Floor plan UG-EG - Sloping site

Hello everyone,

The floor plan is basically finished, now I would like to know what you think about it. We can still change everything.

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 717 sqm
Slope: downhill, 10% gradient
Building window, building line and boundary
Edge development:
Number of parking spaces: prefabricated garage / double garage 6x7
Number of floors: basement + ground floor
Roof shape: gable roof

Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: gable roof
Basement, floors: basement + ground floor
Number of people, age: 2 adults / 1 toddler
Space requirement on ground floor, upper floor: approx. 140 sqm
Office: children’s room / office / guest room all in one
Guests per year: 3
Fireplace: no
Terrace: yes
Garage, carport: double garage
Utility garden, greenhouse: no

House design
Who designed it: planner from a construction company
What do you like most? Why? mostly drawn according to our wishes
What do you not like? Why? dining area too narrow between kitchen and living room (the left kitchen row must be this long (from left to right - raised dishwasher, oven and microwave stacked, door to pantry, side-by-side refrigerator, tall cabinet). On the right side we are considering possibly shortening it a bit to get more space in the dining area.
Price estimate according to architect/planner: €400,000
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: €410,000
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump with underfloor heating

If you have to do without, which details/extensions
-can you do without: open
-can you not do without: open

Why has the design become the way it is now?
We spent a very long time drawing, changing, adjusting ourselves. This is the result of cooperation between the planner and our wishes.
Which requests were implemented by the architect? All of them

Information:
It will be a single-family house built in solid construction, KFW55, with a photovoltaic system, underfloor heating, air-to-water heat pump, gable roof with 22°. The family planning is complete, so 2 adults and 1 toddler. The house will be built on a sloping hillside plot with 10% gradient, approached from the street. The basement areas fully covered by earth are made of waterproof concrete, the rest is masonry. The south side faces forward to the street, so the main terrace is also located here. The passage between kitchen and pantry will be hidden behind a concealed door in the kitchen wall row. From the vestibule to the pantry you can enter either through a sliding door or a normal door, opening towards the pantry. A lifting system for the lower bathroom will not be needed since we will have a slope from the bathroom to the sewer of 2.8%. The sewer connection on our property is at a depth of 3.39 meters. The house will also be built slightly higher than the street level. A backflow flap is of course planned. From the lower bathroom you can get to the rear garden (north/east) through another door. The double garage (prefab garage) will have, instead of a deep foundation due to the slope, a transverse utility garage with a side door measuring 3x7 meters so that it can be used as storage / cellar / garden equipment. The terrace will not go quite as far around the corner as in the plan so that the ground can slope away faster here.

After such a long time planning, considering, changing, you can also become blind and miss one thing or another. Therefore, we are very grateful for criticism, tips, tricks, and suggestions

Fire away & many thanks in advance.

Mmh. Interesting. I'll just ask away:
UG:
The utility room seems huge to me. Over 17m² (if I'm not mistaken) for technology is quite a statement. I think I would cut off a big corner there and separate the dressing room instead.

EG:
The slope in the pantry is awkward to furnish and it's not particularly nice for the entrance area either. Consider swapping the entrance area and guest WC and slightly reducing the pantry.

The open space somehow lacks coziness and flair. I can't say right now what exactly it is.

Have you consciously decided against a garden connection and in favor of the sunny spot by the street? Is the street heavily trafficked? Sitting by the street wouldn't be my thing.

Which one is your property? I can't find any with 717 sqm. But I find the placement of the terrace directly on the street very odd. You have such a nice big garden at the back to get there through the bathroom (!). Instead of enjoying the morning sun behind the house, also the evening sun in mid-summer, and a semi-shady spot in the midday heat, you "cook" out front on the south-facing terrace by the street.

I would put the living area in the basement facing the garden and the bedrooms upstairs also facing the garden. At least you can open the windows without anything crawling in or someone walking in.

I also don't find the floor plan itself optimal yet. When you come in, you run into a wall, then pass the slanted wall to get to the living room. Everything there is way too tight, as you yourself have rightly noticed. Bedrooms facing south because it gets so warm there? Bathroom facing the quiet garden? I don't find all that well thought out. Improving the floor plan only makes sense once you explain why you want the room distribution exactly like that. I'm curious.

Mmh. Interesting. I'll just ask freely:

Thank you for your thoughts. Yes, the utility room is "huge." We don’t have a basement room in the house. That means that in the utility room the air-to-water heat pump, the photovoltaic storage, the washing machine, dryer, worktop above the washing machine and dryer, several shelves, and a larger cabinet for stuff that would normally end up in a basement are planned. That’s why the room was deliberately made bigger. Yes, the slant in the pantry bothers us too; we just didn’t know how else to solve it better in order to gain some real extra space for the pantry. Everything that belongs in the pantry should go there, plus a separation system for yellow bag, paper, deposit bottles, etc., vacuum cleaner, mop, water crates, and so on. Therefore, we tried to gain as much space as possible. Since it is important to us to also use the entrance area as a dirt room where shoes really stay, we wanted to avoid having to go through the entrance to get to the guest WC. At first, we also had the guest WC where the entrance is and the entrance upstairs, but then you can no longer get from the entrance to the pantry. We wanted short distances here. When you are finished leaving and forgot something to drink, you open the door and quickly get something from the pantry instead of having to go through the house to the kitchen, the same with shopping, for example. But I’m currently considering placing the large worktop in the kitchen as a kitchen island, removing one cabinet from the long cabinet wall, and then the pantry could be shortened by 80 cm from the top. I am still waiting for the change regarding the house location. The garage will be moved further into the property, the house will also shift 4 meters deeper into the property, so it will only start 10 meters from the street. That means there is more space in front for a terrace and lawn. A small terrace is also planned at the back, as well as the climbing tower and other things for our son. So at the back, it won’t just be lawn. The street is not heavily trafficked; it’s not a through street but only leads to the other 10 houses in the new development (18 houses), most of which can also be accessed via another access road. There probably won’t be much traffic. I will upload pictures of the property shortly so you can better imagine it.

Which one is your property? ……..

Hello, I’ll start from the beginning and explain

Our property is parcel 2, listed as 720 sqm on the plan, but it’s actually 717 sqm.
The house will still be shifted; unfortunately, this is not yet visible on the current plan. The double garage will start 7 meters back from the street, the house 10 meters into the property. We want to create space for the south terrace and lawn. There is also a terrace planned in the rear garden area, as well as a play and climbing tower for our son, and a barbecue area.

Why the door in the bathroom? We planned it this way because we thought it would be better if our son, for example, when he comes back from playing all sandy and dirty, can go directly into the bathroom, take off his clothes and shower, etc. We wouldn’t like it if he first had to run through our bedroom or the hallway. Also, one can enter there with shoes on, which wouldn’t be possible in the bedroom or hallway. We also wanted the option that when we sit with friends/guests in the back garden, they can use the toilet in the bathroom without having to walk through our private rooms or up to the guest bathroom. Hence the consideration for the door to the bathroom.

Why not have the all-purpose room in the basement? We thought about it for a long time, but we didn’t want to enter the house on the ground floor, carry all groceries down to the basement, then carry everything back up again. Whether you have to carry it inside the house or outside via the stairs to the basement, it doesn’t matter. Also, the route when someone is at the door, or guests arrive, would be much longer if the all-purpose room is located in the basement rather than the ground floor. You would have to use the stairs much more frequently. If someone is sleeping upstairs, i.e., in the private rooms, but guests are here or arriving, they always come in via the ground floor to the basement. We also wanted to keep the paths as short as possible for older age.

Another thought was that when our son is older, we could somewhat “separate” the basement and the ground floor. We could move our bedroom upstairs into the guest room, he would have his domain downstairs. Our currently planned bedroom would become his bedroom, and the currently planned children’s room would then become living space, etc. In case of emergency, he would also have an indirect separate entrance via the bathroom in the basement. The door would just have to be changed somehow.

Bedroom facing south: We arranged it this way, because for example we couldn’t put the bathroom in the place of the bedroom – the route would be too long to reach the sewer, so there wouldn’t be enough slope, which means we would need a lifting unit. Also, the children’s room is no longer really facing south; the sun is usually gone there from 2 p.m. onward. For our bedroom, the neighboring house on the right would cause shade on our side in the basement, because the neighbor is building without a basement on a slab, ground floor plus attic. Therefore, we assumed that the rooms would not get too hot even in high summer due to their location in the basement and position.

Vestibule / guest toilet / pantry and the rest on the ground floor
We want to use the vestibule as a “dirt room” for shoes, jackets, backpacks, and so on. It is important for us to separate this room from the “all-purpose room / living room.” We also didn’t want to have to go through the vestibule to get to the guest toilet. Also, for shorter routes, we wanted direct access from the vestibule into the pantry to put groceries like cases of water directly from the vestibule into the pantry. Paper, recycling bags, deposits, etc., will also be collected in the pantry. You can then take them from the pantry via the vestibule without having to go outside with them. Also, if you are already dressed and realize you forgot drinks or something, you can quickly help yourself from the pantry. Hence the layout. No idea if it’s built wrong.

I am currently considering removing the large countertop in the kitchen, which was supposed to separate the kitchen and dining area, and setting it as a smaller work island in the middle of the kitchen. That would make the dining area more airy. Also, the left cabinet on the long kitchen row (right by the terrace door) could be removed, the others pulled forward, and the pantry shortened by about 80 cm at the top. Then it wouldn’t be so awkwardly shaped anymore.

that would be our property