Floor plan feedback: 1.5-storey building in Northern Germany

I completely miss the connection of the kitchen to the terrace. I also find the bay window wasted. With this orientation, one would first think of a bay window facing the garden, which continues as a cross-gable in the upper floor. Are the cats allowed outside? If not, is outdoor access planned?

I see some parallels to us in your floor plan, so I’m jumping in here. We are also a gamer couple who both work from home. And we have just built our second house (in the final stages). For the first house, we also had a general contractor floor plan, which we adapted to our needs. First of all: They will build it exactly as you want. But after moving in, we realized that we are not architects and our changes also had negative effects that we were not aware of when we planned them. For the second house, we wrote down our requirements textually on 2 DIN-A4 pages and an architect planned a wonderful house for us. Since moving in, we often notice something positive that we were not even aware of before. Great sight lines, wonderful lighting, dreamy sunrises from the bedroom – so many things have turned out really well here that I would never have thought of. Room sizes and distribution, everything just feels cozy and right. I don’t think we could have planned that as laypeople. I wouldn’t have dared to commission a solo architect either. But here the general contractor had an offer for an individual floor plan for an additional 1500€. If we had built with this general contractor, that money would have been credited to us. So we paid 1500€ for the planning. I can only wholeheartedly recommend this to you: Let a professional plan it. Our first house was certainly not bad. And the house was not the reason we gave it up, it was family reasons. But the second house, individually planned for us, is simply amazing. Specifically regarding your floor plan: - I wouldn’t put the washer/dryer in the bathroom. You have so much space for 2 people, there should really be a utility room. Ours is upstairs where the laundry also happens, I find it very practical. - I wouldn’t put skylights directly above the bed. If I didn’t have kids, I’d want to sleep in on weekends. :D - The living room area between the sofa corner and the PC desk looks like a “ballroom,” since it can hardly be furnished and is huge. That won’t be very cozy for sure. - Even with double home office, I think 4 PC workstations in 3 rooms in the house is a bit too much. Can’t this be reduced to 2 somehow? We have 2 large workstations in the office for regular work and an alternative workstation in the room opposite. - I know you don’t want to hear this, but I consider 375 as an all-in price for a house of this size in the outskirts of a city unlikely. I won’t go into details now if not wanted, but I would recommend you also discuss the financial planning aspects here. No one wants to block your dream, but having a lot of work left at the end of the money leads to additional financing or private insolvency. Both are more than inconvenient.

We are also a gaming couple

I also thought of you and your old house. You have turned the additional room into a gaming room, which can then also be used as an office. I can only emphasize again not to fixate too much on one hobby and to build the house accordingly restricted, so that a more social use is no longer possible. It is good to plan and need space for desks. But to double them straight away, so 4 for 2, deciding at the young age of 30 to never be able to meet at home with several couples for dinner for the long rest of life because the rooms no longer allow it. Ok, here you can convert two gaming units into a dining table, but I would also plan for something like that. You will definitely still change. Everyone changes every 7 years. This affects views, needs, interests, and goals. Just keep that in mind. The now should of course be the priority. already said it quite well: bay window facing the garden or there as a light catcher, and the kitchen with terrace access belongs there. A subordinate bay window (max 1/3 of the total length) should also be approved outside the building window. And if you bring in many windows over the stairs in the south or/and west, you also let the important rays into the house in the afternoon. For utility room/toilet or storage room I personally would not sacrifice a southern location.

I would also find it good if you placed your house on the property, including the carport, driveway, and terrace. Otherwise, I am not yet quite clear on how the carport interacts with the planleft kitchen window.

I’m saving my answers to the individual comments for the moment, but thanks to everyone for the feedback! We have now talked about the comments here for 1-2 nights and will discuss everything again with our general contractor, who offers these kinds of individual planning services, it will probably be like with , that an in-house architect will take care of it. If they don’t do it, we will consider contacting an external architect again, thanks again especially for your message . We will get back to you then :) P.S: The house price we mentioned is really just the house price, excluding land + additional building costs