Floor plan & outdoor area for single-family house 190 sqm

Hello everyone,

we are currently planning our single-family house and are still "stuck" on a few points (see below). I would be happy if one or the other could give us new impulses here. If, with your trained eye, you see further improvement ideas for the floor plan/outdoor area – feel free to share them.
Please note that I have already drawn a few changes compared to the original architect’s plan (yes, I know it didn’t turn out particularly well) and have attached the original drawing and the one I created for the changed areas.

Thanks & best regards
J.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 635 sqm
Slope: No
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Gross floor area ratio: Not found in the development plan
Building window, building line and boundary: Available
Edge development: Possible with garage
Number of parking spaces: 1 (still 2 in the plans)
Number of floors: Indirectly restricted by max ridge height (8.4m) and eaves height (5.4m) above street level
Roof type: Gable roof prescribed
Style: No specification
Orientation: Ridge east-west
Maximum heights/limits: Max ridge height (8.4m) and eaves height (5.4m) above street level

Client requirements
Style, roof type, building type: Brick house; gable roof with flat roof tiles;
Basement, floors: No basement; 2 full floors, attic
Number of people, age: 2 adults, 2 children (6 + 8)
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor:

[*
Ground floor, planned so that you could possibly live downstairs together in old age
[LIST]
[*]Hallway: Two niches for shoe cabinet and coat rack
[*]Guest room / office: One parent 2-3 times/week home office; the other parent once per week
[*]Large living-dining area with view of the nature reserve with open kitchen (niche under the stairs for storage)
[*]Bathroom with shower and toilet


[*]Upper floor:


[*]Office for home office (designated utility room), in case both parents work from home
[*]Two children’s rooms
[*]Parents’ bedroom
[*]Larger (master) bathroom
[*]Small storage room for laundry, cleaning agents, vacuum cleaner, etc.

Office: family use or home office? Yes
Guests per year: 4-5 times per year
Open or closed architecture: Open dining-living area + kitchen, hallway closed
Conservative or modern construction: Modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: Yes
Number of dining seats: 8
Fireplace: No
Music/stereo wall: Stereo at the head of the living room
Balcony, roof terrace: No
Garage, carport: Carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: No
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, preferably also reasons why this or that should or should not be

House design
Who did the planning: Architect of the construction company according to our specifications

What do we like? Why?
Large living-dining area with window seat overlooking the nature reserve and open kitchen
Kitchen with access to terrace/garden
Office upstairs (designated utility room) with view of the nature reserve
Comparatively spacious (size of children’s rooms, hallway/corridors, bathroom upstairs)
Modern clinker brick look
Dormers

The following points we still want to change in the current design:

[*
The two southern windows on both gable sides are not floor-to-ceiling for more flexible room use
[*]Ground floor: area between guest room/hallway/living room -> see manual drawing
[*]Upper floor: bathroom -> storage room (including washing machine and dryer) relocated so it becomes a bit bigger and separated from the bathroom -> see manual drawing:
[LIST]
[*]Walk-in shower with fixed glass panel
[*]Toilet separated from the shower by half-height drywall
[*]Half free-standing bathtub


[*]Move heat pump behind the tool shed
[*]Second parking space omitted

The following questions currently occupy us

[*
Should we open the hallway upstairs toward the roof and insert a narrow light strip in the roof on the north side (max. 50 cm height possible). The south side is not possible due to the photovoltaic system.
[*]Advantages:
[LIST]
[*]Daylight in the hallway
[*]Spaciousness (optics)


[*]Disadvantages:
[*]Special solution / additional costs
[*]Not functional: summer heat?, attic storage space lost, inconvenient to paint / clean windows ...
[*]Alternative would be a window element above the door to the storage room
[*]Hallway downstairs: We had to squeeze quite a bit at the stairs. How does the staircase appear? We tend to omit the window element to the living room, because the hallway is probably bright enough, we can then design the living room even more flexibly (furniture / pictures), and the staircase visually looks better. Any further change ideas?
[*]Bathroom upstairs: Are there any further optimization possibilities after the change (see manual drawing) – e.g., the idea of shifting the window in the storage room slightly (10-20cm) south so that the bathtub niche becomes a bit deeper?
[*]Waterbody buffer strip: The plot will be filled up to street level up to the waterbody buffer strip. The waterbody buffer strip must not be filled. We would like to build a 1m high natural stone wall here. Unfortunately, the waterbody buffer strip reaches up to the building window. Do you have any ideas how this can be solved?
[*]Tool shed behind the carport like the carport with steel + wood cladding and paved floor or solid masonry + brick facing with foundation. Pros and cons? Visual effect?
[*]Width of path from driveway to house entrance: The path from the carport/driveway to the house entrance is currently unnecessarily wide for us. What would be a generous/sensible width?

Nice appearance. Not my thing, but very harmonious.

EG, so geplant, dass man ggf im Alter zu zweit unten leben könnte

Is that it? Would you like to use the small bathroom in front of the entrance as yours? Before one settles for something like that in old age, one is more likely fed up with gardening and ends up in a city apartment.

Wir mussten bei der Treppe ganz schön quetschen. Wie „wirkt“ der Treppenaufgang.

And THAT is exactly what I see as a real drawback. You practically only have a small narrow secret path leading to the open space. Even before the change, there is a hidden door to the living room that doesn’t exactly appear inviting. Entering the kitchen door as a narrow tube with groceries would not be my thing.
By the way: I would give the kitchen 30 cm more depth and then plan a proper island, not such an attachment.

Bad oben: Gibt es nach der Änderung (siehe händische Zeichnung) weitere Optimierungsmöglichkeiten – z.B. Idee das Fenster in der Abstellkammer leicht (10-20cm) nach Süden versetzen, damit die Nische der Badewanne noch etwas tiefer wird.

Büro für Home-Office (Bezeichnung Hauswirtschaftsraum), falls beide Elternteile von daheim aus arbeiten

I have to be honest: since I read that, the design has been giving me a headache. You need the utility room, you need storage space, you need a place for laundry. The storage room is too small. (By the way, swap guest WC and storage room)
Whether the bathtub is flush or deeper doesn’t matter one bit after moving in.

If photovoltaics did not play a role, I would place a narrow house with the gable sides facing north and south near the east boundary, so that the west remains free for the garden.

What wrote.

Additionally: The new door to the office on the ground floor is drawn too narrow. Why? Because otherwise it doesn’t fit into the floor plan... Otherwise, you would have to move the wall to the living room as well.

Why are you planning to live on the ground floor? No one does, either you have a stairlift or you curse the huge house and its costs and move to the city into a barrier-free apartment, possibly with an elevator.

Are you aware that you stumble straight into the bed in the bedroom right after entering? With a 200cm wide bed + 2 * 40cm bedside tables, the door just barely opens, but the passage width is minimal. Have it furnished and then you will see.

What is the purpose of the walk-in closet, other than creating additional traffic area? The purpose of a walk-in closet can either be not to see a wardrobe from the bed (pure aesthetics), to create a generous "I’m fixing myself up" area, or not to wake the partner while dressing because you can get to the hallway through the closet. Two of these options do not apply to you...

In short: say goodbye to the prioritization of optics, and all issues are resolved.

Who is responsible for the planning: architect of the construction company according to our specifications

I have marked the error with an underline.

Perhaps one should simply mention again that the staircase location is crucial. It influences the entire floor plan. It is often unfortunate to align the staircase with the ridge or opposite the entrance. Here, it blocks the hallway to the open living area. Both accesses are hidden and make the house uninviting – there are no important sightlines, and the upstairs hallway is dark. I did not understand the question/suggestion about the window.