Floor plan house with granny flat - improvement suggestions?

Wow, honestly: an architect doesn’t have to come up with something immediately. A creative person may be creative for a few days. But if he is allowed to be exempted from his work because the client makes him a proposal, I have a problem with that. You have already given him the freedom not to have to think… :eek:

Sorry, that was not meant derogatorily that the architect didn’t know a solution right away. It just shows how complicated this planning is. What he immediately recognized was that the ground floor of the granny flat was not planned properly and definitely needs to be changed here. I only communicated my suggestion to him because, apart from removing the stairs, he had no other solution ready.

Yes, it results, if I think correctly, in an unstructured rectangular room that is very difficult to divide.

Maybe you can make a suggestion on how to best divide this room (so small kitchen and TV sitting area)?

The idea is of course a compromise solution, which might cost you less and be quickly implementable. But consider this: how should the utility room be accessible from the street if the garage door is in front of it? I think that is the main problem.

That is indeed a compromise solution, but on the other hand, you also sacrifice quite a bit of living space just for a utility/technical room. Yesterday, I looked at a house in the development area where the utility room was relocated into the garage. So it would be possible. However, I will talk again today with a technician from the municipal utilities to get certainty on this.

In my opinion, it is still absurd to build the house with this floor plan.

From your perspective, what else is not optimally solved in this floor plan (apart from the granny flat)? Could you perhaps list the individual points?

But if you want to just get it done quickly now, the alternatives are of course not optimal either.

We do not want to rush anything now; we have already spent quite some time planning (partly even wasted). So a few weeks more or less don’t matter anymore.

But you will most likely not be able to sell the house in a few years without significant renovations. Then your house is no longer a valuable asset but a devalued object.

We don’t want to think about selling yet. But I find what you say sounds quite bad (perhaps rightly so); could you please specify what exactly bothers you about the floor plan, and if you were to remodel it, how you would do it (like in post #56)?

Yes, the guest toilet is sufficiently large to use the toilet comfortably (even for stand-up peeers :cool:) and has space for a hand washbasin. I have no complaints. It is of course not a luxury Living-at-its-best room (just wait, I ordered tiles :D), but really totally fine. I would plan it the same way again.

That sounds good:-). Could you please post your floor plan here once? Despite searching the forum, I couldn’t find your floor plan (at first glance :-)).

I looked at a house in the construction area yesterday where the utility room was also relocated into the garage. So it would be possible. However, I will speak again today with a technician from the municipal utilities to get certainty here.

If you always close your eyes to problems, you will never find a solution. Now tell me, where are the cars supposed to be parked if the garage becomes the utility room? And don’t forget, there have to be 2 with a distance of 5m to the street. Or has something changed about that? Then write that. Just like whether it is permitted to build the terraces in the setback zone. And if the garage is to become the utility room, the exterior shell of the house changes and with it the building application. Do you want to submit a new one now after all?

If you always close your eyes to the problems, you will never find a solution. Now tell me, where should the cars be parked if the garage becomes the HAR? And don’t forget, there must be 2 with a distance of 5m to the street. Or has something changed about that? Then just write it. Also, whether it is allowed to build the terraces in the clearance zone. And if the garage is to become the HAR, the exterior shell of the house changes and with that the building application. Do you want to submit a new one after all?

I spoke with the building authority today; regarding the parking spaces, there are no major restrictions from their side. Theoretically, we could still cover another 28m2 with paving and park a car in front of the house on the north side. The employee from the building authority even said we can park 2 cars one behind the other (one in the garage and one in front), they wouldn’t see that as so tight anymore nowadays. Whether one wants that is a different question.
I also talked to her about the issue of the utility room in the garage, that should be possible too, we just need to send her a drawing from the architect.
I also spoke again with the utility company today. They said it would basically be possible to accommodate the utility room in the garage if it is accessible from the outside. A separate door next to the garage door could be planned for the utility room in the garage. But they wanted to check that once more when we submit a new drawing.

Do you want to submit a new one after all?

If necessary, we will do that too. We are currently considering various options and will hopefully decide on one soon.
What is important to us is that whatever we do, we do it with a clear conscience and not just do something because we are under pressure to do something now.

Sorry, that was not meant in a derogatory way that the architect didn’t have a solution right away. It just shows how complicated this planning is.

That’s not how I understood you either. I mean that it is wrong to steer the architect into one direction right away instead of giving them time to possibly come up with another solution.

Maybe you can make a suggestion on how to best divide this room (i.e. small kitchen and TV seating area)?

Before we now discuss it like the brother’s room in the granny flat, the utility room in the exterior area, the multipurpose room in the granny flat, or your bedroom in the utility room individually, here is a quick draft with your exterior dimensions, your garden layout, and your entrance doors. Because these ideas weren’t that bad in the first place, just because the staircase story was pretty wrong (at least for seniors).
But beware: the wall measurements are different, sometimes only 10 cm... I haven’t adjusted much except the cabinets with 60 depth, 120 width, or 3 meters width.
Windows upstairs roughly match the windows downstairs.
P.S. a straight staircase is nonsense with your problems.