Floor plan design: Single-family house with 4 bedrooms and an office, 160 sqm

So it doesn't bother us. Sometimes I would like to put in a room divider in the form of a large bookshelf (because I could also use the storage space, there are some boxes of my books that still haven't been unpacked, but my wife doesn't like that, she prefers the visual openness. Others might be bothered by the fact that you can possibly see the mess in the kitchen if you don't put everything away immediately. But that is probably individual (either because you don't mind it, or because you put everything away right away). I might like a bit more depth in the room, both in the kitchen/dining area and in the living area. In the final design we have about 4.25m but half a meter more would actually relax everything a bit more or enable a small kitchen island. The only area where you wouldn't need it would be in the middle in front of the double casement window. So basically a negative bay window or two side bay windows. No idea what you call that. In the end I can say that 1m more in every dimension (Currently: 8.91 x 11.29) would have been nice, but you have to keep it all affordable and it doesn't affect functionality now, it would just mean more comfort (but possibly also more waste).

Thank you very much for your assessment, it really helped me!

Your comments definitely helped me to rethink the latest draft and identify existing weaknesses. I think we can manage with the I-shape of the living space; Tolentino has also confirmed that it depends on personal preference.

Now you’re probably thinking I’m completely crazy because I’m presenting yet another different floor plan. But after taking a closer look at Tolentino’s thread again, I came across the draft by , which we really like. I slightly reduced it so that the floor area is almost identical to what we had planned so far. Everything is just roughly sketched in.

Before I talk to the builder about possible additional costs for the bay windows, I would very much like your opinion on this. Does it make sense like this, or are there major mistakes? I’m aware that the bay window probably will be more expensive than simply increasing the floor area a bit. Thanks in advance!

Well, basically we are back to the original draft with a few tiny changes. If you keep coming back to this draft, then it really seems to be your favorite. So if I were you, I would also ask about the additional costs. The expensive part of the matter is probably the roof.

Personally, I don’t think the floor plan from #1 is all that bad. I would just completely omit the enclosure of the staircase on the ground floor, replace the simple door to the living room with double doors, possibly try to straighten the wall of the utility room, make the space for the wardrobe a bit narrower, and only put sideboards and hook boards on the wall there. Instead, use the space under the stairs for a deep closet. Also rotate the front door and straighten the hallway at the top a bit by bringing the bathroom door back in line and rather moving the door of the children’s room on the lower floor slightly down.

The disadvantages of the floor plan should also be mentioned: The staircase at the entrance carries the risk of tracking dirt into the upper floor. Also, the upper floor hallway has no natural light. The first can be contained with a clean path outside, for the light in the upper floor you can install a narrow window in the staircase hallway or consider skylights at the room doors. Also a matter of aesthetics.

Just by the way: The driveway to the rear property will surely be sold entirely to them, right? Accordingly, it is not your land and a 3m setback from the boundary applies. Do you have a registered construction burden that allows for direct boundary construction?

Just by the way: The driveway to the rear property will surely be sold completely to them, right? Accordingly, it is not your land and the 3m boundary distance applies. Do you have a registered building burden that allows direct boundary construction?

The driveway is our part of our property, so the 3m boundary distance counts from the neighbor’s boundary. Of course, the driveway is lost space, but otherwise the property would be too small to build a reasonable floor area due to the limited site occupancy index/floor space index.

The driveway is our part of our property, therefore the 3m boundary distance counts from the neighbor's boundary. Sure, the driveway is lost space, but otherwise the property would be too small to build a reasonable footprint due to the limited floor area ratio/plot ratio.

Do I understand correctly that you lease a large part of your land to the rear neighbor? I hope he pays well for it, because that would really bother me.