Floor plan single-family house OWL approx. 150 sqm with east garden

Hello everyone,
after having now read many threads here about how floor plans set up with a clear conscience are professionally torn apart, I now dare to come out of the wind shadow. We want to build this year and have already bought the plot. Now we are discussing with two providers. Provider 1 has never impressed us with the drafts and plans very large houses without offering much living space. I now present Provider 2 here for discussion, since we still like the draft – except for the points named below.

We hope that the forum's collective intelligence will point us to a few more pitfalls and maybe even solve our hallway dilemma.

Sorry for scribbling the measurements like that.

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 610 sqm (648 with purchased noise protection wall)
Slope: approx. 70 cm over 19 m, sloping down from north to south
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Floor space index: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: 3 m to the street, 3 m to neighbors in the north/south, building window 10 m in west-east direction
Edge development
Number of parking spaces
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: Gable roof <=45°
Style orientation
Orientation: Ridge in north-south direction
Maximum heights/limits Max ridge height 10.5 m, eaves height max 6.0 m
Further specifications: On the east side, a noise protection wall is constructed over half of the plot, behind it is forest. Due to the noise protection wall, we are practically not visible from the garden side.

Requirements of the builders
Style direction, roof form, building type: rather classic
Basement, floors: basement, 1.5 floors
Number of people, age: currently 2 (33, 27 – 2 children planned)
Space requirements on the ground floor, shower WC, open space (kitchen, dining, living), study; upper floor: 2 children's rooms, bathroom, bedroom (walk-in closet)
Office: home office (teaching profession)
Guest stays per year: about 15
Open or closed architecture: rather open
Conservative or modern construction: conservative with brick cladding
Open kitchen, cooking island: YES
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: prefer yes, budget permitting
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport/budget permitting
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
other wishes/special features/daily routine, also gladly reasons why this or that should or should not be

House design
Who is responsible for the planning:
- planner of a construction company
What do you particularly like? Why?
We like the upper floor very much. Room sizes fit. We can’t currently assess the bedroom in the south. From my point of view, the children’s rooms are the right size and nicely laid out.
A guest room was not a requirement – apparently, there was space on the upper floor. We are not unhappy about that.
I really like the living-dining area. Kitchen to the terrace. My wife likes the possibilities of the pantry with access to the garden, basement, and carport.

What do you not like? Why?
What we don’t like are the narrow hallways. 1.2 m and 1 m seem very cramped to me. Between the carport and along the stairs, that wouldn’t bother me as much, but the entrance should definitely be wider.
The bedroom in the south does not particularly convince me.

Price estimate according to architect/planner: >440k€
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: approx. 440k€
Preferred heating technology: Gas heating mandatory due to purchase contract for the plot.

If you had to do without, which details/extensions
-can you do without:
I can do without a pantry and could build the WC there. My wife sees that quite differently.
-can’t you do without:
The study on the ground floor is a requirement due to teaching profession. The wish is to simply drop things off in the study when returning from school, close the door, and then take a break. No stairs should be necessary for that.
A basement is also a must. We have many friends and acquaintances who have built in recent years almost always without a basement. It takes iron discipline to keep the utility rooms “tidy”. We have to maintain that discipline now in our rented apartment, which we want to get away from. We do not want to become hoarders, but want to be able to spread out more. Also, I want to be able to store all my tools in the basement to comfortably repair my bicycles.

Why did the draft turn out as it is now?For example
Standard draft from the planner?
Which/were certain wishes implemented by the architect?
Large window areas on the ground floor facing the garden, since it’s not directly visible.
Bay window on the street side is mandatory for the optics. The now planned flat roof bay window will definitely be changed to a gable roof. Stucco on the bay window will be omitted in favor of cladding. We find the bay window to the garden quite pretty. It is not a must, but we had given it as a planning basis and it also positively affected the children’s rooms in my opinion.

A mix of many examples from various magazines…
What makes it particularly good or bad in your eyes?

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
How do you assess the utility of the pantry, is it as useful from your experience as we envision? What options besides widening the house do you see to widen the hallways? Does it fit with the indicated cloakroom?

In principle, I would like to build it as is, if only the narrow hallways weren’t there. Making the house 25-50 cm wider is not technically feasible, but probably a financial problem.

Can you say something about the plot width? Why is there a noise protection wall to the east? Is that a highway right outside the front door?

Unfortunately, I have to tell you that I find your ground floor really terrible. Besides the hallways, what bothers me most is the arrangement of the main rooms. They should be completely facing the terrace, and as large as possible, not such a narrow kitchen niche. Instead, the pantry is there.

You wrote a big YES for the kitchen island. But that is just a small appendage, instead of the big freedom.

The upper floor is still quite okay, but if you don’t need a guest room, the space would be much better planned for the children.

Is the straight staircase a must?

Draw your existing furniture or the desired ones to scale. Take into account the necessary space for sitting at the table.

I would paint the straight staircase.
Also the access from the carport. You have a lot of hallway space that is missing elsewhere.
The door from the garden to the pantry as well. What is the purpose of a direct access? It only costs floor space. 60 cm structural depth will be too little for a freezer.

The kitchen does not have the desired cooking island.
Arrangement and orientation of the rooms more towards the garden (Kaho has already noted this).

Upper floor
Bedroom 3 m structural depth is very tight. The bed is 2 m + frame + skirting board.
I would eliminate the guest room and add it to the other rooms.

Carport with 4 m is quite narrow for 2 vehicles.

I started a thread once: how you ruin your design with the second entrance garage. That's exactly what happened here.

I really like the house style. You could improve the upper floor: children's rooms get the south side, the bedroom with dressing room gets the east side including bay window. However, I wouldn't know how to easily improve the ground floor without changing the staircase position. I already find the kitchen width daringly narrow.

In principle, I would like to build it that way if only the narrow hallways weren't an issue. Making the house 25-50cm wider is not a technical problem, but probably a financial one.

Then compensate for the additional costs by cutting back on the cladding. Overall, the architect seems to be too much in love with the design to me.

As the others said: paint both additional doors, change the staircase --> problems (almost) solved.