Floor plan house with granny flat - improvement suggestions?

1. The utility room must be on the ground floor and accessible from the street. This is a requirement from the local utility company here due to the cold local heating network. 2. My parents would like to be on the ground floor. They currently live on the first floor and no longer want that. I think that as people age, even more will want to live on the ground floor.

Now the point should be reached where you put all the information on the table! As I and others have requested before. That might be fun when doing Tetris-like planning, even if it gets tricky, but you don’t just pull meaningful designs out of thin air. It always takes a few hours. And if you want to be very precise in tricky matters, several weeks. Creativity is not a button to press, but a state of mind. In the end, you don’t win either if you get many floor plans quantitatively, but they all have something where we don’t know the circumstances and so they just don’t fit. The planners’ motivation burns out… I already feel out and am considering what to do with my husband tonight instead of sitting for another 5–10 hours on a plan where the playing field is only half defined. It is a waste of time for both sides! Compromises definitely have to be made, but should everyone now put 5 ideas on the table, i.e. post them here, so you can choose the lesser evil? See “old design”. That has nothing to do with planning! You also tell the architect what you prefer, what you don’t like, what you insist on, or what concerns you? Why don’t you do that with us? Why don’t you say anything about Katja’s other designs? Or about ? I am impressed by the patience of , but I also know that she has some freedom during the day in her “office.” Then you do it partly as a pastime instead of Sudoku. But I find your sitting it out somewhat cheeky.

I am impressed by the patience of , but I also know that she has some free time during the day in the "office". Then you do it, among other things, as a pastime instead of Sudoku.

You definitely know too much. :eek: ;) My patience with this little game of Tetris is nothing compared to the patience with my suppliers, who again gave me a lot of involuntary "free time" this week. Just so no wrong impression arises here – I have to catch up on everything during that time. :rolleyes:

Suppliers who gave me a lot of involuntary "daytime freedom" again this week. Just so there’s no false impression here – I have to catch up on everything during that time. :rolleyes:

That’s not what I meant either. I hope you understand me. I myself find it a pity that I don’t have any “waiting times” during the day when I could plan something.

But honestly .. I can understand that the parents want to live on the ground floor etc. But the kitchen/dining/living area really didn’t work out at all. The drawn-in dining table is a maximum size of 70x70, the kitchen ... well, I don’t even call it a kitchen. Don’t your parents want to cook anymore or what?

Well, you don’t necessarily need a large kitchen for cooking, like the ones currently planned in single-family homes. With an island and space for a side-by-side fridge. And in old age the evening “discussion rounds” with many guests also decrease. The active circle gets smaller, and food without much fuss also tastes good. But everyone is different there... but the more it hurts and medication is stronger represented, the more you have to submit to what you can and are allowed to do. The MUST, e.g. making food, is kept simpler timewise... and when you deal with a granny flat, you know somewhere you have to save space. But yes, I already said earlier: 2.40 for a kitchen row is very unusual.

Personally, I can imagine both: ground floor or upper floor in old age. Because a nice roof terrace, which only needs to be swept now and then, also has something going for it.

And here my thought begins (independent of the student child):
active seniors with car go outside more often because they still can (for now). So gladly ground floor. If in 10/15 years the car is gone and the senior can’t do so much anymore, you are safe upstairs and can also enjoy the roof terrace. Possibly you are then in need of care, alone or quieter... that fits with the wish that seniors want to be on the ground floor now. That is the goal.
The juniors should/must wait it out. Meaning: at some point there will be a switch again, namely in the said 10/15 years. For that, the ground floor should be big enough again to offer Marlene with her husband and one child a nice ground-floor apartment.
Means: granny flat on the ground floor gladly one room more than necessary for the now 7-year-old, so that would be the room of the student child. The care senior couple lives upstairs or later it will be rented out.
In this respect, the suggestion with the 2 levels from already makes sense. However, this sense is opposed by:

We deliberately planned the living room of our residential unit on the ground floor because we want to spend a lot of time with the children in the garden in summer. Otherwise, we would constantly have to go up the stairs to the 1st floor to carry things down and back up again. That could get very annoying in the long run.

You still don’t know if the seniors are over 60 or under 70... :(

Another problem I see later with renting out: the parking of a tenant’s car in their own garage. Or am I the only one thinking this? I have always been involved in the planning to somehow create two separate parking spaces for the separate residential units.

To sum it up: everyone wants to live, cook, and eat downstairs, the levels / living units should be separable later, the granny flat needs at least 3 rooms, the other family needs at least 4 bedrooms, there must be at least 2 parking spaces that are 5m away from the street, the utility room must be accessible from the street on the ground floor. The terraces also have to fit somewhere, so please draw them in your plan with 3m distance to the boundary each! (This is simply overlooked and left uncommented.) And all of this on this poorly divided mini plot.

My sincere advice to you: sell the plot and find one that offers the possibilities you want.

But yes, I already said it earlier: 2.40 for a kitchen line is really unusual.

That's not even 240 cm ;) .. and clearly, you don't need a huge kitchen with an island and a big tall cabinet row, but something like 200x240 cm as a two-liner I do see as a minimum size .. and I am now also over 60 ;)

Yes, this mini kitchen is absurd. It's like in the office, where you only have 3 cabinets and have to decide whether you want a dishwasher or a stove. I have the impression that you love your parents [Eltis] too much to feed them with something like that. I certainly wouldn't do it.