Floor plan design for a single-family house, basement / ground floor / upper floor NRW

Hello everyone,

I have been reading in this forum for almost a year now and have already received many useful tips – thank you for that! I hope that in the future I can also help someone out.

My partner and I have been planning a house build for about a year. Construction is not supposed to start until next year, but we would now like to finalize the preliminary design from the structural engineer soon so that we can enter into discussions with the craftsmen.
We want to contract the trades separately, and my aunt (an architect) is supporting us in this.

We believe that we now have a quite usable design together and would like to subject it to your criticism.

As a basis, I am using the floor plans and elevations of our SketchUp model. Although the structural engineer’s preliminary planning is available, it does not contain the final status (windows, details).

We are curious about your opinions and open to any criticism – so let’s go! :)

Best regards,
Sebastian

Development plan/restrictions
(no development plan prescribed!)
Size of the plot:
1200 m², adjoining hinterland (1150 m²) in family ownership
Slope:
Slope to the south and west, overall (diagonal) about 4 meters over the entire length
Edge development:
3-meter distance for residential buildings, garage allowed on the boundary
Number of floors:
2 full floors allowed
Roof style:
no flat roofs allowed
Architectural style:
Existing buildings are conservative with hip or gable roofs
Further requirements:
no square floor plan “wanted”

Requirements of the builders
Architectural style, roof shape, building type:
modern, without frills, gable roof for cost reasons, type “urban villa”
Basement, floors:
Yes, basement + 2 full floors
Number of persons, age:
four (31 + 29 + prospectively 2 children)
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor:
Upper floor: bedroom, dressing room, 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms
Ground floor: kitchen/dining/living open plan, study, cloakroom, pantry, WC
Basement: hobby room, technical room, storage room, laundry room
Office:
Family use and home office
Overnight guests per year:
hard to say – maybe 10?
Open or closed architecture:
open
Conservative or modern construction:
modern
Open kitchen, cooking island:
yes, both
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: yes
Balcony, roof terrace:
yes
Garage, carport:
Garage, 2 parking spaces + additional room for trash bins, sink, bicycles, etc.
Utility garden, greenhouse:
we’ll see… there would be space
Further wishes/special features:
large glass front over 2 floors, gallery above dining area, technical riser shaft, laundry chute to the basement, garage at ground level with ground floor

House design
Who designed it:
In-house design, which we have pieced together over the course of a year, a structural engineer has already looked at it and initially found no problems
What is especially liked:
Gallery in combination with glass façade, straight staircase (ground floor > upper floor)
What is disliked:
We are unsure about the window planning – enough windows / big enough?
Price estimate according to architect/planner:
385,000 EUR (according to structural engineer, simple standard, without EL)
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment:
400,000 EUR (we own the plot and many EL are really possible, grandfather’s carpenter’s workshop next door, father is an electrical engineer, cousin is master carpenter and roofer, many good contacts in the trades)
Preferred heating technology:
Ground-source heat pump, underfloor heating in all floors

If you have to give up, which details/expansions
-can you give up:
fireplace, garage size, balcony
-cannot give up:
basement, gallery, 2 bathrooms on the upper floor

Why did the design turn out the way it is now?
lots of research, some trying out, going out to the meadow and staking out, visualization in CAD, partly also concessions in favor of costs (gable instead of hip roof)

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters summarized?
We feel like we have almost moved in already and are worried that we no longer look “neutral enough” at the floor plan – windows?

The draft contains no dimensions... You can't do much with just the exterior dimensions.

Regarding the costs:
The price estimate is about 100k too low. The plans look like about 180-200m² + basement + double garage. That won't work with 385k.

Please upload JPEGs, PDFs are always a bit cumbersome.

The price doesn’t work like that, as already said.
Without dimensions, it’s also difficult.

Otherwise, a quick look.

Ground floor:
- Huge garage
- Large cloakroom (some will love it, others won’t)
- Hallway to the study is quite a waste of space
- WC will be really tight with bowl + mini washbasin
- Laundry chute in the study is very unfortunate. It would have to be cleverly integrated with the furniture.
- Dining room might be a bit narrow, the fireplace is a nice obstacle. Dimensions would be helpful.

Upper floor:
- Fireplace flue in the dressing room is very unfortunate, could severely restrict furnishing on that side (dimensions?!)
- "Niche" in the bedroom is well meant, but it probably shouldn’t be longer than 1.50m – what should go in there? Just aligned with the exterior wall, at the expense of the unnecessary side of the balcony.
- Bathroom 1 with two doors. It’s always a bit special, but depends on the residents. If someone is supposed to be “alone” there, it will be a hassle. No bathtub in the house?
- Room 2 seems to have unfavorable proportions. Dimensions?
- Huge gallery. You have to be able to afford that…

Basement:
- The utility room is already placed as best as possible in the floor plan, but that’s still a few meters more to the street (a north arrow in all plans would be helpful). This will mean additional costs.
- Hallway wasted space

Regarding the windows/facade.

- In the guest WC downstairs, the small window may still be okay, upstairs in the “children’s bathroom” it’s borderline. Dark room. As a first step, I would put both windows at the same level as the surrounding windows.
- The window strip at the back is of course nice to look at, especially with the view outside for sure. Which direction is that? Shading? If that’s south/west, it will heat up significantly and, thanks to the gallery, affect the whole house. Climate?
- I like the basement windows (last view / “bottom of plan”), above quite randomly arranged.

All in all (you wanted it like this :D), I’m of the opinion that it’s time to involve an architect and not a technocrat. There are still a few corners and edges in there and the price indication seems quite significantly wrong to me, although you shouldn’t overestimate the glass front, they are not that expensive. The fireplace will probably be more costly.
This becomes very clear in the views. You can see the priorities. The view to the back with the glass front is nice, all others rather not so ;) Randomly arranged windows are a symptom of unbalanced spatial programs!

So I have no idea how I would really have to dissect our invoices to calculate your possible EL - but I see the totals on our side and read something about 400k from you - and you want to be significantly bigger than us and have a basement as well. That doesn't fit. It would be easier if the pictures were included as images and not as PDFs in here.

Hello ivenh0,

Hits: 194 m² living space.
Please excuse the "excessiveness" ;)

EG:
Wardrobe 7.02 m²
Hallway 12.63 m²
WC 2.45 m²
Study 20.46 m²
Pantry 5.63 m²
Kitchen 12.91 m²
Living / Dining 43.78 m²
Total: 104.88 m²

OG:
Room 1 12.62 m²
Room 2 16.82 m²
Small bathroom 5.98 m²
Large bathroom 14.37 m²
Dressing room 9.11 m²
Bedroom 17.29 m²
Corridor 10.91 m²
Balcony 2.47 m² (25% counted)
Total: 89.54 m²

Basement:
Total: 104.56 m²

Garage:
Total: 60 m²

I do not want to post the preliminary planning with the detailed room measurements online because I do not know to what extent the structural engineer agrees with it. If that makes the evaluation impossible, then we just have bad luck ;)

The price was calculated based on the cubature; 1299 m³ were estimated at €265/m³ – the garage was additionally estimated at €140/m³.

I have been confirmed by several local builders that "one can calculate well with the prices from XX" – moreover, I have partially offered the prices for the trades and cross-checked detailed calculations. It fits so far – the architect is also satisfied. If necessary, there is still a buffer.

The comment is certainly well meant, but I have directed the request specifically at the forum for floor plan planning. It would be great if we do not put the cost topic more in the foreground here.

Thanks in any case already for your answer! :)

Best regards
Seb

No offense, but you are really, really, truly 100K€ too low. You won't be able to look your related architect in the eye after the project.