Floor plan single-family house 190m2 with basement. Feedback?

Dear community,

we are currently in the process of planning our house. The notary appointment for the plot is on 07.10., and afterwards we want to decide as quickly as possible between one of the three possible construction companies. The plot is located in 95326 Kulmbach and we want to move in by May 2024 at the latest in order to enroll our son directly in the right school.

Based on existing floor plans, we have developed this floor plan through various iterations and feedback rounds. Since we completely lack experience and the construction companies no longer provide any useful suggestions for improvement, I hope for the collective feedback of the group.

I am collecting feedback for the first time - please be considerate if I have forgotten something.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 996 m2
Slope: Yes - 5m height difference over 40m plot length, decline from the street (north) towards the south
Site coverage index: 0.3
Floor space index: 0.6
Building window, building line and boundary: 5m from the street
Edge development: west, east, south
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of storeys: 2
Roof shape: gable roof
Style: 2 storeys
Orientation: west <-> east
Maximum heights/limits: 9m
Further specifications

Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: 2 storeys, gable roof
Basement, storeys: basement + 2 full storeys
Number of persons, age: 39y, 45y, 4y, 0y
Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor:
* Ground floor: large room for living, dining and cooking, plus study and shower bathroom
* Upper floor: 3 children’s rooms, 1 master bedroom, large family bathroom
* Basement: utility room, workshop, guest room, storage
Office: family use or home office? Home office
Number of overnight guests per year: 12x per year
Open or closed architecture: open living rooms, closed bedrooms
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: open kitchen with cooking island
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: tunnel fireplace between living and dining room
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: 2 parking spaces, undecided whether garage or carport + bike shed
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, including reasons why this or that should or should not be

House design
Who designed the plan:
- Planner from a construction company: initial idea
- Architect
- Do-it-yourself: significant modifications
What do you particularly like? Why? The room layout on the ground floor suits us very well
What do you dislike? Why? Rooms on the upper floor are partially too convoluted, bathroom very elongated
Price estimate according to architect/planner: €650,000
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: €700,000
Preferred heating technology: air-water heat pump

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions:
- can you do without:
- can you not do without: straight staircase, high ceilings, symmetrical facade view, large living/dining/cooking room

Why has the design turned out the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner?
Corresponding/which wishes were implemented by the architect?
A mix of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes?

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?

Feedback for refinement, critical questions, avoiding gross mistakes

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My first thoughts: 1. lots of space for kitchen and dining in the south. I like that. Living room in the north. That fits. However, I don’t understand the kitchen island (?). I would plan this parallel to the tall cabinets. 2. What is this recess? Is it for the fridge? I wouldn’t plan it like that because of the corridor behind it. 3. What is the space between dining and living? 4. I wouldn’t plan the front door with an adjacent window like that, but rather a front door with a window without a wall in between. 5. How wide is the hallway/entrance at the bottom? 6. From my point of view, it’s worth considering moving the stairs a bit to the south, slightly reducing the hallway on the ground floor and the rooms upstairs, in order to enlarge the bathroom upstairs. 7. I would also divide the narrow bathroom into a parents’ bathroom and a children’s bathroom and at the same time reconsider the necessity of the shower on the ground floor. 8. I would never place the master bedroom between two children's rooms. 9. Personal question: Are you sure you need a third children’s room? Your house will be something special. Good luck. :)

Overall, a lot of nice things in this floor plan. It's obviously quite large, but you wanted feedback on the house, not on affordability, I assume? :)

2 things to consider:
- The niche for the fridge: From my point of view, freestanding refrigerators are currently a trendy thing. Whether that will always be the case / whether one might want something different later? Then you would have a useless niche in the wall. Or a broom closet, depending.
- Child 2 / parents: The kids' room hardly benefits from the narrow entrance, the parents' room might benefit from a bit more space. I would move the door to the kids' room slightly to the left and give the master bedroom a wider entrance.

Oh yes, I agree with the previous speaker regarding children's rooms: I would also prefer not to have our bedroom next to children's rooms. It depends on the child, ours is a light sleeper and wakes up from any noise.

My first thoughts:

Are mine as well.

but you wanted feedback on the house, not on affordability, I assume?

One does not work without the other. The recess in the hallway is disturbing. The kitchen doesn’t need that either. Sackmann can move quite a bit and thus omit the recess. Possibly, however, it could be mediated with a large wardrobe to avoid a bottleneck. I don’t like anything upstairs! The bathroom is set too far back, a bathing oasis in front of the actual bathroom somehow feels missing. I see a lot of basement. The budget is tight due to the basement. I would like to see the slope in the building area! It looks as if this is integrated into the living space, meaning the basement as an underground floor is included in the house, and thus one level could be omitted.

The notary appointment for the property is on 07.10., and afterwards we want to decide as quickly as possible between one of the three potential construction providers. The property is located in 95326 Kulmbach

There is a section here called "Erfahrungen mit Baufirmen" where various of them are discussed, and for many regions you can also find further companies. Kulmbach is not exotic there, possibly providers from there can already be found here.

Based on existing floor plans, we developed this floor plan in various iterations and feedback rounds. [...] This is my first time collecting feedback – please be considerate if I have forgotten something.

Various feedback rounds wiedennwodennwasdenn, that sounds like a contradiction for first-time feedback gathering (?)

Since we totally lack experience and the construction companies no longer provide any useful suggestions for improvement,

Where then does the perceived vocation and qualification to modify the provider planner’s design come from (and what were the motivating points for that)?
Useful suggestions please to Irene Campregher, Peter Nidetzky or Konrad Toenz :) – what kind of suggestions would you have expected from the construction companies?

Below, the floor plan fits except for the recess; with three children, the cloakroom space will no longer be sufficient. Upstairs, I consider it suboptimal due to the useless narrow hallway, the entrance protrusion by the children's room, and the convoluted bathroom.

I consider the price of 650k€ ambitious because of the basement and especially because of the slope (see already planned retaining walls, and it won't end there...). I would expect higher costs.