Floor plan optimization single-family house approx. 150 sqm - on a small plot

something I would never have thought of before. How does someone come up with that who has never built anything?

Because it affects every room with a window. That is normal life with observational skills

an architect who thinks along and brings in his own ideas for the floor plan.

That is his job. It is not nice to have or desirable — creativity is part of an architect’s task

At the moment, the general contractors we visited (all well-known regional GCs) always tried to push their catalog floor plans on us.

I thought the woman is hired externally by you? Then she should do the work she is paid for. But it really seems to me that you come to her every day with changes of minor things. That obviously doesn’t work. You let a design settle, note pros and cons, and then discuss this list with the architect. The poor woman is surely already quite frightened that she did something wrong again.

You probably also have a drafting assistant. In hindsight, I would have preferred to choose a functional floor plan from the catalog that I like, also fits with the room orientation, and then minimally adjusted it. It will never be perfect. I worked on my floor plan (I hardly dare to say it) for 6 months and the floor plan is just run-of-the-mill. I totally blocked myself. But now it is what it is. By the way, my drafting assistant eventually stopped putting in effort and then, for example, the ceiling openings were no longer correct, etc. But you know my famous thread.

I’ve also been fumbling around since February.. I didn’t even upload all the previous floor plans.

This one corresponds to our room preferences.

The staircase will be mirrored, a storage room will be added underneath.

The east window in the bathroom will be removed. The north windows in the bathroom and bedroom will be combined into one window.

The floor-to-ceiling windows in the wardrobe + utility room will also be removed; instead, the other two small windows will be changed to “normal” windows. The front door will be supplemented with glass side panels.

The east window in the children’s room will be moved slightly closer to the stairs.

The access to the bedroom from the dressing room will be relocated to the other end of the wall.

I will tackle the bathroom again now, regarding furnishing.

Do you still remember on which page of your thread your final floor plan is? Maybe I’ll find even more improvements there. They really are quite similar.

Because it concerns every room with a window. That is normal life with observation skills

That is his job. It is not nice to have or desirable – creativity is part of an architect's task

I thought the woman was hired externally by you? Then she should do her job, for which she is paid. But it really seems to me that you come to her every day with changes to small details. That’s obviously not how it works. You let a draft stand, note pros and cons, and discuss this list with the architect. The poor woman is certainly already very scared of having done something wrong again.

She is hired externally by us.

She would like feedback as soon as we notice something, that’s what she told me. I then send her everything collected.

So now I have such an architect. Either we come to a reasonable floor plan or nothing will come of it. Maybe I’ll take ’s advice, find a standard floor plan that largely corresponds to our ideas.

As I said, everything I have received so far, I have not even posted here because it hardly corresponded to our ideas. This floor plan at least has rooms arranged in a way that we want to build on.

I have now seen your final floor plan. With the changes we indicated, we ultimately have a similar house. I could have saved myself all that and just taken your floor plan directly ..

We have only widened the living area windows to 1.76. I don’t know if I had already posted this here. Otherwise, it is exactly the same. No changes since May, although I had asked in my mind and in the forum every now and then. But honestly, I wouldn’t know what else to change. But surely later, when I actually live there. But that is certainly normal. Post your draft here when it is ready

I congratulate everyone who either has the general contractor or an architect who thinks along and brings their own ideas for the floor plan.

I fear that only relatively few building owners wander here. Most building owners will discuss the floor plans with their family and colleagues and then build directly. The big awakening only comes later when everything is already set in concrete and you experience the problems firsthand. Your problem is that you want to stay "small". In the standard GC designs, you simply make the house 20 sqm larger and the problem "dissolves".

At GC1 we had a trained architect as a planner, whose designs were beautiful at first glance but very impractical upon closer consideration – too design-obsessed. GC2 only had a draftsman whose designs in my eyes were just mutated variants of already built houses. It was full of angled walls, recesses, etc. Everything that didn’t fit was made to fit.

What I want to get at: It was a long and rocky road!

I fussed over my floor plan for 6 months (I hardly dare say it) and the floor plan is just plain 08/15. I totally blocked myself. But now it is what it is. Alternatively, I could have calmly hired a "real" architect. Today I would gladly pay a generous fee to a good architect.

Yep, we were there live. Sometimes the charm lies especially in simplicity. Just because it has worked x1000 times doesn’t mean it’s bad – at least if it suits the plot.

You get what you pay for. Except for a few exceptions here in the forum, everyone wants to get the maximum house with the given budget. Generous fees for architects are not planned – the GC is supposed to do that for free. It’s the same system as expecting an independent consultation from bank "advisors" without wanting to pay for it.

In sum, however, I now also recognize similarities with our design. Just keep going and don’t give up. We also needed a year from first contact to signature with what felt like 20 design revisions.