Floor plan 160 sqm single-family house - improvement ideas?

Hello everyone,

I have once again critically dealt with the basement. Although it offers a lot of comfort and coziness ("I'll put that in the basement for now"). But after a few years, it probably degenerates into an expensive temporary and final storage for things that are actually no longer needed. You convinced me; we will probably throw the planning overboard and plan without a basement.

For the small workshop, there is an attached room behind the carport. However, this can also come later. Due to the rural location, I might be able to rent an old barn somewhere and set up a small workshop for tinkering there. Definitely the cheaper solution when comparing the additional cost that a basement would incur with this solution.

In addition, a utility room for the heating technology, etc., will be needed. The entrance to the house should still remain on the east side. Access will be here from the south towards the carport, which is located on the east side of the property. The house entrance is also to be found here.

The house will probably have to be a bit larger due to this change. I come to about 160-170 sqm after initial estimates. Does that fit, or what do you think about it?

I have also looked around a bit at what is offered in this size range. I like the following floor plan with about 170 sqm. What do you think about it? Is it slowly going in the "right" direction?



Best regards and have a nice Sunday!
Felix

It is always helpful to roughly scale the planned floor plan onto the intended plot. Draw in the carport and you save many words that otherwise all have to be imagined first, the site plan has to be retrieved again, word interpretations have to take place, etc.

Mentally, you are certainly heading in the right direction. Although here there are now 2x office.

Of course, you are right, the floor plan has two office/guest rooms. Upstairs, the room would be used as an office & guest room. Office means to me that I have a desk with a PC here and a few shelves with folders and documents. We actually don't need more here. Guest room means for guests there is a sofa bed and we don't need much more here. Most guests arrive with a bag/suitcase and stay with us for 1-2 nights. No luxury is really necessary here. Although the room size of 11 sqm is probably tight for this plan...

On the ground floor, the work/guest room would be converted into a pantry/utility room. Some shelves with food, an ironing board, a drying rack, and maybe just a bit more storage space are to be accommodated here.

It is always helpful to roughly scale the planned floor plan onto the planned plot.

Of course, I have done that before as well. See attached. Any tips on this?

Regarding the orientations of the rooms, I find it okay. I would probably swap the kitchen and living room since the entrance to the open space is currently the quiet zone. Then I would try to make use of these over 50sqm somewhat and not misuse the spacious room downstairs as a storage chamber. Rather, I would prefer to stage the utility room with laundry area upstairs. If you play a bit of Tetris, you can also create a nice wardrobe. What I don’t like upstairs is the long way to the trapped bathroom: by the time you find it, it’s already too late. Besides, the person lying in bed is fairly annoyed by the one who keeps switching the light on and off.

What I don't like above is the long way to the enclosed bathroom

I don't really like that either. Maybe turn the single WC and the bathroom above into one large bathroom with access from the hallway and through the dressing room?

I would probably swap the kitchen and the living room, since right now the quiet zone is the entrance to the open space.

I can still follow you up to that point. What you write afterwards I don't quite understand... swap kitchen and living room, then the living room is in the southeast and the kitchen in the southwest corner. What have we achieved by this?