I can quickly find a quiet place to relax. Only the small living area doesn’t seem suitable for that - it lacks space to breathe, and the only view of the TV is not exactly what you need for a brief moment of relaxation. I can understand prioritizing dining and communication in the dining area (a nice big table for playing games and togetherness), but relaxing and lounging about shouldn’t be neglected. And if it’s not in demand now, then maybe later, when the children and parents want to have a DVD evening. You should try drawing in furniture with real dimensions: the bathtub is wider than the single double bed (looks like it’s extra long but is only 120 cm wide), and also wider than the sofa. A small table as a surface or a spot for a floor lamp next to a sofa wouldn’t hurt either ;) And anyone who goes to a furniture store to buy a sofa will find that there’s almost nothing under 3 meters wide anymore, except in the English style section. In general: unfortunately without measurements it’s impossible to tell if the staircase is long enough. Then there is no space for a cupboard for dishes/glasses or a dresser in the dining area. Regarding the terrace location: there are preferences and every location has its advantages and disadvantages. But a bit of natural light in winter from the south and west (even if it may be disturbing in summer) is pleasant and would naturally warm the living spaces. Do you also keep the shutters closed in winter in your current apartment??? Upstairs you run into a wall, which hinders moving furniture. Utility room under the slope: if you put the dryer and washing machine on back-friendly pedestals, you can’t put anything on top anymore (at least not the laundry basket), and I might as well cross out the word back-friendly again ;) I hope you copied the plan, because if you look more closely, there are small offsets in almost every exterior wall that I find very questionable if this is supposed to be the builder’s plan. I would definitely hire an architect for the planning, who can also better take into account a beautiful plot with its sun preferences. Regards Yvonne

Thank you, Yvonne.

I copied the plan - but in the "original" it was just a sketch without measurements.
You confirm my assumptions (and give me interesting perspectives).

I will discuss the whole thing with my wife and then ask for adjustments / replanning.
Best regards
Markus

PS: Tomorrow we will receive a second draft from another female architect who had the same room program as a guideline. We are curious.