Ideas for single-family house design with basement

Us too. But it's manageable, we don't have to worry about it.

That is reassuring, but the size also has non-monetary disadvantages. At some point, the size of the building reaches a level where the building is no longer for the residents, but the residents are there for the house. And then hiring staff is not a helpful option, but possibly an unwanted necessity.

The room layout and prioritization is of course up to you, but in my opinion, there is still a considerable gap between the expected quality of living and the price tag.

The orientation of the children's rooms is southeast! The garden is to the northwest, so the sun only comes around in the afternoon. The bathroom is at the back also because no one can look inside there and the windows don't have to be completely covered. Windows on the left facing south wouldn't help much because there is a tall 2.5-story building six meters away. I think it’s nicer if the children can look out to the front, where they have an unobstructed view. And true, in winter it’s dark at four o’clock, so you have to turn on the lights everywhere anyway, no matter which way the windows face. The kitchen will not be dark; a large window and possibly a door will still be added on the right side. The cloakroom and guest toilet are not decided yet. How long exactly do you spend in front of the cloakroom cabinets during the day to take out or hang up jackets and bags?

Here again is the site plan


That's right, the children's rooms would be more southeast.

What I also noticed is, if you put garages on the right and left now, it will be difficult to get larger materials into the garden.

In addition to the two floors of about 142 sqm each (including the stairs), there is also a basement. I don't know how high your house will be, but I would consider integrating a garage in the southeast corner of the basement. The terrain slopes down there by about 90 cm and that would need to be checked. Then you would have
a) the possibility to integrate some windows on the southwest side after all.
b) the possibility to bring larger items (garden design) behind the house.

Overall, the house would then certainly come somewhat higher out of the ground, so that access to the house might have to be planned with a small incline.

What kind of big things do you mean, for example?
A garage will definitely have electric gates at the front and back to have a large passage. What doesn’t fit through could, if necessary, be transported over neighbor’s garden plot 878 (maybe a swing, a climbing tower, a slide, or something like that?).

It is also important to us to have a direct passage to the garden. Especially when the kids are older, that is certainly practical. Although then the car probably shouldn’t be parked in the garage if they’re speeding back and forth between the garden and the street with bikes, pedal carts & co.
On the other hand, it’s not bad if the property is "closed off" to the street when the garage is closed and you can’t just walk past the house into the garden (and I wouldn’t like a 2m fence either).

We already considered setting the right garage lower (the neighbor did too), then the window in the guest WC wouldn’t be a problem anymore. But the architect advised against it; I don’t remember exactly why. I will ask again on Tuesday.
I’d also like to integrate it into the basement, but that will certainly be difficult because we need a white tank (layer water or something).

By the way, I have to say that so far I am really satisfied with working with the architect. He is flexible with appointments and very quick with implementing new drafts. I’ve heard that others have to wait weeks for new plans after change requests. He also points out problems, advantages, and disadvantages and asks whether we really want this or that, it’s not like he just approves everything we suggest.

We had already considered lowering the right garage (the neighbor did too)

The neighbor also built his basement as an underground garage. If you just want to lower a garage, it costs quite a bit, not to mention the structural and energy-related impacts on the house wall.
In principle, I think everything is okay so far. The only thing I really have to criticize is the size of the bathroom on the ground floor. With so much space, there has to be enough room for a comfortable bathroom (possibly with a shower) on the ground floor.

That will be a beautiful big house.... I still just hope you manage with the budget. You are surely aware that you have to calculate at least 5% of the house price as a buffer for unforeseen difficulties, right?!