Hello everyone, thank you very much for the feedback. That is just as desired as feared! I will work through the posts chronologically.
First, maybe a few background details. We have been in more or less close contact with a general contractor for about half a year, who is currently building about 20% of the houses in our development – all without developer binding! We are roughly in round 10 and have never been really satisfied. His first drafts were always something like this: we’ll keep it simple. We’ll take it from the foundations and make an extension for this room. With each round, it gets more complicated and "intentional".
This is the first draft from a general contractor who also has a pretty good reputation with us. If we signed now, construction would start in July, because everything is 100% booked before that. When we picked it up and discussed it on site, we were quite enthusiastic. After a night’s sleep, however, we are somewhat more thoughtful. Your comments add to that.
Can you say something about the plot width? Why is there a noise protection wall to the east? Is there a highway right in front of the house?
I’m sorry to say, but I find your ground floor absolutely awful. 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 a narrow kitchen niche. Instead, the pantry is there.
You wrote a big YES for the kitchen island. But that is just a little tongue-like extension, instead of the great freedom.
The upper floor is still okay, but if you don’t need a guest room, the space would better be planned for the children.
Is the straight staircase a must?
Our plot is 19.6 m wide. The noise protection wall on the east adjacent to the forest is because at a 45° angle there was a heavily frequented country road during the approval of the housing development. Nowadays, it is significantly quieter due to a new parallel road.
The idea of orienting the main rooms completely towards the terrace is correct. I had never thought of it that way. Here in the forum, everyone always tries to place everything facing south. But the best view and quietest location with garden etc. is indeed in the east.
The big "Yes" for the kitchen island may have been misinterpreted by me. I actually want such a tongue-like extension aka peninsula. A real island has never appealed to me. I will try to edit this later in the initial post.
Draw your existing furniture or the desired ones to scale. Consider the necessary space for sitting at the table.
I would eliminate the straight staircase.
Also the access from the carport. You have a lot of hallway space that is missing elsewhere.
Also the door from the garden into the pantry. Why a direct access? It just costs space. 60 cm rough dimension in depth will be too small for a freezer.
The kitchen does not have the desired island.
Arrangement and orientation of the rooms more towards the garden (Kaho already mentioned this).
Upper floor:
Bedroom 3 m rough dimension is very tight. The bed is 2 m + frame + baseboard.
I would eliminate the guest room and allot the space to other rooms.
Carport with 4 m is quite narrow for 2 vehicles.
All our existing furniture fits, I have checked that.
The 3 m length of the bedroom only just occurred to me. Previously I only paid attention to the width. I think we need to discuss "guest" again. I had already mentally claimed the room as a VR gaming room for dad.
The carport is only meant for our Bulli. Second car in the driveway, or I still hope that we can eventually replace it with a cargo bike. I commute by train anyway. As long as we have no children, that will work. I cannot assess that yet at all. But I do not want a double carport.
I started a thread: how you ruin your design with the second garage entrance. That’s exactly what has happened here.
I really like the house style.
You could improve the upper floor: children’s rooms get the south side, bedroom with dressing room gets the east side including the bay window.
However, I don’t know how you could easily improve the ground floor without changing the staircase position. I already find the kitchen width daringly narrow.
I will look for that thread!
Then compensate the additional costs by slimming down the brick cladding. Overall the architect seems too design-obsessed to me.
Nope, no chance! Brick cladding is absolutely fixed!
The irony is that you could get from the kitchen to the pantry more quickly through the garden than inside the house.
Wow, crazy! That had not occurred to me until now…
Do you need two entrances?
Does the main entrance have to be at the front?
Does the staircase have to be straight?
Is the western sun in the living room important?
Does it absolutely need to be the L-shape of the main rooms (kitchen/living)?
How wide is the plot?
These loophole windows – do you actually want that?
The pantry is great, I wouldn’t do without it! But it should preferably be directly accessible from the kitchen or at least on a short route. It hardly needs a garden connection. It’s not supposed to turn into a shed, right?
The bedroom on the south side is unfortunate if you don’t have cooling. The children, on the other hand, will appreciate light in their rooms, as they are there during the day.
No, two entrances are not a must. The idea for the main entrance probably came from the fact that we want the bay window visually at the front. We started with the wish for a "captain’s house," the bay window remains from that.
Straight staircase is a preference of the general contractor.
Western sun in the living room is unimportant. Originally, I wanted the kitchen in the southwest. The thought was to have a view of the street or playing children while chopping and washing up. However, then the path from the kitchen to the terrace would have become really long. That’s why it has now shifted to the northeast.
The L-shape of the main rooms was a desire so that the living area would not look directly into the (messy) kitchen. We definitely don’t want the feeling of a "warehouse" for a long continuous room without visual interruption.
The plot is 19.6 m wide.
Loophole windows are not a wish, no.
OK, thanks for this really useful input!!! I have often considered making the access from the north = carport. Especially because we actually are not allowed to build a small roof over the entrance outside the building window. The north side would have clear weather protection advantages if the main entrance is there. For me that would then mean the bay window has to be sensibly filled somehow. I don’t see a WC there, maybe swap the office and WC?