Floor plan of our dream house

Hello,
I am happy to introduce you to the project that has been developing in my mind for several years now. I am curious about your constructive criticism! One thing upfront: the two views are not quite up to date. The windows have different sizes, e.g., not floor-to-ceiling. Also, the canopy does not extend to the bay window at the front but ends at the "main facade."

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: approx. 1250m² (square)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio
Floor area ratio
Building window, building line and boundary
Edge development: the requirement is at least 3m distance to the neighbor's property boundary, which we comply with
Number of parking spaces: 2 mandatory parking spaces, planned are 2 in the garage or in front of it
Roof shape: I do not know the name, but not a flat roof.
Orientation: the garage is in the north, the kitchen in the south. The street is a very quiet dead-end street. It runs parallel to the house front.
Other requirements: the distance from the property boundary at the street to the building must be 4m, in the area of the office it may be 3m. One is allowed to build 20m deep into the plot from the street (minus the first 4m, so 16m). Sorry for the missing technical terms and the amateurish description!

Requirements of the builders
Basement, floors: two floors + basement
Number of people, age: 2 adults (40), two children 3 and 6
Office: The office on the upper floor should (also) be used as a PC workstation. The room on the ground floor should primarily serve as a storage room, possibly also as a PC workstation.
Sleeping guests per year: currently rather none, later when the children are older certainly. They would then sleep on an extra bed in the children's rooms. We do not want a separate guest room. Nor a guest bathroom or guest WC.
Open or closed architecture: rather closed. We originally thought about an open passage between the dining room and living room but decided against it. Even if the door will mostly remain open. The same applies to the passage dining room – hallway.
Conservative or modern construction: I would rather call it conservative. Utility over appearance.
Open kitchen, cooking island: open kitchen towards the dining area, but deliberately no cooking island, rather a kind of standing desk/bar with stools to enable “being part of it.”
Number of dining seats: at least 4, with the option to extend the table for family gatherings etc.
Fireplace: yes, in the living room on the wall to the staircase (another fireplace in the basement)
Music/stereo wall: no, only a TV in the living room with space for speakers on the left and right. In the bedroom, only a place for the TV is planned, in case we want to mount it later. Each of the two children’s rooms will have a TV.
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage yes, possibly a carport later.
Utility garden, greenhouse: normal garden with pool in the living room/terrace area
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, also reasons why this or that should or should not be:
- Main terrace facing garden and a small side terrace facing the street to enjoy the morning sun or to escape the hot afternoon sun in summer
- Second staircase exit to the basement (not to the upper floor!) to have a quicker way from the garden to the workshop
- The WC behind the garage was an idea after the WC in the basement was removed. It should be, among other things, a kind of dirt lock after gardening or for the children. The WC and the staircase exit are not fully thought through yet but are a snapshot.
- I could not properly represent wall thicknesses in my planning program. The exterior walls are all 50cm brick, the interior walls are not yet defined individually.

House design
By whom is the planning: basically by us, but now revised with an architect (and still ongoing)
What do you particularly like? Why? The L-shape of the building because it results in a nice sheltered terrace and the view from the street into the garden is somewhat blocked.
What don’t you like? Why? The low light incidence in the hallway area, especially on the ground floor. I would mitigate this problem on the ground floor with glass inserts in the doors. On the upper floor, there is a window next to the elevator. The relatively elongated children’s rooms also worry me. I especially ask for your opinions on whether they are too “thin.”

If you have to do without, what details/extensions
- you can do without: the WC behind the garage
- you cannot do without: hmm...

Why did the design turn out as it is now?
As mentioned, I wanted to have an L-shape. The placement of the garage on the north side was out of the question for me. The main entrance should also face north and be protected from wind and rain. The WCs should be ventilated by a window, so not located in the interior. Originally, I arranged the kitchen near the living room to shorten the path from the car to the kitchen, but discarded that design very quickly. It is important to us to reach both terraces relatively quickly from the kitchen.
Regarding the upper floor: my wife wanted a small dressing room/wardrobe, which now resulted from the short corridor along to the bedroom.
We wanted a parents’ and a children’s bathroom as well as separate WCs, but with the requirement that no WC is directly in the bathroom. For odor reasons, I am absolutely not a fan of that! Since both the bathroom and the WC should have a window, this is the compromise here.
I would like to have the door from the hall to the dressing/wardrobe open outwards, but I am afraid that this might lead to a "conflict" door-person-stairs... Completely omitting the door is not an option since we do walk around naked here sometimes and if friends of the children are visiting and passing by...
The door from the dressing room to the bedroom, on the other hand, is not a must. It is more of a comfort factor, giving the feeling when sleeping that there is no dark corner in the room, if you know what I mean.

...But I would not only then, but fundamentally, remove or reduce the narrowing offset in the front area of the hallway, which is caused by the corner of the wardrobe, so that the hallway gets a straight line. This also applies to the hallway on the upper floor in the same area, the actually unnecessary door to the bedroom (behind the dressing room), and the separate toilet in the master bathroom I would also basically omit. You would think you won doors and corners by the dozen in a contest.

I took the liberty of putting the answer to your post here. Regarding your first point, I am not sure if I understand correctly. Would you reduce the wardrobe on the ground floor and align the wall flush with that of the WC? The door between the dressing room and the bedroom (I mentioned it here upfront because of your post) would be an option for me, not a must. It is basically unnecessary. The only question is whether it offers a kind of privacy for the bedroom. I have already touched on the subject of the toilet in the master bathroom above. I am not a fan of toilets in the bathroom, hence this additional door (and room within a room).

I would at least reconsider all doors that are smaller than 90 cm. The stairs to the garage are used very rarely.

I may as well reply to your post right here. You mean the minimum width of a door should generally be 90? I would have 90 cm only on the ground floor, how should I say, for the main traffic doors. Doors to rooms like bathroom, WC, bedroom, study, children's room I would have made 80. I agree with you, the stairs behind the garage to the basement are a secondary staircase. But if you quickly need something from the basement from the garden (e.g. tools from the workshop), it is worth its weight in gold.

We use our stairs from the garage to the basement quite often, either to get into the house dry when it rains or to bring groceries directly from the car to the storage room in the basement. I think that's quite practical, I would just make them much smaller and not around the corner with the landings.

We use our stairs from the garage to the basement quite often, either to get into the house dry when it’s raining or to bring groceries directly from the car to the storage room in the basement. I think that’s quite practical, I would just make them much smaller and not in an L-shape with the landings.

That’s true, it is very bulky, although only 1m wide. The landings do take up space and are definitely inconvenient when carrying something long, but they minimize the risk of falling. Also, I wouldn’t know where to position the stairs in one go (i.e., as a straight staircase) without taking away the space for the toilet again.

You design a palace for a million EUR and the children's rooms aren't even remotely the same size... generally, every room is 5m² too large, but if you have the money, why not.