Floor Plan Discussion - Single-Family House "Constraint Point Dilemma"

Hello,
At the moment, we are at a point in our planning of a single-family house where the opinions of people who have had nothing to do with this project so far might be quite useful.

[B]Regarding the property or, as already stated in the title, the constraints.[/B]

- On the plot, an existing building will be mostly demolished. Only a one-story extension will be preserved. This can/should be built upon and serve as a garage on the ground floor. (MW is highlighted in gray)

- The plot is considered the last house on this street in the old village center => to the right neighbor, boundary development and firewall (no windows, openings, etc.), to the left neighbor 3m boundary distance.

- The left neighbor has built quite high due to the slope of the street, the right neighbor also has 2 (2.5) stories and is quite high.

- The right neighbor has at the rear an L-shaped roof terrace of about 80m², which in the current planning starts about 4m behind our house. It really extends laterally right up to the property boundary and is about 3m high. The apartment to this terrace has no access to the garden, and the terrace is accordingly used a lot.
I just call this terrace the viewing platform :-( I really have a problem with my privacy here, and the current floor plan is also clearly adapted to this circumstance. (Terrace orientation, windows or no windows facing the viewing platform, etc.)

[B]Our thoughts/requirements regarding the residential house:[/B]

-We really like the children’s rooms on the intermediate floor, which resulted from the height development, together with the children’s bathroom this creates a slightly separate area. Especially when the children are older, possibly quite pleasant. Partition walls of the children’s rooms in drywall, i.e., variable later => 1 large room. The house also has no basement or attic which could later serve as/or be converted into children’s rooms. If I remember my youth, the children's room next to the parents’ bedroom was rather uncool.

- We both work (teacher and engineer) and both also work several hours from home. Sometimes in the evening and/or on weekends. A separate and quite large office is therefore absolutely necessary and definitely not just a placeholder here.

- The area ratio between pure living room and dining room/open-plan kitchen is currently deliberately chosen like this, even though it is of course quite open and only visually separated by the 2 steps. The living room is a rather private/cozy area for us, the dining room/open-plan kitchen is the area where guests and friends are received.


As mentioned, the constraints have really caused us the odd sleepless night. We all feel a bit “blind to the operation” by now.
We are therefore grateful for any suggestions/criticism; we have thick skin.

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot 1300m² 13*100m
Slope Street runs slightly inclined. Neighbor on the left about 1-1.5m higher
Floor area ratio no development plan or relevance
Floor space index no development plan or relevance
Building window, building line and boundary house-courtyard construction on the right flush. On the left 3m boundary distance. Neighbor on the left open development
Edge development see above
Number of parking spaces 2 cars are drawn in the garage, but there will rather be 1 car in the garage and 1 to 2 in the courtyard.
Number of storeys due to alignment with the neighbor 2 / 2 + attic
Roof shape gable roof in the transverse building is not 100% fixed but would fit best with the surrounding development
Style here a balance between fairly modern, open, Bauhaus style with classic gable roof would have to work, admittedly it does not at the moment.
Orientation south street/driveway, narrow plot, large garden in the north
Maximum heights/limits no, or up to about 10.50-11m
Further requirements firewall in the east => no windows and openings

Requirements of the builders
Style, roof shape, building type see above
Basement, storeys no, 2
Number of people, age 2, 32/32
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor
Office: family use or home office? Home office/2 people
Sleep guests per year few, no guest room
Open or closed architecture open
Conservative or modern construction rather modern
Open kitchen, cooking island open, see plan, we find this point good for us.
Number of dining seats many, dining table is desired in this size.
Fireplace no
Music/stereo wall yes, quite audiophile, in the living room the wall to the neighbor is intended for this, e.g. stereo triangle is a topic here
Balcony, roof terrace terrace with direct access from living/dining is important. Roof terrace and balconies are rather secondary for cost reasons.
Garage, carport see floor plan
Utility garden, greenhouse no
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, gladly also reasons why this or that should not be

House design
Who is responsible for the planning:
- Planner of a construction company
- Architect 50%
- Do-it-yourself 50%
What do you particularly like? Why? Ground floor living/dining
What do you not like? Why? Children’s room small and narrow, lighting situation. Exterior view!
Price estimate according to architect/planner: see below
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: price/performance must be right
Preferred heating technology: air heat pump/controlled residential ventilation

If you have to give up, on which details/expansions
- can you give up: smaller office, smaller upper floor hallway
- cannot give up: children’s bathroom, pantry

Why did the design turn out as it is now? e.g.
Standard design from the planner? No
Corresponding/were wishes implemented by the architect? Yes
A mix of many examples from various magazines... partly
What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes?

The children's rooms on the mezzanine, which have resulted from the height development, please us quite well; together with the children's bathroom, this creates a slightly separated area.

But those are small holes or tube rooms. Basically useless and, together with the stairs, a potential hazard right at your door. Absolutely impractical for small children and their care, too small for playtime, and also for visitors. The window front with the terrace doors also looks a bit old-fashioned.

The gray garage base is a bit gloomy and adds nothing to the house. I also find the house itself gloomy inside. Why aren't there any windows where proper light can come in?

The children's rooms are just not acceptable at all. I'm not a fan of saying that children's rooms have to be a certain size. Not at all, but in terms of the floor plan, they are uninhabitable. I've been here in the forum for 2 years now, and in the Top 10 of the most awful children's rooms, you are right at the top. They are so JVA-like.

Especially when I then see your private area with the office on the [OG]. Incomprehensible, really!

EDIT:
From the kitchen onwards, I really like your [EG]. I myself would put the sofa in the other corner and build a TV wall of 1.5m as a living room partition towards the dining room where the TV can hang, and with that the living room window can still be equipped with a lift-and-slide door. Of course, that's not everyone's taste.

But I also want to point out that since your building structure with its different levels and the non-trivial construction method as a building project will most likely not go smoothly. You have a lot of potential for building fails.

The children's rooms are unusable. Very small. Due to the entrance situation, even less usable. The entire upper floor needs to be redesigned. Garage too narrow. It could fit 2 cars. Mirror to mirror, getting in and out is not possible, the driver has to be slim.

Do I understand correctly that the garage is to be considered as given and serves the fact that you are allowed to build like this again?

I agree about the children's rooms; they are terribly small and absolute tubes. How old are the children?

I actually find the open space above the kitchen very useless and would tend to make one children's room with a small office out of the two children's rooms and a second children's room with another small office out of the office/open space. Then both can work sometimes, one may have a teleconference and not disturb the other, etc. Also eliminate the children's bathroom, but swap the shower and bathtub in the parents' bathroom, meaning the shower placed horizontally at the bottom, the shower exit on the left, and the tub rotated vertically on the right.

And what is actually against a few (south)-west-facing windows?

The staircase as a platform stair might also be drawn a bit too small, at least the cutout on the upper floor; this can pose a risk of hitting one's head when going up and down.

For the garage, one should rather provide a side entrance near the front door for practical use; then bicycles etc. can also be parked better. For that, maybe remove the direct house access from the garage. Because you can't get a bike out of the garage if both cars are parked. Omitting access from garage to utility room also creates more space there, so you might be able to skip the pantry and only provide a retractable tall cabinet wall accessible from the kitchen. This would enlarge the hallway with a useful 4-person coat rack for all currently used jackets and all shoes. Possibly, since I deleted the children's bathroom upstairs... here the bathroom could be made a bit larger to fit a second shower.

Why should the sofa area actually be lowered by 2 steps? By the way, I find the area absolutely sufficiently large.