Floor plans for a two-family house

Damn, please ignore the 2nd attached thumbnail of the last comment, the 1st graphic is meant. By the way, the children's rooms will then be more flexible, I think. You can move the door of the children's room (bottom right) to the north and thereby make the narrow room deeper, since the corridor for the removed door will no longer be necessary. Ok, then there will be a hassle with the 3rd children's room, but you can figure that out on your own. In any case, you can then move the walls much better until it fits.

Hello kaho, thank you again for your effort. I like your ground floor draft more and more!

The weak point remains the entrance area of the first upper floor, I see that as well. Although it actually starts downstairs: You enter the house and immediately go up the stairs next to the front door, which are 1.1m wide but run between two walls. In front of the apartment door is a "moderately sized" and relatively dark landing. And inside, it continues with the crooked wall.

Your proposed change would actually lead, at least from the apartment entrance door, to a more spacious effect and also more possibilities for the children's rooms. The price would be that in the evening, when guests go to the second upper floor, they would have to pass directly by the children's room doors. And with the wardrobe you don’t just quickly pass by, but stay for a moment. We already have concerns about this. At the moment, we have the same situation that there is only one door between the wardrobe and the sleeping child, and that is really annoying with visitors in the evening. In this respect, it is currently a "between the devil and the deep blue sea decision." My suspicion is that with this staircase one cannot arrive at a better solution in both respects. However, the staircase is so large that perhaps an alternative form would be possible. I am still tinkering with that, although that might affect all floors... In the meantime, I had also considered a separate ground floor front door so that the separation wouldn’t have to be achieved first on the first upper floor. But then there would be another problem with the shared basement access....

Hello, I first have to think about what you mean. In any case, what I wrote was obviously complete nonsense. The whole thing only works if we reverse the staircase. That has the great advantage that there is more space in the entrance area. Apart from that, the staircase is huge and so is the stairwell. I consider that a waste. Therefore, I would probably try to work with a half-turn staircase. Even with generous steps, you come to 3.5m in length with 1.3m depth. With that, you gain a lot of space and the whole thing has to be completely rethought.

I will summarize the requirements for the staircase again:
- Both residential units must be clearly separated, i.e. ground floor vs. upper floor 1/2
- Both residential units have basement access
- The access to the upper residential unit should be appropriate for a family (not too narrow)
- It should be possible to come to OG2 with visitors in the evening without there being only one door between the traffic route to OG2 or the cloakroom and the sleeping children. A second door is desirable, which remains open during the day to hear what is happening in OG1 from OG2.
- The location of the rooms in the previous plans is absolutely ideal considering the building’s surroundings. It would be good if it remained that way.

However, the staircase in the previous plan is a waste of space. I tried it with 2x 1/4 turns:

The children’s rooms now have a better layout. The landing in front of the apartment entrance door is somewhat larger.
However, you have to make quite a few turns! Too many, I fear.

But one can see the potential for a more efficient stair solution. The staircase width and depth could be reduced, which could benefit, for example, the ground floor entrance area.

However, what was not bad about the previous solution was that the staircase on the ground floor was nicely wide. The space available there could be used jointly by both residential units or depending on who has more need at the moment. I am thinking, for example, of a stroller for the upper residential unit, a walker for the lower, shared guests, etc. In this respect, the space in the staircase might even be more useful than if it were clearly assigned to the ground floor apartment.

Hm, this way the platform is even darker.

I also mirrored the staircase vertically, which wouldn’t be so bad for OG1. However, it’s better unmirrored in OG2 because you then come out in the middle of the floor...

Really difficult. We probably won’t get any further with the architect. Going to a second architect doesn’t guarantee success either and only costs money again, which is why I’m still hesitant to take that step...

Hello Jim, I played around a bit more. But I’m afraid all your wishes are pretty hard to "press" into the house.


On the ground floor, I moved the kitchen to the back to get the living room onto the terrace. Whether the pantry is necessary is a matter of taste; certainly, there would be more solutions – the kitchen is big enough, I think.
The utility room is smaller, but the washing machine and dryer fit – that’s the most important thing. The highlight is the chimney with the fireplace – it’s always tricky to get it all the way up. The staircase has been shrunk: 4.10m x 1.30m. The entrance is on the other side opposite the front door.


On the first floor, I swapped the rooms after all. Let me explain why: I didn’t want to banish the stairs leading upstairs to the corridor outside. That would give the apartment an uncomfortable stairwell vibe – in my opinion. So I brought the staircase inside. However, I placed the parents’ room in the noisiest spot. The kids are as far away from it as possible. I assume the parents stay awake longer than the kids. Later you can swap rooms if you want.
The children’s rooms are about the same size, which should ensure peace. I moved the bathroom forward so the parents won’t wake all the kids when they come to bed from their nightly outings.

Not much has changed at the very top, except for the staircase. It turns in the opposite direction from below to provide peace in the living room. I don’t know if that’s even possible. It should be, though. Also, of course, we have the fireplace, which is brilliant.
You can certainly handle the fancy rooms and their arrangements yourself. I found that uninteresting. Regarding the windows, I mostly left them to you again or forgot to delete them, as I just noticed.

One more thing I want to mention: I consider 11cm walls really quite "thin" in the truest sense. I went up to 17.5cm where it seemed convenient. The ceiling between the ground floor and first floor should be very well soundproofed. Children’s feet are like little elephant feet and can drive grandma to a nervous breakdown.
So, until then!