Floor plan discussion of a medium-small detached house with a pitched roof & double garage

2025-11-09 22:29:49

funny :) unfortunately, I can't give you much hope there.

Too bad, some things you just can't buy with money ;)

That is quite possible and is because you have dealt with your draft (for a long time) intensively.

However, there are many planning errors. Kerstin already pointed out the window heights on the upper floor.

When I read it, I was curious to see what I would get. Many waive sight lines or have to waive them because they have to get a lot of space out of little square meters with children, so such details often fall by the wayside. However, there are no sight lines towards the garden there. Staircase with view towards kitchen door looks into the (right side of the plan) kitchen corner, from the hallway towards the fireplace you see the fireplace but not the window. For that, you would have to move at the height of the stair landing. Also, the entrance area with 150 cm is not generous. However, you have a nice place for a wardrobe cabinet, I like that.

That, of course, also promised a lot, and I ask myself where the costs lie (apart from the basement). The house is very compact, to my taste too compact.
Many rooms are very narrow, almost too narrow for their use. The dressing room is a chamber where you can hardly turn. The quarter cabinet is not usable. At least 90 cm should be in front of a cabinet so that you can also get an overview of the cabinet contents within your viewing radius. The optimum starts at about 120 cm. The bedroom with bed furniture (about 210 cm) has hardly any walking width. It must be mentioned here that the plans show raw construction dimensions; some cm still have to be deducted for plaster.
It gets worse in the bathroom. 210 cm is not enough if you also include the pre-wall constructions and tiles. Then we are at about 2 meters. I once had a terraced house including tiles 230 cm wide, and it was already very narrow for two people in the bathroom. You could only pass the other person by feeling them. That's not bad, but honestly? You don't build for everything to be too cramped. By the way, the washbasin water pipes currently run in the load-bearing staircase wall.
270 cm width is actually okay in the study, but with the 455 cm length then again rather narrow rooms.
One could overlook this if everything else fits, but downstairs the areas are also too narrow because of the fireplace: Kerstin already mentioned it, and I also have a fireplace: you better keep some distance when sitting. Otherwise, you really scorch yourself. One meter should be between flame and fabrics/furniture/upholstery so nothing scorches from the heat. Thus, the dining area is very awkward to use. The living room has more length than width. That’s possible but gives an uncomfortable effect. The fireplace itself divides where there isn’t much space anyway. The kitchen is not generous either: two more tall cabinets for oven and food, and then remain 2.40 plus a storage corner, already deducted are 60 cm sink and 60 cm stove. That reads like a lot but isn’t. Currently, there is no necessary 65 cm depth for the worktop under the window, because the door to the dining area takes the necessary space.
The platform in front of the entrance is also too narrow. For that, you have a shower on the ground floor, which initially has no use.
In the basement there are empty rooms. One of these rooms has its window in the terrace.
From a design perspective, I would avoid the kink in the hallway, which makes it unnecessarily long.

Do yourselves a favor, cancel the basement and build yourselves a spacious ground floor and a suitable upper floor for your good money. At least the rooms should become functional. Then you can manage with 500,000 €, and a double garage is still in the budget. Whether to plan with an extension or keep the footprint rectangular but then with a lower knee wall and then cut it off, one has to think about.

I think there is no need to reinvent the wheel. There are clever house designs online and type houses from house builders and general contractors with a technical room on the ground floor. Of course, you can also sometimes have an architect design it, but not the one who approved your plan.
Is there a missing corner on the top right of the plot or is that just badly drawn?

What do you actually like? That would interest me.

Thank you also for the detailed response!

You are right about the sight lines. There are mistakes in there which presumably resulted from our interference with the architect.
We have also thought that the bathroom might be too narrow. But here, too, we find it difficult to come up with an alternative plan. Extending the house lengthwise from west to east would in turn make the offices even more narrow. To "fix" the offices and gain more space in the dressing room, one could extend the house from north to south. But that would make it even more square and the bathroom just longer instead of wider.

A north-to-south extension could allow more distance from the fireplace on the ground floor.

The note about the 65 cm kitchen worktop is good. Here we can still adjust the doors accordingly. We were told to leave 60 cm space here, but we would like a buffer for wall construction, etc.

Regarding the basement: we attached a usage plan further up. We do not find the window in the terrace a problem.

How would you avoid the kink in the hallway? Because of the garage directly next to it, we cannot place the front door in the middle of a house wall as often usual. The access from the east is fixed; the front door as an alternative on the south side is no option for us.

We will check the platform in front of the door again. Thanks for the input. Are there any rules of thumb?

Sure, one primarily showers in the bathroom upstairs. But sometimes you come home dirty and don’t have to trudge through the whole house. Another thought of ours was that it’s good to have an alternative shower/bathroom. We often leave the house at the same time. Therefore, a second bathroom with shower was one of our wishes.

We live in one of the most expensive districts in Germany. You notice that in the land prices and craftsman prices. That also explains the relatively high costs for our compact house.

The top right corner is drawn correctly. That corner already belongs to the neighbor behind.

And what do we actually like? :) Two equally sized offices with decent size so there doesn't have to be a sword fight over the bigger office :p, our double garage, the small courtyard between garage and house, closed kitchen, space for a server cabinet in the basement, own "gym," space for tinkering and crafting

2025-11-09 22:40:28

I don't see in the plan that you "need" the area. The workshop will be an annex to the garage. Guest bed goes into a home office. Three drying racks? One can also sugarcoat the "need." I see space requirements, but not in the form of 75-100k as a simple basement.

Three drying racks are mandatory for us (unfortunately). In the current apartment, we barely manage with 2, and a dryer is only an option for down comforters or jackets and occasionally towels. Not for regular clothing.

It's not about sugarcoating; rather, the items we placed in the basement had long been on our wish list before the first plans even existed.

The guest bed in the home office has been fiercely debated between us for 2 years. The basement was the best solution for both of us :)

2025-11-09 23:58:37

We are not trying to sugarcoat things, but the rooms we placed in the basement have been on the wish list for a long time before the first plans even existed.

I wish for so many things too, but then reason prevails...
In #13 you write a lot about what you find less than ideal. Honestly? "Crap" (no offense) doesn't get better with a few small changes. I would start completely fresh in a neutral way. Have the architect create your room plan (which rooms do I really need with which desired sizes) and your lifestyle rhythm. And don't have them work on the floor plan you brought with you. Ideally, do without the basement, which is completely overpriced compared to its utility (as mentioned, a garage with an attached workshop is a pragmatic solution. Or you buy a clothes drying rack over two floors instead of fitting three on an area of 10k. Then I can just buy cheaper new T-shirts instead of washing. Think out of the box).

2025-11-10 01:02:24

Regarding the basement: We have attached a usage plan further above. We don't find the window in the terrace disturbing.

Well, what a builder doesn't find disturbing isn't on the sheet of what an architect should avoid. You present him with something that was created based on "not disturbing" or "little knowledge," etc. His role is to plausibly explain your whims and then improve them. The usage plan is now rather far-fetched, not to deny you don't know what you want or need. The questionnaire is filled out, but it says nothing about a workshop or passion for sports there. If you plan a laundry room of over 8 sqm in the basement, you should also draw in the space for a drying rack there. The basement will be a utility basement, not a living basement. That means there is no living room there. Who should sleep in a room without heating and without regulated ventilation? The window has a light shaft. When the terrace is furnished, there will probably be an outdoor sofa on the grate, and the basement room will be dark.

Guest bed in the home office has been fiercely debated between us for 2 years now. The basement was the best solution for both of us :)

Well, I don't know what to debate about, unless the tax office is interested. If you provide one guest a night a year to sleep in one of the two rooms, that shouldn't be a problem. You can lock away folders. And you say it yourself:

The home office spaces should be large enough to be usable as multifunctional rooms.

The armchair can also be a sleeper chair; yoga mats fit anywhere. Regarding the power rack, I have to surrender with spatial alternatives, but if you have a garden, you famously don't go to the basement to do weight training anymore, because you do your strength training in the garden.

And what do we actually like? :) Two offices of equal size with decent dimensions so it doesn't come to a sword fight over the bigger office :p, our double garage, the small courtyard between garage and house, closed kitchen, space for a server cabinet in the basement, own "gym," space for tinkering and crafting

That's not much regarding the house ;) Some things simply don't justify the many parts of the house not flowing well. You don't have to talk the shower up either. Even if you actually come home dirty, you tend to go up the stairs quickly where you can move naked rather than into the cramped shower-toilet. And if the main bathroom works nicely and "spaciously," then it also works for two people as a couple. I speak from experience here, unfortunately. What else was there... the platform: deep enough so you can stand there comfortably. One step, at least 90 cm, larger if desired. This is about minimizing accidents. Most of what you like is also found in a standard off-the-shelf house. I find it completely okay if you fiddle with the walls yourself, but play eventually becomes reality, and then you should pull the emergency brake. Now your house planning by the architect has been brought into reality, where the upper floor does not work, the ground floor does not work, but at least the basement works in your eyes.
Do you also have a usage plan for the other floors?

How would you avoid the bend in the hallway?

Without knowing the exact dimensions of the plot and the ridge direction being variable: I would orient the narrow side of the house to the south or go square. I don't know exactly because I rarely design houses with closed kitchens. In this case, the orientation and plot size are somewhat more difficult. I would put the garage forward and place it in this corner. Behind the garage, I would place the workshop/storage room and create a connection here with the technical room. As already said: I would rather focus on living, daily work, and staying than on the basement and talk it up. I rather prepare an attic for nice-to-have things. Kitchen maybe with a southeast corner window, dining area with enough circulation space around it, and a cozier chill corner. The platform staircase doesn't fit the current house dimensions and is anyway a stair form for bigger houses. Here it dominates both floors through its bulk. It takes up almost 3 meters in depth. With 8 meters in width, there isn't much left for "space." Your demands for the upper floor can probably adapt well, but not with these house dimensions.
Here is an upper floor with a restrained staircase, exterior base size 8 x 11: children's rooms (offices) also facing south, spacious dressing room and bathroom (originally with sauna, here I once drew in a walk-in shower). Without children, I would plan somewhat more freely than in the family house corset.

2025-11-10 05:35:55

Financial Planning: A fireplace is an emotional decision. We really don’t need it. That’s true. We’ll reconsider that. Are there any clues/numbers on what could be saved here (especially regarding installation etc.)?

It naturally varies from provider to provider. At least €10,000, rather €15,000 for simple models (as of 2024). Upwards open-ended. (It’s not just the fireplace itself, costs also arise for installation, chimney, and so on. Then there are ongoing costs simply because the fireplace exists and could be used.)

The double garage is, unlike the fireplace, non-negotiable :D We’re planning a prefabricated double garage here.

Then it could be incorporated into the room planning: workshop in the garage, possibly extra shed space for drying laundry in winter? This all relates to the next point:

Omitting the basement only works on the assumption that we don’t need the entire space. If we do, the house would have to be 8x12 or 10x14m. Unfortunately, that is too large for the plot. Our considerations that we need the entire basement space are based on the attached plan above.

In the best case, a pure utility basement costs at least €100,000. If living rooms are also to be included, we quickly go well above that. If ground conditions are not ideal, we go well above that as well. I don’t know your needs. Since you will probably end up nearer to €200,000+ for the basement (due to ground risks the basement is much less predictable than other living space; as soon as living rooms are included, you’re rather at about €3,000/m²), I would rather look, if the plot permits, how this could be arranged differently. Example: - Plan the house overall a bit larger, depending on plot situation. - Outsource the workshop to the garage.

Knee wall: That is a good hint, also from . We will talk to the architect about how much more expensive a higher knee wall would be.

We originally planned with a 240 cm clear knee wall (our development plan stipulates 2 full stories; 240 would have been the minimum that the building authority would have accepted). We then went for 2 full stories -> €4,000 less (simpler statics). When we still tried to make existing floor plans compatible with the development plan by raising the knee wall, depending on the provider, additional costs were €1,000 to €2,500 per 10 cm increase.

Kitchen: We had also considered at the kitchen studio making a door into the entrance area instead of the hallway to the north (or only realized as a serving hatch). We dropped that idea because we don’t always want to go through the dirty area in the entrance to get to the kitchen.

Is there a sliding door shown on the west side? Currently the north kitchen door is a hazard. If it’s about a shortcut, it would be more sensible despite the dirty area. Apart from groceries and quick visits to the WC, the north door is not needed in everyday life. Both would be more sensibly reachable via a door in the entrance area. There is already the sliding door to the west from the living and dining area, which would mean shorter walking distances. But the question also includes how the kitchen is actually used. Is the sliding door open except when cooking, or is it planned to be mostly kept closed? If the latter, I would plan differently here (even though I find it very counterintuitive because I don’t really find it sensible): normal door in the west and sliding door in the north. (Two sliding doors would also work, but you cannot have electrical installations behind sliding doors. Therefore, two sliding doors in the kitchen quickly become a problem.) (Unless you use sliding doors that run outside instead of inside the wall. But these are actually more prone to failure, I have to agree with the future homeowner on that.)

2025-11-10 06:27:44

A nice budget for a nice object. The plan does not correspond in the slightest to the possibilities and is a collection of compromises, makeshifts, and botch-ups. Free yourselves from it and start again!

Floor plan discussion of a medium-small detached house with a pitched roof & double garage

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