Floor plan of a semi-detached house with a guest room

Hello everyone,

I have finally registered and am asking you for advice/tips and criticism on our floor plan. About 4 years ago, we started looking for a plot of land and, of course, our dream house (urban villa, basement, double garage…) - now we have ended up with a semi-detached house, if we can afford it at the current prices. We have actually already reduced ourselves to the minimum - it should just be a normal house for normal people ‍♀️ not much frills, currently living in a 3-room apartment with about 80 sqm and at the latest in a few years it is definitely too small here. The offer for the plot is from the city and not overpriced - so we hope that we can somehow manage to plan something decent on it. We have already obtained several offers:

[*]Architect, 290k for the house (calculated with 1300€/sqm…..)
[*]National prefabricated house provider 390k
[*]Regional company, solid construction 375k

The house is now planned with the dimensions approx. 8.5x13m (I am not allowed to post the dimension drawing), the garage would be planned on the wall between the kitchen and the study.

We are very curious about your input!

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size 529 sqm
Slope no
Floor area ratio 0.4
Gross floor area ratio 0.4
Building window, building line and boundary approx. 12x15m (garage has to be within the building window due to regulations)
Edge development semi-detached plot
Number of parking spaces if possible 2
Number of floors 1
Roof type gable roof
Style classic
Orientation N/W
Maximum height/limits 4.5 m eaves height
Other requirements private green area in the west, street in front of the house is a dead end and only 3m wide

Requirements from the builders
Style, roof type, building type classic, gable roof, semi-detached house
Basement, floors: no basement (too expensive), 1 full floor possible according to development plan = 1.5 floors
Number of people, current age 3 (35, 33, 1), grandparents will stay with us for about 4 months (spread out) per year (elderly, grandpa not very mobile anymore)
Room requirements on ground and upper floors:
-Ground floor: kitchen, living-dining room, pantry, utility & technical room, home office/guest room, shower toilet
-Upper floor: 2 children's rooms approx. 15 sqm each, bedroom (there should be space beside the bed for Erin's crib), bathroom with tub and shower
Office: family use or home office? Both (actually home office, second children's room initially as office and the home office downstairs as guest room for grandparents so they don't have to climb stairs. My grandpa would also sleep on the couch, but a) not good for his back & b) he should have privacy and be able to retreat.
Guests per year frequently, approx. 12-20
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: we are still open to this, but actually planned as solid construction
Open kitchen, cooking island: open kitchen if possible without a direct sightline into the living room, no cooking island, but space for a French door fridge
Number of dining seats 8
Fireplace no
Music/stereo wall no
Balcony, roof terrace no
Garage, carport: gladly garage, but we somehow didn't manage to plan it on the plot without taking away light on the west side, so we switched to a carport ‍♀️‍♀️ the builder now has drawn one in anyway, we still don't know what we think of it
Utility garden, greenhouse: vegetable garden, dining table with 8 seats, play garden for the kids
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should not be:

[*]We have to build to KFW40 standard and if photovoltaics, then 40% of the roof area has to be photovoltaic system (city requirement)
[*]Need space in the utility room for a deep freezer
[*]Showers should be level with the floor or at least with a low tub
[*]We are not allowed to build a granny flat on the plot

House design
Who is the planner: regional builder
What do you like most? Why? Utility room and stairs on a shared wall, better use of daylight
What do you not like? Why? Bathroom arrangement (would rather use the windows on the west side for the children’s rooms, bathroom preferably with double casement window); corridor is a tunnel; kitchen is too small/too little workspace for me (cook and bake a lot), maybe also pantry under the stairs or integrate storage in the kitchen? We hardly have beverage crates but currently have a well-stocked 1.5 sqm pantry
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 375 without photovoltaics, 360 if built simultaneously with the other half
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: 340 (kitchen is new; we take it with us and build it in)
Preferred heating technology: air heat pump with underfloor heating

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions
-could you do without: third children’s room (he added because ground floor is so large), pantry, open kitchen, though reluctantly ‍♀️ we have already rationalized down from our “dream house”
-cannot do without: guest room/office and shower toilet on the ground floor

Why is the design the way it is now? For example
Design from the company’s planner; we have already talked to several companies and sometimes had standard designs that didn’t fit at all. Now we are allowed to add our input. My idea was only 3 rooms plus bathroom upstairs (he has now planned the house much bigger so that everything fits downstairs), but I’m confused because one company told us the technology room has to be on an outside wall and have at least 3 m of wall.. ‍♀️‍

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
How do we arrange the rooms on the ground floor sensibly and large enough so that we have light & enough storage? How does the garage fit sensibly on the plot?

And the green area is your property?

Exactly :) I had forgotten to write that down

Basically, I would swap the bathroom and children's room 3 so that the drainage of the bathroom does not run across the kitchen.

The appendix called the dressing room will not be usable properly. Cancel the dressing room and instead make the bedroom slightly larger.

Architect, 290k for the house (calculated with 1300€/sqm…..)

Please ask the architect how long ago his last tender was. Why do you keep reading such completely unrealistic price indications? I don't understand... Twice as much is already tight.

Your maximum budget is smaller than the initial price before sampling and the start of construction? Then please leave it and don't rush into misery...

The floor plan is not well thought out, with many corners just to fit enough rooms.
Leave out the pantry, it would be annoying every time anyway, having to go from the kitchen through the living area into the hallway to the pantry and back.
You can use the square meters better.

Upstairs, please leave out this "walk-in closet" and make a normal, non-angled bedroom that fits a double bed, a wardrobe, and a child's bed.
Put the bathroom at the bottom right of the plan and then plan the upstairs suitably for you. Based on that, then follow with the ground floor.
You will probably end up with a floor plan that better covers one of your wishes and needs and is smaller = cheaper.

Regarding garage / carport: If money is that tight, then leave the cars outside and that's fine. You can probably use the money better elsewhere.