Floor plan of a single-family house approx. 190 sqm with basement on millimeter paper

If you look down from above onto the gallery, then without the recessed shower corner you would see the top panel of the wardrobe cabinet. Hence the wall in the bathroom, which was pushed further to the left according to the plan.

Please imagine the view from the staircase above (gallery) towards the window. Do you have the 3D view? Then simply stand next to the staircase upstairs and look straight ahead. That should (in my opinion) look quite disharmonious. In contrast, the top of the cabinets would bother me less.

The question is whether the drainage on the tall cabinet side of the kitchen would bother that much?

Well, everyone has to decide that for themselves. It would bother me if it splashed amusingly while eating, especially when you know what's splashing... but okay, better in the kitchen than in the living room. Maybe the architect still has an idea for it.

The hallway on the upper floor is as wide as the hallway on the ground floor. We kept them the same for statistical reasons as laymen, downstairs and upstairs.

The hallway downstairs is also very wide—actually. It only became narrower (on paper) because you wrapped the staircase around. I assume the wall only goes up to the stringer. Visually, the hallway is accordingly quite wide and you perceive it that way when you enter the room. That’s not bad, just senselessly expensive.

Please imagine the view from the top of the stairs (gallery) towards the window. Do you have the 3D view? Then just stand next to the top of the stairs and look straight ahead. In my opinion, that would look quite unharmonious. In contrast, the top of the cabinets would bother me less.

You are addressing the right point. At home, we have already had discussions about this... My wife is bothered by the dust surface and appearance above the cabinets. Here is how both options look:

The hallway downstairs is also very wide – actually. It was only (on paper) made narrower because you "wrapped" the stairs. I suspect that the wall only goes up to the stringer. Visually, the hallway is correspondingly quite wide and you also perceive it that way when entering the room. That is not bad, just unnecessarily expensive.

You are right, the hallway can certainly be made narrower. We adopted the wrapped stairs idea from in #29.

One possibility on the upper floor would be to do without the gallery and place the children's bathroom there, just as suggested. The children's rooms would then each be about 3 sqm larger.

Instead of the children's bathroom airspace and storage, omit them for light in the upstairs hallway.

This is what both options look like:

I am for option 3 (we don't need it, get rid of it) – or are you expecting Philipp Scheidemann or the Pope to give this balcony a place in history?

I am for option 3 (bruche mer nit, fott domet) - or do you expect Philipp Scheidemann or the Pope to give this balcony a place in history?

We would use the bay window and the roof of the north terrace as a balcony. So no floor space would be lost because of that. And yes: we would even actually use it to hang laundry. Aside from that, you can quickly look down into the garden to see what the children are up to while you are cleaning, ironing, etc. upstairs. But I agree with you in this regard: whether we will use it as a "chill balcony" in the late evening hours remains to be seen ;)

The hall doesn’t have to create this impression on its own; it gets plenty of help. I don’t see any substantial improvements, but many changes, practically a new draft constantly. You can ride an Infinite Monkey to death, but you don’t have to ;-) (I already sound like , but that’s because of the draft).

What kind of changes would enhance the floor plan from your point of view? By the way, it is not a constantly new draft, but ongoing adjustments based on criticism here. Thanks to the help here, we feel that we have made a significant step forward (see #1).

We would even actually use it to hang laundry.

I was not referring to the "chill balcony," but to the "gallery" so-called indoor balcony, from which you can ask down into the entrance hall what the mayor of Wesel’s name is. But the Freudian interpreter was quite right, because I also would not answer the "chill balcony" with "this is art" in the sense of the Krüger question ;-)

Thanks to the help here, we feel like we’ve made a significant step forward

Well, that is basically the main thing. If money doesn’t play Rolex, it’s completely irrelevant whether the construction costs per square meter are, in my opinion, distributed awkwardly but exemplary.

What kind of changes would you consider to enhance the floor plan?

Hmm – perhaps the elimination of all homages to Pinterest gimmicks (including those that people try to dress up as features)? Make a table with all rooms and zones, and enter their areas behind them. Then convert the areas into percentages of the total area and hypothetically assume the total area would consume 100% of the budget. Then each room and each zone has a price. What does not have its price also as value will be cut (not painted). I wish you good recognition :)