Floor plan for 11m x 8.25m, ok?

Good argument. Hm... Somehow I prefer standing in the living room rather than in the kitchen when I come in. And somehow looking out & in from the kitchen onto the street is a more pleasant thought than from the living room. We will give it some thought.

But you are not welcome there when others have already withdrawn. This applies to daytime, but also evening hours. You are not planning a house just for yourself, but also for another generation, and each person wants to be able to retreat in the living room sometimes. Looking out is just for a second while doing the dishes and is totally overrated. Think a lot about it

Best regards in short

Kitchen with a view of the entrance and whoever might ring the doorbell I personally find not unimportant. Well, that could also be solved with a camera. I always liked that I could still keep an eye on my boys when they were playing on the street – even though I don't spend that much time in the kitchen.

The open living area to the staircase is maybe what you want, right? Otherwise, you could still have a wall built there, maybe only half-height with glass or modern timber framing. We have a different situation, but all the children and friends could see me through the glass door when I was lying on the sofa in the evening and they were going up the stairs. It sometimes bothered me a bit, but by now everyone knows me even in a bathrobe.

The SOUTH view is really not nice. BUT: I was meticulous about making sure the windows on the upper and ground floors line up and have the same width. It worked well because we have 4 bedrooms upstairs and downstairs living/dining room with 3 terrace doors, one is in the study. Totally unnecessary. When I sit on the terrace I don’t see the south side, neighbors only from 100 meters away. So I would decide based on the interior effect. I would like to point out that for us the door between the living and dining area is used the most. The large glass elements at the dining table and in the living room are rarely opened. Main access to the terrace is through the door in between.

Maybe I was able to give you some input.

Good luck with the further planning.

Good point. Hmm... Somehow I prefer to stand in the living room rather than the kitchen when I come in. And somehow looking out & looking in from the kitchen onto the street is a more pleasant thought than from the living room. We will think about it.

I would really think about that again carefully. When you are two without children, it is something completely different; you can plan a floor plan to be more open. With older children, it will eventually be such that practically grown men walk past you in the evening and you definitely won’t want to lounge on the sofa in "sloppy clothes." You somehow restrict yourself and then don’t have a cozy sofa corner. Best regards Sabine

I am also in favor of swapping the kitchen / living room. We often sit in our kitchen and look into the garden while chopping beans together or doing similar things - wonderful.

Swapping the living room / kitchen would also have the advantage that the fireplace becomes visible from the couch. You should definitely plan the fireplace and draw it to the correct size to see whether the furniture layout as currently drawn will still work. And remember that it gets warm there, so depending on the design, you might not want to sit too close.

Would definitely swap the living room as well. An open staircase directly in the living area with children... I find that extremely unfortunate and it has already been mentioned several times here. Children in their teenage years or almost adults... always walk through your living room with friends, girlfriends, acquaintances, ... while you are comfortably watching a movie.