Floor plan of a 1.5-story house with a captain's gable on nearly 200m²

You write that the windbreak is absolutely necessary. May I ask why?

The missing symmetry is not a big problem now, do facades have to be completely symmetrical?

Not at all. For not forcing the, in my opinion, superfluous captain's gable into the center at least, I even give half a plus point!

You write that the windbreak is absolutely necessary.

In the obligation table, it is only listed as "should".

In post 45 he writes "Der windfang ist auch einer der must haves."

Sorry, been very busy the last few days, I didn’t get around to replying here in detail.

You write that the windbreak is absolutely necessary. May I ask why?

Sure, you may ask anything, otherwise I wouldn’t be here.

The two main reasons: dirt barrier and privacy. We know nowadays you don’t need a windbreak in its original function anymore. But that was never our motivation.

We always have between 1 and 2 dogs in our life and often walk through meadows and forests – in recent years also with kids who love muddy puddles. Our new house will stand directly by the forest, so it will be more worse than better.

In our current house our entrance looks like this:



Problem: No space in the windbreak for shoes (or anything except keys…). Therefore, the shoe places are in the hallway. Any dirt on shoes and children’s clothes quickly spreads throughout the entire house if you don’t vacuum or sweep immediately. Also because the paths to and from the living room have by far the highest traffic in our house.

That’s why we want to outsource that into a windbreak. Unfortunately, it has gotten smaller in recent iterations, we will discuss some ideas with the architect on Monday. However, its dimensions are now not far from our current hallway, which has never felt too small, even when we were four adults – despite the huge built-in closet.

Additionally: The option to open the door and not let anyone look into the house is simply very important to us and we absolutely do not want to miss that. I know this open gallery when entering is important to many, door open and you stand in the house and can somehow see everything. For us, not at all, rather the opposite. We were at the model house park in Frechen again yesterday and that made it really clear to us again. Also the possibility to go outside at the front and leave the dogs inside.

Regarding the list: “should” means for us that it actually has to be done, but if there are weighty reasons not to do it, then we could also live without it.

Honestly: window seats as a wish?

Yes, of course. We had such window seats on vacation and simply love reading there.

Doors are also placed arbitrarily: personally, the living room door would bother me, which is not aligned with the stairs, or also the planned offset of the floor covering in the living area.

Well, not totally arbitrary. And I post that here precisely for small inconsistencies. We have already corrected it. Thanks for the hint.

The house gets a visual imbalance.

But that’s purely a matter of opinion, isn’t it? No one looks at the gable except us and the forest animals. I actually find it quite nice. Regarding the windows, we have already managed to make it more uniform, we have to talk to the architect to see if everything is feasible.

Usually the wish goes hand in hand with forgoing the basement or including the basement in the living space.

You want to have the washing machines where the laundry is generated. I would want the washing machines where I can hang up and fold laundry. Maybe even iron. And where I can have laundry baskets standing. Not in a children’s bathroom for three kids.

We don’t iron and everything else goes in the dryer anyway.

But maybe our general thoughts on the bathrooms: We see the main bathroom as a family bathroom, the WC upstairs not as a children’s bathroom but as an alternative toilet and for washing and such. The shower on the ground floor is for guests and for me working from home.

Otherwise a technology room and a hobby room for 70,000 plus are being built here. Respect. If you like to pay that?!

Well, the alternatives are: technology + 1 small storage room for 53,000 or technology + 2 larger storage rooms for 66,000. Or completely different room layouts and zones, none of which have really convinced us so far. For a long time we had a version in which we included the attic and the basement. But we were not happy with that. Not with the paths and not with the room layouts.

Your must-haves at the very beginning: has anything developed for you during the planning phase? Have you worked on your early ideas while the planning offered something different? Or was a fixed thread and list worked through statically – regardless of whether it fits or not?!

Hmm, I don’t understand the approach. We crossed out a few “wanted things,” sure – the granny flat for example. But the requirements were not randomly made up or created by looking at model house catalogs playing wishful thinking. I have a target image with certain features that I want to work towards. If I can have the “why” differently, then a change is no problem. But if the change is generally more effective/better but no longer fulfills the things important to me, then that’s no use to me.

Definitely plan the furnishing because of the slant before a design is approved.

We do that anyway for all rooms, thanks for the hint.
I find your general feedback good to reflect further on our thoughts about the individual things. Surely there are many other ways to implement our basic requirements (4 bedrooms, 2 offices, open living-dining area, foyer, bathrooms). And we have already been through quite a few; after all, we have been working on the floor plan for a year now.

And the rest of the room? Just show how you furnish the entire open space. Or: draw it for YOURSELF.

This is the current draft. Around the window seat there should be a bookshelf wall

What kind of knee wall is that between living and kitchen/dining?

Installation wall for TV and such. We haven’t finalized the length yet, I’d like to make it shorter.

In the living room there is a dead corner between sofa back and wall with door from the hallway

I agree too. But that’s still a discussion point here.

Quite a labyrinth of doors on the ground floor – I count eight door openings/passages?

Correct. The kitchen will get a sliding door. There was tough discussion about access to the office or guest WC through the foyer to minimize the number of doors in the hallway. But the disadvantages outweigh too much.

The slanted wall in the office/bathroom is impractical.

Yeah, it’s the best iteration we had so far and you can hang the towel radiator there. I don’t even dare to post the others. In the model house park we had a bathroom very similar to this, which we already found nice.

Why almost 20 sqm for two workspaces?

I work almost exclusively remote, my wife needs a workplace at home and has her sewing hobby. The large room is then also the guest room (hence also a shower bathroom there).

What does “gallery” mean on the upper floor?

Probably a wrong label from the architect, should be called hallway.

So, I hope I answered everything. Many thanks for your detailed feedback, it helps a lot.

After all, we have been working on the floor plan for a year now.

:eek:

I basically work only remotely, my wife needs a workplace at home and has her sewing hobby. The large room is then also at the same time a guest room (that’s why there is a shower bathroom there).

That is also a statement - besides the info about the dog/dogs. Then as a reader you can understand why this and that has to be / must have or should be.

I find your general feedback good in order to reflect our thoughts on the individual things again.

Thanks, that is also my intervention.

We see the large bathroom as a family bathroom, the toilet on the upper floor not as a children’s bathroom, but as an alternative toilet and for washing and such. The shower on the ground floor is for guests and for me during home office.

That’s how I understood it as well.

But that is now purely a matter of opinion, isn’t it?

No… this was about the issue with the house leaning due to an offset gable or disharmonious window placement.
That is not an opinion, but fact. You can see it too… made worse by the strange, very individual windows on both sides. An unbalanced distribution causes a tilt. A captain’s or Frisian gable is executed centered. Everything else leads, to put it bluntly, either visually to a disharmonious arbitrariness, or to complicated foundations during framing.

Hmm, I don’t understand that approach. We have scratched a few "desired things," sure - for example, the granny flat. But the requirements were not randomly chosen or created because we looked at model house catalogs and played wishful thinking. I do have a target concept with certain characteristics that I want to work towards.

Maybe you understand it like this. (In that case thanks for your 3D interior view so we can understand it too)
You saw a window seat. Now you are squeezing it somewhere… be it in the dining room because you saw it somewhere on Pinterest in a dining room… but a window seat with reading material left and right means finding peace, retreat from the rest of the family, an hour for yourself with a view or escape into a good book. In a 5-person household (with dog), however, this place will be the most active and hopefully the most creative and lively room in the whole house.
If I were you, I would ask myself whether this place is really right for a reading window seat?! But for that you also have to understand the purpose of a window seat and not just blindly copy Pinterest.
I also criticize your half-height wall between the living room and chill lounge. Nobody can withdraw there. Instead, I see a piano, piano… if I were you, I would create a retreat room where, for example, noise from media is forbidden during the day or only TV is watched… or a musical room where you can also read (sorry, I’m not that familiar with the subject), but at least I know that spaces can and should be separated. And the bigger the group of individuals, the more you should regulate the rooms before they are built.

A bookshelves wall is supposed to be placed all around the window seat.

….
And if a dog has always played a role, then I would actually grant it an accessible shower at the entrance (whether on the ground floor or in the basement).
And then you would already be in basement planning and know whether you integrate an outside staircase or not. The reason you don’t find something like that on Pinterest may be that you don’t look for it. And now we’re at the subject: what kind of house do you even want? One like Pinterest, which mostly shows staged rooms (all advertising for living better or Ikea), or for yourself as an individual family?!

In our current house, our entrance looks like this:

I would totally free myself from that.

I'll make a suggestion since the basement is fixed:
Attic for the children. Possibly a utility room plus shower/bathroom there.
Ground floor: living room for everyone. Office. Piano/craft room.
Basement: thermally interior and also designed as living space: freezer and storage area, retreat for the parents (bedroom plus shower), sewing and hobby room.
House overall somewhat smaller, cost-neutral with the living basement.