Floor plan of a single-family house with basement, 150 sqm, only single-story allowed

I thought you get practical tips here on how to improve what is already there

Well, first of all, the mentioned shortcomings have to be acknowledged and accepted by you before it becomes solution-oriented. But basically, the architect gets paid to rectify objections and recognized deficiencies. For example, the entrance area does not provide any possibility to create cloakroom space at all. You basically have to draw a new design for that. Overall, you have received some advice. Not everyone here wants to be tarred with the same brush just because you dislike one or two comments. I am not a fan of the Tuscan city villa with Greek columns either, but your house is far from that, it is strange to call it so in Swabia. Whether one thinks of the far north when seeing the house, whether clad with bricks or not, I doubt it. I would rather think about a covered entrance in the gable with a captain on a bench.

Yes, I also think that a red brick facade alone does not make this house a Northern light. It still needs a truncated hip roof with a thatched roof and a bat dormer, right?

You shall and may do whatever you like and that can ultimately also be the Frisian house in Tyrol; nobody here has anything to do with that!
Sensibly, however, you publish your project here and of course reactions of all kinds come up, just like in brainstorming. Praise pats won’t get you anywhere. If I only read what I approve of, I would find my thread useless.

A complete North house in our area is of course strange. We accept that it fits less here. But that does not diminish the good feeling we have when we spend our holiday in the north every year. We would like to bring this feeling home with us, so that it might feel a little like vacation when you come home.

The special value of my house results from the fact that it (the floor plan) seems made exactly for the residents. That is individuality which provides a noticeable added value for the residents, the extra gable or such less so.

I thought you get practical tips here on how to improve the existing (swap room x with room y, make wall z at 45° so that the corner at child 2 is softened).

I have read lots of sensible tips and suggestions here. Your understandable wish for a bit of flair here and there, however, does not work with a floor plan. If you pull the string in one corner, something drops down on the other side. A seemingly insignificant change can cause the floor plan no longer to work. For this reason, I have repeatedly read that you should start over again, which you apparently do not want to recognize as a hint.
Of course, people also address the basement you want because they also have your budget in mind, which in probably 90% of all cases is exceeded anyway, with you likewise. It would be unfair not to mention that.

That is something, too. On the one hand, railing heights are criticized or how the couch is positioned or the shower. I have deliberately overlooked that so far since that comes in the detailed planning.

Please give me a plausible reason as a planner not to draw in a room-defining piece of furniture like a couch correctly.
You are greatly mistaken. You will read in almost every similarly themed thread several times that the real furnishing with real measurements should be drawn in. So you should not think that these are compulsive participants. These are people who know exactly what problems late consideration of the furnishing causes. You can then only do your detailed planning within a tightly fixed “rough planning,” and then you quickly reach limits. You would do well to take that seriously and not dismiss it as nonsense.

I think I came at the right time.

What knowledge leads you to this belief?
It is not too late yet; so far, it is only a plan and maybe some money, but that is the case with every builder who wants to build a beautiful house. Therefore, I count that to the construction costs.

That is something, too. On the one hand, railing heights are being criticized or how the couch is placed or the shower. So far, I have deliberately overlooked that because it comes in the detailed planning. That’s what I thought. I’m not demanding that every plan be elaborated if it’s going to be changed anyway. On the other hand, according to some, I am again too late. I think I came at the right time. There is already energy in the floor plan, but not so much that you can’t move away from it anymore. And I didn’t want to come with a hand sketch either, since many things are not yet precise enough to properly discuss them. For example, I didn’t really look at the basement; that’s pretty quickly sectioned.

I find it very unfortunate that you do nothing with the comments except take them the wrong way. A railing height was not criticized; rather, you were informed that the plan shows one that is technically unrealistically low and that apparently there are false ideas about how it comes about. But I didn’t consciously notice that myself; I only perceived the note about it while skimming (otherwise, I wouldn’t even know what you mean with the keyword). I didn’t even get as far as the couch or shower because I quickly saw that you and your planner had gone astray. There is only detailed planning in a dead end if the proud client does not recognize the dead end as such (and does not acknowledge hints to it but puts them into the drawer of incomprehension, envy, and resentment), considers it improvable, and so on. What a real wrong-way driver does is angrily honk toward the stupid police blockade that blocks his way. Luja, said the Munich guy in heaven. You would have been better off with a hand sketch—precisely because you can first properly talk about things before they are made “precise enough.” I will check back later when you present a new preliminary draft.

On the one hand, railing heights are being criticized

If you don’t mind a step to the balcony, then go ahead, but it should be in the plan. Unfortunately, there have already been disappointed builders here because they overlooked this detail. The floor structure on the upper floor can be raised to come out at the same level. However, that also means a low room height and one more stair step if the stairs are not supposed to become steeper. The additional step also makes the staircase longer, which again affects the floor plan, and this is not always positive for the floor plan. Even such small details can influence your preliminary planning.

What knowledge brings you to this belief?

Well, because the house is not built yet. Therefore, I would still call the current moment the right moment. And without the first planning, you don’t even know what to pay attention to in the next one :D

I find it very unfortunate that you do not make use of the comments except to take them the wrong way.

I reread all the posts, and indeed the comments seemed much less harsh to me in my memory than when reading them a second time. Above all comment #14 from . She, in turn, later showed with her floor plan that she can afford such an opinion. At the moment when I read that, it was not an "informative answer" to me, but just a gossipy comment.

I’ll check back later when you present a new preliminary draft.

Gladly. I will forward Katja’s floor plan to my planner tomorrow. Let’s see what he makes of it. I have actually spent the last 1-2 hours intensively dealing with this floor plan and think that I like it better than the one we showed. Especially the upper floor with the staircase in the bay window is definitely nicer for us, even if the rooms now only get light from one side.

If you don’t care about one step to the balcony, then do it, but it should be stated in the plan.

The thing with the railing height was actually not directed at you and your tip was actually so important/interesting to me that I immediately told my wife, because I had not thought of it before.