Floor plan design for a single-family house - Ideas from you are welcome

Hello everyone,

we visited a general contractor to get an offer for a single-family house. We received a first draft, which in my opinion is very good.
My husband still sees room for improvement. He doesn’t like that the kitchen cannot be closed. Our wish was a kitchen closed off by a sliding door to avoid noise disturbance. Unfortunately, this apparently did not fit into the floor plan. Separating the living room would be an option, but then it would be relatively small – too small for my husband.
The master bedroom on the upper floor could be somewhat larger.
Do you have any ideas on your side regarding this, apart from enlarging the floor plan or moving the office to the basement?

Thanks in advance
Building plan/Restrictions
Plot size – 594
Slope – no
Floor area ratio 0.4
Plot ratio 0.5
Building window, building line and boundary
Edge development – yes
Number of parking spaces
Number of floors – 1.5
Roof shape
Style
Orientation – ridge facing the street
Maximum heights/limits none
Further requirements none

Requirements of the builders
Style, roof shape, building type – gable roof
Basement, floors – basement + 1.5 floors
Number of people, age – 5 (41/40/10/8/3)
Room needs on ground floor, upper floor – 4 bedrooms on the upper floor, office on the ground floor, otherwise the usual
Office: family use or home office? – both
Guests per year – none
Open or closed architecture –
Conservative or modern construction – conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island – closed, preferably with kitchen island
Number of dining seats – at least 5
Fireplace – no
Music/stereo wall – yes
Balcony, roof terrace – no
Garage, carport – double garage
Utility garden, greenhouse – no, play garden
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be
- large closed cloakroom, because otherwise there is always chaos
- access from garage to living space

House design
Who made the plan: – architect of a general contractor

What do you particularly like? Why? – all wishes were well implemented, also planned level living for later, good orientation to cardinal directions
What do you not like? Why? – kitchen cannot be closed = noise in the living area
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 370,000
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment:
Preferred heating technology: heat pump

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions
- can you give up:
- cannot give up: office

Why is the draft as it is now? For example
Standard draft from the planner? – first draft according to our wishes

Which wishes were implemented by the architect? – passage from garage to living space, office, large cloakroom, equally sized children’s rooms

A mix of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes? – a coherent design, little hallway, a lot of space on a small floor plan, very well thought out.

Office in the basement? That really depends on the usage. If you regularly use it as a home office and preferably want to keep an eye on the children, I wouldn't banish it to the basement. Maybe make it a bit smaller and allocate the space to the living room.

WC on the ground floor: I would remove the shower. The cloakroom is quite cramped and a cabinet can't be opened in the area of the shower.

Storage room doesn't really offer much space due to the two doors. I would allocate the storage room to the kitchen and put a few more cabinets there.

In the bathroom upstairs, a second sink and a laundry chute. That adds up with 5 people.

What is the purpose of this sluice? Mentally consider the consequences associated with this passage or what advantages and disadvantages the passage has. Suggestion: Do without this sluice and move the living room to where the kitchen is. Then put the kitchen where the living room is now; this way, the play garden is under control during home and cooking work, and the kitchen is close to the terrace.

still see room for optimization here

... I couldn't have said it better. Show the views, then we can tinker a bit. I didn't want to have to build scaffolding just to clean the window above the stairs. Just as an example of objective mess. There would be quite a bit more taste-wise, I don't find the entrance situation to the bedroom satisfactorily resolved, the bathroom looks unimaginatively "furnished." But compared to before , this is already a big step forward.

Oh, by the way: a site plan with the house drawn in would be good [emoji4]

I hardly see a bigger bedroom. 18m² is not exactly little, right? What else do you have planned there?



Otherwise, I agree with the previous speakers. The airlock is rubbish and has to go. I prefer a covered entrance from the garage. Shower downstairs is questionable, even if you make it bigger as shown. It’s better to design the wardrobe open right away and put in a big closet instead of this fiddling around.