Floor plan - house planning carried out by a civil engineer

Hello everyone,

I would like to put our current floor plan up for discussion. The house was planned by a civil engineer, whom we commissioned for all service phases according to HOAI. My main concern is whether we have overlooked anything important or perhaps not considered one thing or another. I would therefore be very grateful for tips, suggestions, and criticism.

Here is an excerpt from the checklist:
Plot size: 2200 m2
Number of floors: 2
Roof shape: hip roof
Style: urban villa
Orientation: see plans
Number of people, age: 2 adults, 2-3 children
Office: home office without clients
Guests per year: 10
rather closed architecture
rather conservative construction
closed kitchen with cooking island
Number of dining spaces: 2
Fireplace: yes
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: yes, double garage

House design
Who did the planning: IBS Staudacher, Borna
What is liked especially: double door to the kitchen, TV corner with garden and fireplace view
What is disliked: narrow hallway on the ground floor and narrow stairs
Price estimate according to architect/planner: €300,000
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: €310,000
Preferred heating technology: air or ground-source heat pump

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions
-you can give up: fireplace possibly retrofitted later, large terrace window (tilt-and-slide window)
-you cannot give up: office on the ground floor, dining area in the kitchen

I find the upper floor quite okay. However, I would use the space between child 1 and 2 and plan a small bathroom for the kids there.

Ground floor - uh yeah. Totally not acceptable. There are too many points that would bother me.
- Dining area is too narrow
- Living room is a passage to the office.
- Kitchen is large but difficult to furnish
- Hallway has already been mentioned, it is too narrow
- Living room area is too narrow at 3.69
- I find the staircase inconveniently placed
- Utility room is a long corridor with many corners. Also, I miss the direct access to the outside for, e.g., drying laundry or where the kids can come in with dirty clothes.

In my opinion, not much can be salvaged here, and the errors cannot be simply fixed by small changes. I think the ground floor has to be completely replanned, and with that, the entire house in this form is obsolete. Sorry. :confused:

- Living room with 3.69 x 3.7 with a fireplace inside is in my opinion too small - Kitchen island does not work like this, the wall is too close for that - Possibly the dining area is too tight - Bay window possibly looks a bit strange - it is only 40 cm deep - Long, narrow utility room area and an even narrower entrance to the house - Also rather a lot of hallway space on the ground floor - Very spacious hallway with rather small children's rooms - Upper floor partially somewhat convoluted - Does the bathtub really have to be like this in the bathroom?

In general: a lot of hallway space in relation to the living area, somewhat convoluted in parts. I think that possibly a different type of staircase could save you important square meters, which could then be used more for living areas.

Elevations and sections are missing :D I assume because your names and such are displayed prominently.

Here come the anonymized plans :oops:

The bay window is so shallow because I don't want an attached roof (or whatever it's called). If the bay window gets deeper, the roof overhang on the rest of the wall becomes quite large.

Since we have to make 5 rooms accessible on the upper floor and have a long staircase, the long corridor is unavoidable.

The small bathroom is a good idea, but I imagine the view from the hallway into the garden quite nice. Maybe it will become a nice reading corner someday.

I am also not really happy with the kitchen yet. A corner bench is supposed to go into the niche.

You can go through the utility room to get outside via the garage. So muddy things can be stored either in the garage or in the utility room and right next door into the shower :cool:

Originally, I wanted a double door between the entrance area and the hallway, but somehow we didn't manage to fit that in.

The passage to the study is intentional since work is mostly done there in the evening (lesson preparation) and the other room is right next door. :p :)

Would you add a window / strip of light above the couch? I'm unsure whether that would be disturbing or if the corner would be too dark without it.

You can go outside through the utility room via the garage. So the muddy stuff can be left either in the garage or in the utility room

I always find that quite difficult in reality. My children are very often outside. And very often they go in and out through the regular patio door in the living room. So, now their feet are sandy or muddy (by feet I mean the parts on the legs that you can’t take off ;-) ) and the kids want to get an ice cream from the freezer in the utility room. Either you open the garage for them, or the kids first have to awkwardly wipe their feet, which of course never gets them clean enough so they don’t leave sand or dirt in the living room. I’m quite glad that the kids can quickly go in and out there without making a big fuss every time. Do you want to open the garage every time your kids are outside?

By the way, I also find the access to the kitchen quite good from the kitchen.

... Do you want to open the garage every time your kids are outside?...

The garage also has a back exit to the garden ;-)