Floor plan: Preliminary draft from the prefabricated house provider is available

Child 1 gets a dark corner in the room. Here I would still plan a skylight. I would always use the space under the stairs as storage. You can still put a wardrobe/dresser in front of it. If the dresser is placed under the stairs, it can often lead to headaches. Besides, the bottom steps always turn into an ugly storage place for junk and shoes. The dining/living area is definitely too small for me now. Also, the cooking/dining/living area reminds me more of a terraced house than a single-family home. If financially feasible, I would plan a bay window here. You don't have to extend it over the whole house, just simply extend the roof at that spot. But in general, the area should function like this.

You can gain light in the upstairs hallway, for example, with skylights in the bathroom. We did that too, and it’s amazing what it brings. An alternative would be a daylight spot.

We hate skylights, but "gloomy" too - we will discuss that again. Do you think it makes a big difference in terms of the necessity of an additional skylight whether we take the large floor-to-ceiling windows on the front side or windows with a parapet and less glass area?

So you would design the stairs closed with risers, wall to the hallway, and then you access the storage room from the office side? Am I understanding that correctly? We had planned it that way before, but then, because of the light source (front door), thought it would be better to leave the stairs open... The hallway next to the stairs is now just over 130 cm - if we put a wall on the stairs, it would be about 115 cm - which would probably still be okay (?)

Would the dining/living area be too small in length or width for you? The bay window would be a flat-roofed bay window. Due to the increased ground floor height and minimal roof overhangs, you can’t extend the roof there...

Maybe an idea: Door living room - hallway: double glass door, window in front of the dining table floor-to-ceiling and calmly 3 m, without a bay window the space is fine. I would possibly design the kitchen without the peninsula - rather as a U-shape - stove facing the garden (southeast direction) and without a door.

looks coherent on paper. thanks for the suggestion. but a completely open view into the kitchen – no, we are not tidy enough for that and I would regret not having a view into the room despite the open kitchen. the exit to the outside from the kitchen is also important to us.

By the way, I also think that the staircase doesn't necessarily fit the type of house. The best space you have on the upper floor is taken up by the staircase.

I am aware of that, but as an alternative we only managed to come up with something with a side entrance in the area of the garage driveway, where the staircase was placed directly next to the front door and ended up almost in the same spot on the upper floor (above the office door). The upper floor was then better than now, but on the ground floor we had this ugly staircase entrance directly next to the front door, no large built-in closet, a cramped entrance area and the access to the house and garage driveway hindered each other. That was too many compromises for us on the ground floor for a slightly better upper floor without the annoying niche in the children's room...

Another variant with the front door facing the street would be a U-shaped staircase on the garage side in the area of the current utility room. That would be our plan B (or rather C, D, or E...), if we come to the conclusion that the current design is not convincing. On the upper floor, the only change would be that the niche in child 1 would disappear...

that would be the mentioned variant with U-shaped stairs - TR and WC would also fit there. This would significantly improve the lighting situation in the hallway on the ground floor and upper floor if a window is planned in the area of the stair landing - but the hallway would be noticeably narrower and more corridor-like... Your opinion?

With the 100 cm high island, you don't hide anything in the kitchen. If you really want to separate it, then separate it. With the bay window, you can of course rotate the dining table and would have a bit more space. U-shaped stairs are more consistent. 18.7x17 risers = 3.17m. 20 cm ceiling and 15 cm floor construction leave a clear room height of 2.82m or am I mistaken? Unclear how that will look...

I find the design with the [Podesttreppe] much nicer.