Opinions on the floor plan. Layout/children's room and children's bathroom?

Hello everyone,

we are planning the adventure of building a house next autumn. For this, we have now developed a floor plan with the architect and I would like to have your opinion on it. (The south side is at the bottom of the picture) We are particularly concerned about whether the 'children's bathroom' upstairs is necessary and sensible, or if it just unnecessarily consumes space and money. We simply lack experience here; we don't want to create rooms or entire areas of the house that stand empty after the child moves out.

I would be very grateful for suggestions and criticism.

Best regards

On the topic of the guest bathroom: certainly with two children and the larger master bathroom you could do without it, however, after moving out you would have a nice guest area with a separate shower toilet. Alternative: space for washer/dryer.

You seem to be planning with a basement?

Now fundamentally about the design. Fundamentally I like the design, but only fundamentally. You have a lot of traffic area, which is partly used by the office corner, but nevertheless I find many corners unnecessarily, e.g. the office corner in the bedroom, the pantry despite the utility room, the hallway in its unused size. On the other hand, the kitchen (the work area) feels very cramped and too tiny compared to the living and dining area. You will be running your feet sore with constant door opening and closing.
In my opinion, the way to the pantry is also too long from the kitchen. You will have to walk in a circle with 270 degrees through the hallway, and then back again.
Many doors are unnecessary: does the door to the living room and the door to the kitchen serve to close something off in the open? It is already separated there, but everything on the south side is open. Also, the door from the bedroom to the master bathroom is not necessary. Door to the basement stairs?
Instead of saving on the children's bathroom, you have much more saving potential elsewhere: the size of the house could certainly be reduced by about 10% without the traffic areas and storage options, without losses in spaciousness. Parents have nearly 30 sqm on the upper floor... normally one could manage with 12 sqm, yes, it does not have to be but 30? For 2 a single sink is enough, I question the external stairway to the basement because of the risk of construction defects (sooner or later water will be there), instead, a second exit directly next to the stairs in the north could be planned so that items from outside can be brought into the basement there.
Regarding the office corner: good idea, yet the person sitting there will not find peace to work.
What is the utility room on the ground floor used for? Is it not possibly superfluous or revisable with pantry and office?
Who will do the laundry? I already feel sorry for that person.

Hello, I also quite like the floor plan. I would leave the children's bathroom on the upper floor. However, I would remove the recess for the office cabinets. Otherwise, you can't even turn around in the bathroom. That would always annoy me when I’m standing inside. I would rather do without a window in the office. I also think the large bedroom with the gigantic walk-in closet is okay, well, I am a woman after all. However, I do wonder if a workspace is still needed there. Almost all the cabinets in the hallways are built-in cabinets. Do you actually want to buy all new furniture? We also planned the kitchen as a central meeting point in our house. We just find that brilliant. However, it is far too small for that. I would cut the pantry and cabinets in favor of a large open kitchen. You can also store bottles and canned goods in the utility room. I also don’t like exterior stairs. Are they necessary? Basically, you could throw everything overboard and ask yourself whether the office shouldn’t rather be placed instead of the utility room. The south side is actually the best side of the house. To “waste” it on a utility room is a bit of a sin, right? The utility room can be upstairs. Then the distance with the laundry from the bedroom/child is not so far anymore. Besides, you can then conveniently connect the bathrooms above to the utility room. Another option would be to enlarge the WC downstairs and put in a shower and a proper washbasin there. Then you could remove the small bathroom upstairs. I also don’t find this library thing in the hallway all that great; I would sacrifice it for an office and bathroom downstairs. So, now I’ve hopefully confused you enough. Best regards!

Oh, and what I forgot to mention, I wouldn’t put 2 doors in the bathroom. If you want to be alone on the throne, do you always have to lock 2 doors? It’s not a long way either left or right. Then I would also plan the WC directly at the back, so you don’t fall over the "throne occupant" if you suddenly rush into the bathroom.