Floor plan of a 2-full-storey single-family house with approximately 160 m² living area

The property has no elevations (and the members of the family no ages). The shape of the property suggests the suspicion that its boundaries should have avoided that assumed setback areas extend over two properties. I see (with a normal family except for the addition of two home offices) no reason to deviate from a (here unfortunately not shown) standard design catalogue (how much?). A garage is a luxurious solution as a visual privacy screen. How I think about drive-through garages I probably do not need to repeat anymore.

others can tell more about §34. It is not a free pass. [...] @11ant will also recommend it. Go to an architect.

Sometimes (as said, the elevations of the property are unknown) 11ant also recommends not to tinker much with a catalogue design, not even with an architect. However, the living room bay window is an indication of a less good catalogue design basis, even without the balcony for the cigarette afterwards.

To show what people find nice, the design is useful. I would not build like that in any case. Nevertheless: a nice start to throw everything together like that.

Yes and no: absolutely formulate all wishes verbally, under no circumstances go to the (independent!) architect with the drawing (and certainly not to the draftsman).

Hello everyone,

thank you very much for your comments. Below you will find the floor plan from the catalog that we used as a basis (10 x 10 m):

Ground floor:


Upper floor:


Essentially, we mirrored the sides, gave the "children's" bathroom more space from the master ensuite, integrated a second small study as well as a wardrobe, and added a bay window to the living room. In our opinion, a masonry bay window enlivens the overall appearance of a house, is suitable for a small balcony, and still gains a few square meters of living space. We adopted this idea from another catalog floor plan.

Below are a few answers to the questions: The plot is very flat. The building project is intended for a young family (young parents with two small children). Due to the difficult parking situation, at least two cars should have space on the property. We also consider this sensible for the future, to comfortably use, for example, charging stations - hence the idea of a garage and a carport.

The guest toilet obviously needs to be planned wider - thanks for the hint. In your opinion, what minimum width should be observed here? 1.10 or 1.20 m? We would prefer to plan the utility room larger as well, but currently have no idea how. However, there would still be a small chamber under the stairs, for example for supplies, a city villa would have storage in the attic, and in addition there would be the extended garage part as well as probably a garden shed. Do you think the utility room should still be larger? How many square meters would you recommend at minimum?

Regarding brightness, we admit that especially study 2 might turn out dark and likewise the dressing room due to the north orientation. Do you really consider the other rooms that critical in this regard?

In your opinion, how many square meters should children's rooms have at least?

Do you possibly have examples of floor plans with a central staircase that you like?

Best regards
BetaVersion

Essentially

... nothing remains of the original floor plan. At least on the ground floor.

In our opinion, a masonry bay window loosens up the overall appearance of a house, is suitable for a small balcony, and you still gain a few square meters of living space.

..., which is paid for at a very high cost.

How many square meters do you think children's rooms should have at minimum?

10 sqm from experience with three own children. More is always nice, but not really necessary. At first, they don't need their own room as they cling to you and spend time in the living room. Later, it quickly moves on to the mobile phone phase. The much playing we old people still know happens much less often. The kids "chill" together today.

Thank you for showing the basic floor plan. Have you ever been able to visit it as a model house? It turns out that a design without location is not very meaningful. Why did you "mirror" the design?

Do you really assess the other rooms so critically?

Yes. Due to the terrace being covered, you get almost no light into the kitchen. However, your wishes for the kitchen suggest that it will be a preferred place to stay. The overlapping garage completely blocks the light from the south. In this kitchen, you will have to turn on the lights at 12 noon in the height of summer. Both offices will hardly receive any light from outside. The office near the entrance gets a bit of sun until 10:30 a.m. The office facing north remains dark. The laundry room is also a darkroom – despite the south side. This may not be so bad in this room, but from a lighting perspective, it is still a pity. In the en-suite bathroom, you have beautiful morning sun. In the evening, you will probably board up the window with lights inside since the view comes from the street. The dressing room will also only work with artificial light. Not optimal if you really choose and put on your outfit there. The bedroom gets some evening sun. It can wonderfully glare onto the bed in summer – an additional north window would be favorable there. The children's rooms are small, but the most interesting rooms in the house in terms of light. Good that they don’t only have south-facing windows. You can shade in the height of summer and still always get light from the sides.

How many square meters should children's rooms be at least, in your opinion?

The children's rooms are perfectly fine on their own. If you look around the world, having your own room is a luxury. The question of proportionality arises somewhat when you see how large, or rather small, the percentage of the house is that is available to the children. We had about 12 sqm large children's rooms for the boys in our townhouse, and they happily grew up there. Often we would have wished for a bit more space because they liked to play with play landscapes that they built on the floor – whether from Lego, with streets, or just imagination. The moment a desk for school moved into the children's room, it became tight. From today’s point of view, I would provide the children with an "office" where they can do everything for school – and then also forget about it when they’re done. This would also architecturally reduce the enormous distraction that a children's room offers during homework. Our children would have benefited from that. Often they then sat at the dining table and did their tasks (often disparagingly called school stuff) there because the temptation would have been too great and supervision over two rooms worked only inadequately.

I remind you of my note regarding the justified suspicion of taken setback areas.

A masonry bay window, in our opinion, loosens up the overall appearance of a house, [...] We adopted the idea from another catalog floor plan.

Such bay windows are mostly makeshift solutions to seemingly pep up the need for a square floor plan. Regularly, this creates a statics and thermal insulation problem and predetermines that a wooden construction will then be cheaper.

Do you possibly have examples of floor plans with a central staircase that you like?

This "stick up the a*" is a first-rate floor plan destroyer, at least below 150 sqm per floor. In combination with symmetry, this applies doubly.

How many square meters do you think children's rooms should have at least?

None at all – that is an inadequate "standard". I first had nine of them (a bit few) and later thirteen (actually sufficient, but poorly laid out). Here both children's rooms are "ruined" if you turn the bed 90°.

Basically, we mirrored the sides, gave the "children’s" bathroom more space from the master ensuite, integrated a second small study as well as a wardrobe, and added a bay window to the living room.

The home office cubbies are ridiculous and put the controlled residential ventilation under strain to achieve a proper air exchange rate. I would never want to work in such a king-sized closet, at least not full-time. Often, the case is neglected to also think about downpipes. Such substitute villa catalog models exist in every catalog but are rarely actually built (which makes the actual advantage of the catalog model – namely its proven mass-production readiness – absurd). Especially for the external edge length of 10 m, they mainly serve to provide dimensionally uncomprehending prospects an example of 100 sqm floor area (and are responsible for the misadjustment to 160 sqm "appropriate" living area as well as the foolish notion that an atrium could also be accommodated therein). An overlapping bay window and a T-shaped bathroom also make the model appear fashionable. Clientele 2.0 is unbelievably easy to fool.

10sqm from experience with three children of my own. More is always nice, but not really necessary.
At the beginning, they don’t need their own room because they cling to you and spend time in the living room. Later, it quickly moves on to the phone phase. The lots of playing, as we old people still remember it, happens much less often. The kids "chill" together nowadays.

We are currently bursting at the seams with 19 sqm. Yoga swing, reading corner, Gravitax, violin, keyboard, experiment corner, the Carrera track has moved to the attic. Playmobil and Barbie always have to be tidied up immediately otherwise there isn’t enough room to walk.

There is no minimum space. The size has to be seen in context. The hallway on the ground floor is bigger than the children's room. Parents have more space to sleep and get dressed than the children for homework, sleeping, playing, meeting friends. In a 125 sqm house, 13 sqm is generous.

By the way, the open space or the children's bathroom would make a nice utility room on the sleeping level. Our architect asked me back then if I like to clean. First, the children are too small, then they use it a bit, and then they are gone and only come occasionally.