Floor plan design single-family house approx. 160 sqm

Hello everyone,

we have been working on the floor plan of our future home for several months now. We have been silent readers of this forum for a long time and have now decided to ask for your opinion.

The longer we deal with the planning and tinker with it, the more doubts arise :/ Therefore, we ask you here for honest and constructive (!) feedback.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 840 sqm
Slope: no
Boundary development: garage/outbuilding, carport possible
Number of parking spaces: 2

Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: hipped roof, city villa
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of persons, age: currently 2 (30 years)
Room requirements ground floor: living/dining/cooking, office/guest room, guest bathroom with shower, technical room
Room requirements upper floor: bathroom, separate toilet, bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, storage room (= utility room?)
Office: home office, guest room
Overnight guests per year: few
Open kitchen, kitchen island: originally planned was a separable kitchen (sliding door), but it's not so important anymore
Number of dining seats: extendable table
Fireplace: yes
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double carport in front of the house, garage (outbuilding) next to the house. The 2 parking spaces should be next to each other

House design
Who is the planner: planner from a construction company / do-it-yourself
What do you especially like? Why? approximately equally sized children’s rooms, clear lines, room sizes, room arrangement (children’s rooms in the south)
What do you not like? Why? corridor from the entrance hall too narrow? layout on the upper floor can be improved?
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump with underfloor heating

If you have to do without, on which details/extensions
-you can do without: the large utility room on the upper floor
-you cannot do without: separate toilet on the upper floor, office in the basement

Why is the design the way it is now? For example
several discussions with the planner

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
We have the following concerns:
Furnishing options in the living room?
Overall orientation of the house towards the southern building restriction - therefore also ~6.5m distance to the neighbor (not built yet) - is that too little?
Would an L-shape of kitchen/dining/living room instead of the I-shape be more sensible? The main garden is located in the west. The office would then have to move to the front (where the kitchen is currently)
Window arrangement still not fully developed.

Where should the terrace go? Around the corner? At first glance, I notice that you could swap the living area and the kitchen. Then the path with dishes etc. to eat outside isn't so far. You just need to check if your kitchen planning works out. Then you could save the door from the hallway into the current kitchen and plan the hallway to be continuously wide. That would allow more space for the wardrobe. Have you already tried whether furniture fits into all rooms as you imagine?

The main terrace should face west and possibly a smaller secondary terrace to the south.

We always felt that the short distance from the entrance to the kitchen is a big advantage. In our opinion, it also makes no sense to swap the living area with the kitchen, since the street is on the east side.

We tried the furnishing in another sketch plan, which is basically not a problem. When it comes to furnishing, we only see one problem in the living room, because there really isn’t space for cupboards here. A walk-in closet in the bedroom would be nice, but we somehow can’t manage it, or then there is only space for one row of cupboards.

We always actually felt that the short distance from the entrance to the kitchen is a big advantage.

Of course, a short distance to the kitchen is an advantage when shopping, but that only happens a few times a week, whereas the terrace is actually frequented several times a day by many family members (less in winter, but still).
Ultimately, this is just a hint.. think about barbecuing, some residents do it daily.
Otherwise, a good start: straighten the hallway wall so that a neat, straight cabinet can fit there, integrate the separate WC into the bathroom with window...
What kind of street is this supposed to be that apparently should be noisy?
And where is a border development of over 12 or 9 meters allowed? At least not here in Germany.

By the way, it is easier if the house is accessed from the long side (front door).

Small side note: the large window area at the dining table will be a sliding door and thus our access from the living/dining area to the garden. The street to the east is not heavily trafficked, but we imagine it to be nicer to look from the living room into the garden (west) than onto the street or the "front yard."

Regarding boundary construction, there are no restrictions for us; the outbuilding/garage may only be a maximum of 3m high and may not exceed 100sqm.

We have tried several times to access the long side, but somehow we can't fit the bathroom and utility room on the ground floor.

But you have to think carefully about what are convenient pathways out of the kitchen and how the table is placed so that it doesn’t become impractical.

The question is, when do people usually sit on the sofa (what view do they still have, and do they have to lower the blinds because of the western sun when they want to watch TV) and how often are they in the eating/cooking/children’s area wanting to eat, drink/grill in the summer from the terrace or garden, etc.