Floor plan draft for a 220m² single-family house

Good morning,

first of all, thanks for the feedback.

Attached first is the plot orientation (with old building; facing north).

I have also attached the requested jpg files of the ground floor and upper floor. I left out the basement as it is not up to date. I had posted it for completeness from a previous version. It will be adjusted once we agree on the ground floor and upper floor... so please do not pay attention to the details yet. I had overlooked the guest room and the light well; of course, that will not remain as is.

Also, two photos of the plot.

Hello,
When you enter the house, you first see a staircase. That can be interesting, but it can also make the entrance area feel "uncomfortable". Especially since due to the many doors/hallway branches you will probably find it difficult to furnish the area.

Yes, that is true. Certainly, this is the result of wanting our living area to be large (and especially actually 6.40 m long). You really have to look at it when a 3D visualization is created and you can virtually walk through the house. Then we can better grasp it. He will create one once we basically agree on a draft.

Hello,
I strongly suspect that the pantry will become the cloakroom (even though there is still no door into the house there). The room designated as cloakroom is too far from the garage and also too narrow to move well in there.

You will laugh. I once drew a suggestion for the architect myself, which looks like the amateur sketch attached. But in the end, he brought us the posted proposal first, because the connection between garage, pantry, and kitchen weighed more than the cloakroom... but certainly both options are possible. I prefer the direction of my sketch, my wife prefers the architect’s design.

The room called cloakroom is too far from the garage and also too narrow to move well in there.

I can hardly imagine the kitchen, especially where your paths to the terrace are supposed to be.

The terrace in front of the dining table probably does not exist, because I interpret the window underneath in the guest room as if an excavation would have to be there.

The distance to the TV could be solved by an even deeper recess in the wall. Whether that is good for the facade image - no idea. But I can hardly imagine the many different offsets already now due to lack of imagination...

In the upper floor, a tiny detail stands out very negatively to me: the door to the dressing room is positioned so that you bump into a cupboard. It can be changed very simply.

What might not be so simple: how are the bathrooms supposed to be furnished later? Definitely have furniture drawn in! And also ask how everything can be drained.

Otherwise, I'm not a big fan of the narrow, long corridors. Somehow it works, but in relation to the total size, both in the basement and in the upper floor look very narrow - I also brush along wider corridors with laundry baskets/ the back of the hand on the wall. :-(

Yeah, and if my suspicion is confirmed that either a child’s room or the balcony faces north, I would be interested in the reasons?

Maybe I'll notice more tomorrow after sleeping well. I don't find some approaches bad at all!

Now I wanted to praise the fireplace as an example when I noticed that the chimney would be missing in the other floors?!

So there might possibly be even more changes :-(

The room called cloakroom is too far from the garage and also too narrow to move well in there.

Ditto, I noticed that too. Either the cloakroom is far from the garage or the storage room. It bothers me a bit too, but probably only one of the two will work. Considering how many drafts we have already seen (with various architects), this is a compromise that is conceivable. We have definitely seen about 15 drafts and this one is the closest.

I can hardly imagine the kitchen, especially where your paths to the terrace are supposed to be.

The kitchen tends to be a few square meters too big. That is because the architect wanted to enable access both from there to the dining area and also via the hallway.

I have to say that in the previous draft the study and kitchen were swapped: kitchen facing the terrace and study facing the street. That was a no-go, because I spend a lot of time in the study and do not want to look at the street and passing people but into my garden. So our requirement was definitely to place the kitchen at the front. Your thought is understandable. Honestly, we did not think much about it, but we would probably accept it like this, because the other way around is not an option for us.

The terrace in front of the dining table probably does not exist, because I interpret the window underneath in the guest room as if an excavation would have to be there.

see above – basement will be revised

The distance to the TV could be solved by an even deeper recess in the wall. Whether that is good for the facade image - no idea. But I can hardly imagine the many different offsets already now due to lack of imagination…

Attached are some more visualizations about this. We like it (except the entrance portal and optical details that are still to be revised).

You mean, you would expand the living room to the back where the couch is? I also considered that, but then we exceed the 220 m² (and probably the budget). And the area we theoretically have too much in the kitchen does not really help us here. But we would have to calculate and see…

In the upper floor, a tiny detail stands out very negatively to me: the door to the dressing room is positioned so that you bump into a cupboard. It can be changed very simply.

The architect will get feedback on that too. We don’t like that you walk from the bedroom past the dressing room (which is still ok) and then past the laundry room to reach the toilet at the other end of the building. I see the laundry room rather at the right building end and the bathroom entrance immediately behind the dressing room….

What might not be so simple: how are the bathrooms supposed to be furnished later? Definitely have furniture drawn in! And also ask how everything can be drained.

No idea. We are not that far yet. So far no bathroom layout is fixed that would make you think about furnishing. Bathtub, shower, toilet, washbasin (one sink is enough). That should be feasible given the large space. But as I said, I can’t just pull something out of thin air. Of course, I can ask the architect to draw some fictitious furniture.

Otherwise, I'm not a big fan of the narrow, long corridors. Somehow it works, but in relation to the total size, both in the basement and in the upper floor look very narrow - I also brush along wider corridors with laundry baskets/ the back of the hand on the wall. :-(

That is the result of the diagonally placed staircase (a no-go for us was a staircase left or right next to the entrance where the person entering can look directly upstairs). I definitely have to ask about the width of the corridor on the upper floor! Important note; thanks!! We currently have a width of 1.47 m at home, which is good.

Yeah, and if my suspicion is confirmed that either a child’s room or the balcony faces north, I would be interested in the reasons?

Balcony faces northwest. It is towards the garden anyway. Mostly for optical reasons we placed the balcony and for hanging laundry out. It will probably be used less for sitting. The large garden will offer nice spots everywhere when you want sun. We had many requirements regarding the room program etc. For the orientation there is more flexibility. We don’t necessarily need the classic orientations.

Now I wanted to praise the fireplace as an example when I noticed that the chimney would be missing in the other floors?!

You mean something should have been drawn on the upper floor? What exactly?


I am now collecting some points and questions and will give feedback to the architect. Hopefully, we don't have to start from scratch again; time is running out unfortunately.

What is supposed to cost 720k for the house? Or what is all included?

Hello Lumpi,

that includes besides the house also the demolition of the old building, surveying costs etc. Also more than the standard construction specifications, e.g. €50/m² floor instead of the standard €25. Before deciding on a provider, I contacted several companies. The different floor plans with our requirements always came to roughly the same price.

The thing with the seating distance for the TV doesn't make sense to me. On the one hand, I would consider that "rather secondary," on the other... does the TV have a diagonal of 2 meters that you need such a seating distance?

I don't really like the kitchen either. The passage from the living room to the kitchen looks too "narrow" to me. If you really have guests and serve food, you'll constantly be in each other's way in the doorway. The hallways have already been mentioned. From unfortunate experience, I also find Child 2 tricky; narrow children's rooms are "stupid" (there is hardly any space to play in the center).

A side note, please don't take it personally. I have the feeling that most smaller houses are planned more sensibly than such large ones. Somehow the architects seem to take advantage of that and make big room after big room (e.g., living rooms of 50 sqm or more). Of course nice, but at some point, you have to ask yourself, do I need a living room in which a 3-4 person family could otherwise live?

Is this supposed to be a wooden fireplace? The smoke has to go somewhere – I only know that with a chimney running through all the floors and ending ABOVE the roof.

By the way: if the distance between the couch and TV is a priority, I might consider, for cost reasons, skipping the balcony and drying the laundry somewhere else. I still think you want a rather representative house – and a drying rack over the main terrace doesn’t really fit with that.

However, I suspect the design still needs one or two more rounds. Just because there is too much space in the kitchen doesn’t mean you can just move it to a completely different corner. And if the kitchen gets smaller, the furniture arrangement as currently drawn won’t work anymore. The chimney will cause quite a problem, as it will probably be in the way on the upper floor.

Regarding the bathroom, it’s not about picking out specific furniture in the store yet. But something, probably a freestanding bathtub, will have to be placed in front of the floor-to-ceiling window to fit everything in.

With sketchy furniture, you can also easily see if the positions fit / are pleasing. And if you measure the furniture, you can consider whether they are drawn sufficiently large / if the ample space in some places might not be enough after all.

Wow, that's going to be huge. I wouldn't want to do without a ventilation system. Otherwise, you'll get blisters from walking around. Which ground floor is the current one now? For example, I don't like the kitchen either; I miss the nice view of the island from a certain distance. What stands out with such large houses is that additional corridors always have to be planned, as seen above in the laundry/bathroom area. Brief regards

Is that supposed to be a wood-burning fireplace?
Somewhere the smoke has to be able to go— I only know that with a chimney that runs through all the floors and ends ABOVE the roof.

That would be a topic for the detailed planning. We haven’t gotten to that yet. A modern fireplace was intended. If it gets that complicated or if we otherwise have to start from scratch again, we can also remove it. We find it quite nice but it is something we can also do without. Isn’t it strange that the architect didn’t draw a chimney shaft at the top? Just forgotten?

Which ground floor is now the current one?

Currently it is the digital architect’s draft. Regarding the background of the hand sketch, here is my quote again from my second post of the thread:

“You’ll laugh. I once drew a proposal for the architect myself, which looks like the amateurish hand sketch attached. But he brought us the posted proposal first, as the connection of garage, pantry, kitchen ultimately weighed more than the cloakroom... but certainly both are possible. I prefer the direction of my hand sketch, my wife prefers the architect’s draft.”

For example, I also don’t like the kitchen, I miss the nice view of the island from a certain distance.

On the one hand understandable, on the other hand we consciously decided on a rather closed floor plan; in particular the kitchen should not be open but housed in a separate room. Both are probably difficult to reconcile with each other.

Isn't it strange that the architect didn't draw a chimney flue at the top?

He did. The pipe is inside the wall.