Our floor plan advantages / disadvantages?

Hello everyone,

this is our new, updated floor plan. We have already gathered feedback and partially implemented it. Now I wanted to ask a few builders or house residents if our floor plan has any disadvantages that we haven't thought of:

Ciao

Hi!

The ground floor is quite okay - you probably don't have many living room furniture pieces?

Since the cloakroom is hardly accessible when the front door is open, I would possibly swap it with the WC.

The kitchen should be furnished in an L-shape.

The upper floor is rather impractical. Lots of unused space, but no children's bathroom, and the "dressing room" is too small and not really separated.

Are the windows on the upper floor floor-to-ceiling? In our building area, 80% of all builders have that - and 100% would not repeat this mistake.

Unfortunately, the exterior views are missing.

Best regards, Tomtom.

Hello Tomtom,

We don’t have very many living room furniture pieces, that’s true. It was important to us to create a very spacious floor plan where not every square meter is filled with furniture. We like open spaces.

The idea with the coat rack is not a bad one. I will try that out. We are taking the kitchen from our old apartment. The kitchen window is floor-to-ceiling, so an L-shape is not possible. It’s the same in our current apartment and we like it.

We didn’t want a second bathroom upstairs. As you surely know, bathrooms require a lot of cleaning. I also had to share a bathroom with my parents, so it’s not a problem for us. The dressing area, which is actually just a hidden wardrobe, will be widened a bit. You can also use the large bedroom itself for dressing.

All windows upstairs and downstairs are floor-to-ceiling except for the toilet downstairs. There we only have a transom window. On the left side (west) there is a forest about 4 meters away, so we wanted to make the most of that view. And how could you do that better than with big windows? “Up” on the floor plan is the neighbor’s garden about 10 meters away. On the “right” another house will be built about 3 meters away, and “down” is the end of a dead-end street and across the street is another neighbor.

I would be interested in your experiences or those of your neighbors regarding the floor-to-ceiling windows. I find them very nice and bright, and if you fear being overlooked but still want light, pleated blinds are an option. Or just pulling the shutters down.

Best regards

EDIT: Unfortunately the exterior views have not yet been updated with this floor plan (but you can find our old ones on our blog).

Hello!

Bathrooms are not only very time-consuming to clean but also expensive. Nevertheless, based on previous experiences with 2 daughters and their friends in the upstairs area, we have created a "parents' area" with a bathroom, dressing room, and bedroom, separated by a small hallway.

The sound insulation is great, no embarrassing encounters, no borrowed blouses - and we do NOT clean the second bathroom. The dressing room is also pre-equipped for later use as a sauna!

The dressing room should always be separate - you don’t disturb your partner with light, etc., and unlike the bedroom, it is heated.

I don’t know for sure what experiences my neighbors have had with floor-to-ceiling windows. I just see that these are barricaded everywhere against being looked into - and then it’s not particularly bright anymore.

Our pleated blinds have not yet been delivered - but they don’t help much in the evening, do they? And unfortunately, blinds darken from top to bottom - first I can’t see anything anymore, then the others. Conclusion: We have opted against floor-to-ceiling windows in favor of privacy, window sills, usable space, cost, and energy efficiency - and are very satisfied.

Best regards,
Tomtom.

Hi,

so the kitchen would be too narrow for me. You are rebuilding and should then consider remodeling the kitchen or disposing of the old kitchen. No compromises in the floor plan design during the new construction.

Is it a hillside property? I only ask because of the lighting in the office in the basement.

Personally, I am never a fan of corners and edges. I prefer straight lines. The corner in the basement arises because of the stair arrangement and in the attic because of the arrangement of the children's rooms.

I would completely omit the dressing room and assign the space to the bedroom. Why a dressing room?

I am not sure if the solution with the windows in the corners is structurally unproblematic.

You should always fully furnish the rooms (to scale!) when designing, then you know if it fits or not.

Regards

Hello!

Ever had a walk-in closet?

We
- now have 8 running meters of storage space
- no longer have to open/close/pay for wardrobe doors
- never shiver while getting dressed
- no longer disturb the spouse (who might still want to sleep)
- always have a tidy bedroom
- will later build a sauna there when the kids have moved out

And honestly – you don’t always offer such a beautiful sight early in the morning when struggling into your socks!

Best regards,
Tomtom.