Is floor plan design of the ground floor that meaningful?

Since I received such quick constructive answers in the financing thread, I hope to get some helpful improvement suggestions here as well. First, the parameters:

Size of the plot: 800 sqm (32 meters long on the street side, 25 meters wide
Slope: No
Floor area ratio: 0.4
Plot ratio: 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: Building window is approx. 18x18 meters
Edge development: possible according to the Building Code
Number of parking spaces: 4, 2 covered
Number of floors: 2 full floors, attic without knee wall
: gable roof, 38-45 degrees, here is our deviation in that we only want 28 degrees. In the area there are now some houses with different roof pitches and partly also hip roofs
Style: not specified
Orientation: ridge direction specified
Maximum heights/limits: eaves height max. 6.10 m
Further requirements: roof overhangs 0.4 verge and 0.5 eaves
- Terrace max. 1/3 covered
- No walls and fences on concrete base, max. 1 meter high
- and some other minor things, which are rather standard

Owners’ requirements
- Style, roof type, building type: classic single-family house
- , floors: no basement, 2 full floors
- Number of people, age: 4, 31/30/3/1
- Room requirements on ground floor, upper floor:
GF: living-cooking-dining area, bathroom with shower, small office also as emergency guest room, pantry, pure technical room without washing machine and dryer etc.
UF: 2 children’s rooms, bedroom with dressing room, master bathroom, utility room
Attic: planned uninsulated, initially only for temperature-insensitive storage
- Office: family use
- Overnight guests per year: not yet assessable, probably 5x/year
- open architecture, classic as specified by development plan
- open , with peninsula
- Number of dining seats: at larger celebrations we can have up to 16 people, but it can be a bit tight then.
Fireplace: is desired, planned without water heating. Is a fireplace allowed so close to a door?
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double carport
Vegetable garden, greenhouse: yes but only later
Further wishes/special features/daily routine:
We have heard so many different opinions about shading systems and roller shutters. Faction 1 says that in bedrooms it’s better to use roller shutters for darkening, faction 2 believes that with modern shading systems almost complete darkening is possible. It does not have to be completely dark for us, as we currently have round skylights in the bedrooms that we cannot darken.
House design
Who created the design:
The floor plan was a standard plan that I adapted a bit myself and the vendor of the company then implemented it with some changes so that it also works technically
What do you particularly like? Why?
The arrangement of rooms is ideal for us, especially the upper floor.
Placement of technical rooms and bathrooms makes sense.
Living room and children’s rooms face south
Sufficient storage options
What don’t you like? Why?
- Entrance area, little space for shoes etc.
- TV wall in the living room very narrow, view from the hallway directly onto the couch, or in front of the TV you look directly at the door and I am not sure if that contributes to coziness. It could only be solved differently if kitchen and living room are swapped, but then the pantry location no longer makes sense
- Price estimate according to architect/planner:
- 383,000, exact offer is available
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: 390,000, preferably less and more buffer for outdoor facilities etc.
Preferred heating technology: It would be nice to have a ground source heat pump but financially not feasible, currently a normal air-water heat pump is offered
- Photovoltaics are at least prepared but not yet included in calculation

If you have to do without, which details/extensions
- can you do without:
- Fireplace is rather luxury, but a big wish of my wife
- Bay window would also be conceivable and then possibly plan a space-saving staircase to maybe generate a bit more space in the living area.
- Pantry removal would really only make sense if storage space is created elsewhere but at the same time more living space is created
- Replace the lift-and-slide door in the living room with a normal swing door, but then the space to the dining area is too tight.
- cannot do without:
- Room program
- everything that is now standard.

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
Do you see any potential to save some “dead” square meters and could the living area be designed better to solve the problems mentioned above?

I would definitely remove the second door in the pantry; in the current layout, it takes up a lot of storage space. Then reduce the size of the pantry a bit and add the gained 1.5 square meters to the hallway, which would largely solve the hallway problem. Is the dressing room very important to you? Our bedroom is also just over 12 sqm, which is enough for sleeping and dressing – for us, that is! Personally, I would also find the bathroom on the ground floor too small. I would enlarge it by allocating part of the utility room to the bathroom, switch the utility room into the office on the ground floor, and move the office upstairs into the dressing room. Then you could also somewhat “optimize space” in the entrance area. Could the utility room perhaps be relocated to the outdoor area with a small extension or the garage? That would help tremendously. Our neighbors, for example, implemented that very well. It is questionable whether the current utility room with just over 5 sqm is sufficient to house all the technology (keep in mind the future photovoltaic system!).

All in all, not a bad floor plan and quite efficiently designed. But keep in mind that if you want to spend your retirement in the house, climbing stairs will become increasingly difficult, so the focus of living shifts to the ground floor. Can you create a sleeping area with a drywall partition? Is the bathroom/toilet then suitable for permanent use? This is thinking very far ahead, but the time will come, and it pays off to have considered it. Of course, there is also a stairlift ;-)

My chimney sweep gave me a guideline where all the distances are described. I do not know whether every federal state regulates this differently. I’m attaching some photos, maybe they help. In case of doubt, I would contact the district chimney sweep.

Edit:

Make the topic of venetian blinds dependent on the (end) costs; possibly this discussion will become unnecessary after a few sampling appointments. Special venetian blinds can darken almost just as well, however, I would argue that roller shutters are less prone to errors due to their design and thus also have a longer lifespan with lower maintenance/care effort.

I find the utility room with 5 sqm somewhat small. I have about 10 sqm utility room myself, it shouldn't have been smaller. Instead, slightly enlarge the guest WC, move the utility room into the study as already mentioned, and use the space gained at the entrance as a spacious wardrobe corner. And save the pantry door from the hallway. This way, a shelf can still be nicely extended around the corner at the back.

The budget will not be sufficient. You are calculating with construction costs of 2,500€/sqm.

Thanks first of all for the input. I roughly changed it as you said and then find the entrance area and the living room much nicer. With the fireplace, one would then have to see if it can also find another place. I just don’t see any way to fit the small guest room/office upstairs like this. We are planning upstairs with a separate storage room where the washing machine, dryer, iron, and some storage space should be, so I had hoped to fit everything into the 5 sqm. A colleague of mine has a similarly small technical room including photovoltaic, storage, heat pump, it’s not spacious but everything has its place. I have already been made aware of the price, but presumably it is somewhat more possible in the East of the country to get under 3000€/sqm. I already have a written offer.