Floor plans for a two-family house

I just thought that carrying the shopping bags up to the second floor is like running a small marathon. That is, of course, annoying. Maybe the stairway exit to the south would be better after all. Then the kitchen would be smaller and a more open space, but I would arrive directly with the bags where I want to go. Then I picked up the sauna thing again. That way, you would also have a small bathroom upstairs. Then I would convert the small bathroom on the first floor back into a utility room.

I had also once pursued the mirrored stairwell. Two points bothered me back then with this version:
- The wardrobe on the upper floor 1 no longer gets sunlight. In combination with the internal corridor, it’s quite dark.

Well, that I find completely unproblematic. Front door with large glass panel and windows in the interior walls - done.

- The stairs ended up much too far away from the kitchen + pantry on upper floor 2, which was a deal breaker because of the location on upper floor 2. That is now, of course, conceivable with your kitchen position. However, the kitchen would be open, which we basically did not want (extremely old-fashioned, I know). T

No, it’s not old-fashioned. I also prefer to be able to close the kitchen. But upper floor 2 is really tricky. If the bathroom on the ground floor can stay between the two bedrooms and it doesn’t bother you, maybe you could manage to get the pipes up through the utility room by a small shaft. Then the kitchen could be back in its old place. But then you have the long way to get there again. Really tricky.
The only thing I can think of here is:

But for that, you would probably have to sacrifice a bit of the terrace, otherwise, the corridor from the stairs to the living room becomes too narrow.

... but also because my parents actually wanted a smaller living area. Would of course be at the expense of the living room. We’ll see...

Well, my mother-in-law always complains her apartment is too small. I think she has over 100m².

We are rather not fireplace fans.

I thought such people didn’t exist. I once kicked it upstairs. Because if you don’t enjoy it, then get rid of it.

A thousand thanks!!!!!

Gladly, as I said, it’s an addiction.

(I wonder how best to deal with architects. Should you give them as much material as possible or does that prevent them from thinking for themselves? I’ve definitely gotten way more ideas here in the forum than from the architect, which makes me think...)

I would take all the ideas with me, but not as drawings, only in text form. If he then says it doesn’t work, you throw him another bone and better wait to see what ideas he has.

Hello Kaho, I really hope that you are not actually addicted, but just having fun. Otherwise, I would feel really bad.

The idea with the glass section of the OG1 apartment door is great. As simple as it is, I didn’t think of it.

The OG2 doesn’t work exactly as you drew it, because we (unfortunately) have to set back on all sides by at least one wall thickness. So far we have always allowed 40 cm. But that should be easily possible with your concept: The stairwell can be 40 cm wider, which doesn’t bother the EG and OG1. And the OG2 utility room can become smaller, so that bathroom and living room don’t have to shrink. Only the OG2 kitchen will probably require more back and forth.

By the way, your idea with the mirrored stairwell would even make it possible to move our apartment entrance door down to the EG. But not with your EG concept, rather something similar to our previous one with the apartment entrance door facing south on the EG. In my opinion, it doesn’t create significant advantages in OG1.

I also played around again with an unmirrored 2 x 1/4 turn staircase. The reason is that I still like our old OG2 a little better, but that doesn’t make sense with the mirrored staircase because of the long way to the kitchen. The OG1 would look like this, for example:

I deliberately drew the stairwell wider than necessary so it doesn’t get too tight at the start and finish, or maybe a stroller can temporarily stand right by the front door. It has to go somewhere after all...
In any case, it could also work with the old OG1 room layout, the children's rooms are almost identical here and have a reasonable design (although they are not so easy to furnish due to the door positions regarding wardrobe placement).

Well, I suspect that you and most co-readers will prefer your proposal. But I want to think through all variants to the end in our current phase...