Our first floor plan attempt. Do you have any tips?

Hello dear ones,
we are a German-American family with 3 small children.
Here you see our very first floor plan attempt.
We have not spoken to any architect yet, this is merely the base house from ProHaus that we chose (the exterior walls for it); the interior floor plan is completely our idea (just the first attempt).
"Upstairs" (so where the garden and bay window are) is west, right is north, down is east, left is south.
The garage stands on the property boundary (which is allowed).
Unfortunately, the program did not let me display the dimensions of the walls, but I can tell you that the house is 8.48m x 10.30m.
Knee wall height on the north and south sides is 1.60m.
The wall thicknesses as well as all furniture (except those in the utility room) are precisely measured and were entered accordingly (only unfortunately you can’t see it). The m2 numbers are correct.
At the stairs on the upper floor there is naturally no wall in front of the stairs. The program didn’t let me change this.
What absolutely must stay:
- no basement (decided after long discussions)
- another entrance through the garage (my American husband is to blame here).
- the stairs in the living area (we want to keep all the corridors as small as possible and just find it much cozier - certainly a matter of taste). The stairs are open, so there is space underneath for bookshelves etc.
- the glass bay window in the living room on the ground floor and it should have access to the garden.
- the gable sides toward the street and the garden (the community mandates this).
- all bedrooms on the upper floor (this is simply important to us as a family, we don’t want to be separated there).
- the rooms themselves (i.e. which rooms there are. Sizes and locations can of course be changed)
-- we need the 3 children's rooms. I know they are quite small, but we find it more important that each has their own retreat, especially as they grow older. Their children’s rooms now in our apartment are much smaller.
-- two bathrooms. We consider this sensible because eventually 5 people will need a bathroom at the same time. We don’t want a shower on the ground floor.
-- a bathroom and a dressing room that are only accessible from the master bedroom (again the American way).
- the master bedroom may remain quite small, maybe a little bigger, but not much. We only sleep there and do not value size. The main thing is the bed fits in.
- the storage room downstairs is intended for toy boxes etc., so there is more space in the children's rooms.
What we are not 100% happy with yet:
On the ground floor:
- my biggest problem: the utility room. 5.62 m2, isn’t that too little?
What must/should go in:
air heat pump, hot water tank, ion exchanger (so there is no lime in the water), dirty laundry basket, washing machine, dryer (if necessary stacked), if possible also a sink for dirty rubber boots etc. (since it is also our entrance). Is the space enough? If not, how can I improve it?
- Kitchen with 12.03 m2. Is that enough for 5 people? I mean, there is no wall between kitchen and living room, but isn’t that quite small? Or is it sufficient considering there is a pantry for supplies? The island must stay, here we are being American again.
- The bay window. Does it sit well in the "middle" of the living room? Or should I rather push it all the way to the left? (Although there is the decorative fireplace in the left corner). The door can be individually moved in the bay window, so it could also be positioned so you don't have to squeeze past the dining table - though honestly, that doesn’t bother us.
- I actually find the hallway still too big. (Not to the left towards the WC – there is the cloakroom – but rather the long one at the back towards the living room). What do you think?
On the upper floor:
- The children’s rooms. I don’t like the shifted wall in "Child 1." (For "Child 3" I find it okay, a wardrobe fits well here and saves space).
- Master bathroom. I would like about 9 m2. But how? The bathtub etc. is pushed away from the exterior wall because cabinets (so shelving) are supposed to be built into the wall and I have to build another wall. I can’t just do that in the exterior wall, or can I?
- Dressing room. I measured the dimensions (2.25m x 1.12m) today with the help of blankets on the floor and boxes as cabinets (Pax with 60 cm depth) and would still have a good 75cm passage. This is okay (obviously if I want to open a drawer I have to stand next to it – but I find that fine, I don’t want to live in there but just get my clothes in the morning) – but obviously I find bigger nicer.
Otherwise, I am completely open to completely new floor plans as long as the above key points can largely remain. I find everything still a bit convoluted and… somehow… full.
Some rooms are still too “corridor-like” or not really linear.
Do you have a better idea or a great solution? Good suggestions?
What doesn’t help me are people saying “everything is dumb” – what I rather need is someone telling me how to solve it better.

Our neighbors have 3 children’s rooms upstairs (I attached this as OG neighbors – unfortunately just quickly and messily drawn in Paint, of course all children’s rooms have a door to the corridor (also Child 2). Their master bedroom is too big for my taste but the bathroom and dressing room are nice and large. But how can I get the stairs into the middle without them being in the way on the ground floor?

Maybe someone of you is super creative and shows me completely new possibilities I haven’t even thought of yet or convinces me of something completely different?
I would be happy about that.

Many thanks and best regards,
Anya.

Dressing room. Today I measured the dimensions (2.25m x 1.12m) using blankets on the floor and boxes as wardrobes (PAX with 60 depth) and would still have a good 75cm clearance.

Hello Anya,
112 cm width of the dressing room minus 60 cm wardrobe depth leaves 52 cm as a walkway – you have drawn two wardrobes... Math is not really your thing, is it?
About 50 cm on the left and right of the bed?
The dining table also looks like a mini table to me...

This somehow runs through all rooms: an 8.50 x 10.30 meter house is not a space miracle.

Sorry, that’s not going to work, says Yvonne

Hi Yvonne,

sorry, I'm not quite sure why I wrote down the measurements for the dressing room so incorrectly. It was a long text.
The correct measurements are 2.25 m2 x 1.91, which means we have a 71cm passage. Please forgive me for the 4cm.
50cm on each side of the bed I find completely sufficient. We're not that wide.
The dining table has the actual measurements that our dining table has (as I wrote above, all the furniture has been measured). So far, the five of us have still had plenty of space to eat. And even for a longer table, there is still plenty of space in the bay window.

As I said, the wrong measurements for the dressing room were my mistake, otherwise I can't make much of your criticism, since it doesn't suggest a better option, but rather complains about the size of our dining table and my math skills (which, by the way, are better when not three children are running around me).

This is exactly what I meant by "everything sucks" — it doesn't help me much. You can say it, but please also provide a solution for how it could be better.

No hard feelings,
Anya.

A dimensioning of the floor plan would help.

If there is little space, you simply have to save ("Was unbedingt bleiben muss:" gilt nicht):
- I would keep the children's bathroom, it only takes up space.
- The utility room is too small, yes. 50% of it is still lost as circulation area. Remove the door to the garage.
- Remove the pantry.

Hello lastdrop.

Can you recommend a program where you can display the measurements?

- If I remove the pantry, won't the kitchen become too small? Is there a way to accommodate a smaller pantry somewhere? I don't need it that big.
- Utility room - do you mean there would be too little space to walk through? I only see room for one more appliance if I remove the door. Do you think that makes much of a difference?
- Assuming I remove the children's bathroom. How exactly does that create more space in the dressing room and bathroom? At the moment, I could only enlarge the children's room. And: How do I make the bathroom accessible to everyone then?

Best regards,
Anya.

Yes, dimensioning would be good (often you can activate this in a view menu of such programs... which program are you using?) and I agree with Yvonne, the space around the table is too small. The depth there should be at most 250 cm. For a well-usable dining table of 90 to 100 cm x 180 cm table size, you calculate about 300x350 cm for chairs and traffic area.

I also find the passage to the stairs upstairs too narrow.

If the available floor space is already limited, I wouldn't reduce it further in the technical room by adding an additional passage.

The storage room and pantry should better be combined.

The wardrobe for 5 people also seems too small to me... all shoes etc. have to fit there as well.

Why does it have to be an office?

The bedroom can be a maximum of 300 cm wide, right? If the mattress is 200 cm wide, then the bed is at least 210 cm wide. I really consider that too narrow. Also, the bedroom door opening outwards into the stairwell area doesn’t work either. Or do you want to install a glass door there ?

I consider 2 bathrooms quite reasonable for a family with 3 children, but a tub in the knee wall area of 160 cm as a shower replacement only works up to about 4th grade. If the children are older, you can’t even shower there. And in the parents’ bathroom, a double washbasin, corner bathtub, and all the rest, I also consider it over-dimensioned in terms of furnishings. I fear your house planning program draws furniture incorrectly visually, even if the dimensions are correct.

Is the house limited to these exterior dimensions?