Ideas, critiques, opinions

Hello,

we are currently planning our own home and have now received the first preliminary draft from the planner. Basically, we like the design, but we are unsure whether the size of the individual rooms and thus the overall size of the house is sufficient. The contractor's offer is still pending. If there is some leeway here, we would like to expand the living space a bit.

I think everyone has their own ideas about how big certain rooms should be, but maybe you have some hints about what you find impractical or what we should urgently reconsider.

Now to the basics:

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 815 sqm
Slope: no
Number of floors: 1.5 according to development plan
Roof type: shed roof
Orientation: entrance north
Maximum heights/limits: not specified

Requirements of the builders
Basement, floors: no basement, 1.5 floors
Number of people, age: currently 2 (29 & 32), children planned
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor
Office: family use or home office? Teacher as wife...
Conservative or modern construction: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: yes
Fireplace: yes
Balcony, roof terrace: yes
Garage, carport: yes
Utility garden, greenhouse: no

House design
Who designed it:
-planner from a construction company

Price estimate according to architect/planner: €1600 per sqm (detailed offer still pending)
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: 290k
Preferred heating technology: air heat pump

You don't particularly like light in the kitchen and office or what is the purpose of these light-entry-minimizing windows? 24 cm stair steps I find somewhat too small. The cloakroom is tendentially a bit tight if several people want to use it. The purpose of balconies, roof terraces, etc. in single-family homes with their own property is not quite clear to me, but each to their own. The children's rooms are certainly the lower minimum in size, but okay.

Actually, we didn't want a balcony, but with the 1.5-story construction method, we have no other option. The space would be there anyway, so we might as well make a balcony out of it. Thank you in advance for your suggestions.

I also noticed Grym’s points.
Besides, it may be nice to be able to access the balcony from the hallway upstairs from every family member, but that also means the consequence that the children, who will at some point flee to the balcony with their friends during their teenage years to chill, can look straight into the bedroom – which could also mean restless nights ;)
I also don’t like the bedroom: the chimney is in the way, and with a room of 3 x 4, a normal 2-meter-long bed leaves about 50 cm in width. The space in front of the closet is also very tight.
In the bathroom, the tub is very awkwardly placed in the way.

Tip: give up the T-solution, at least as the bathroom is furnished now. Extend the bedroom to the south, reduce the balcony accordingly, and do not plan a window or access from the bedroom/balcony there.

But the staircase and wardrobe remain a problem.
Personally, I would miss some western sun on the ground floor.

Basically, I would give up the balcony; it is hardly used and therefore relatively expensive and always a weak point in the house. To keep it to one story, pull the shed roof further down and plan the bathtub and built-in closet for the bedroom in the low knee wall on the north side, with both children’s rooms facing south.
As it is now, the house is quite tall on the south side... who likes that?

Measurements are missing for better assessment.

Sorry, I just noticed that the roof is planned the other way around than I remembered. I’m leaving the post because of the ideas anyway :)

I would try to recreate the dining table drawn in the floor plan (pragmatic suggestion: go to a restaurant with six people, enjoy good food and drinks, then take a folding ruler -- bring it along -- and measure there how much space three people sitting side by side take up and whether the waiter can still walk around. This also works in the canteen, just without a waiter ;-).)

Unfortunately, the dimensions are missing in the floor plan, which I actually find quite good (spontaneously), just too small.

Thank you very much for your ideas. We will get started this evening and do a bit of sketching on the current draft.