Our floor plan design for an affordable house

About the storage space

The storage space in your draft is very limited and has quite radical consequences for dealing with consumption. You really have to want and implement that. It’s not easy with small children in the house.

You said that nicely and that's exactly how it is: We are definitely low consumers and buyers. We like to live a bit more simply. I don’t find that radical... as a big city dweller, that’s basically the norm. The children’s toys are manageable; both kids currently fit quite well in a 15m² room in our apartment. I know several families in Berlin who live even more reduced and manage with even less space (alone 3 families with two children each, living in about 55-75 m² and not thinking of moving). We don’t keep extreme stocks, not even of drinks. Five packs of juice stored, the rest is at the Rewe 8 minutes on foot from the property. Otherwise, there’s water from the tap. I do imagine having a shelf in the utility room where I can put some homemade jams. Of course, it’s clear that our apartment life is not directly transferable to life in a house. Surely we will accumulate more stuff, especially I see tools, garden equipment, and utensils that help maintain the house and property. That can be well stored in a shed. So we deliberately plan the storage space to be quite slim.

What strikes me extremely: you present your needs as your family’s. Is that 100% true? In your first post it just says 4 heads, not how old the kids are... with this extreme openness you might possibly be imposing your ideas on your children? That’s okay, you’re paying for the house, not the kids. But maybe as a teenager you want to quietly play games downstairs on the PC while you watch TV on the sofa, you disturb each other just like when he/she wants to Skype with the vacation fling and mom hears everything.
I just want to point out that even in “we want everything open, we love each other so much, we are a family, etc...” - people like you, there might be family members who want a retreat once in a while, independent of the kids’ bedrooms.
I find ’s floor plan better. You can open/leave open a door, but you cannot close one that doesn’t exist.

Ah, our children are currently 6 and 3 years old. So they really don’t have a strong opinion on the whole topic yet. But privacy is already quite important to them. I first suggested to them, as friends of ours have in their new house, to plan a large children’s room where we could later insert a partition wall. But they immediately said clearly they want their own rooms. They’ll get that, no problem at all. Ultimately, the children’s room is a child’s realm, their retreat. Like , I have the experience that gaming takes place there. Especially since, to me, the family PC seems somewhat outdated in times of smartphones and tablets anyway. So for us, an open floor plan really isn’t an option, because personal preferences are indeed very, very different. As for the needs of me and my partner, that gets more interesting, because of course we don’t always agree either. I wouldn’t need a whole wall for TV and speakers in the living room ( , that’s why the couch is turned that way; where do you have your TV?), but the corner for sewing is rather unimportant to him...

Well, not everyone can build 200m². The plot is bought and more is simply not possible now. So you have to make the best of it. Garden sheds can really ease the situation and can be erected quickly. Otherwise, you have to pull yourself together.

The house shape may be original, but there is a reason why this is not a standard. The rooms partly have unfortunate depths, are poorly laid out and uncomfortable. That happens when you optimize only one level and then press the rest into the corset.

A ceiling height of 2.84m is, in my opinion, nonsense for this house size. You should forget about that. Or do you want to turn it into a church? Whoever builds cheaply, small and with 2 children does not have room for a 5m staircase with gallery or open space. Every centimeter counts here. And falling down the stairs with 2 kids is particularly bad.

Here is a draft with 2.70m ceiling height and the same square footage:

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How good are you at roof construction? If you really do that yourselves, you could plan a small annex for the technology on the ground floor to gain more space. Roof then as a carport extension as an attached shed roof. That should be easy for you.

Thank you for your suggestions and support. I have to say, I like your floor plan, the living area is still nicely open, yet it is straightforward. You’re right, I just thought about the budget again and looked at the calculation and was horrified to realize that at one point we embarrassingly miscalculated badly, a really stupid mistake, and the whole thing according to the current plan costs €20,000 more, putting us at €235,000... with price increases and the usual percentage buffer that is unfortunately hardly realistic anymore. The family council will meet tonight about this, but the house will probably have to become significantly smaller and simpler. Ceiling height is off the table, staircase as you say more efficient... let’s see. If all else fails, a semi-detached house development on the plot is also possible, then we would have to sell half...

I wouldn't need a complete wall for the TV and speakers in the living room ( , that's the reason why the couch is positioned like that; where do you have your TV?)

We thought about it for a long time and then decided on a corner sofa, with one section in front of (your) window and the other along the opposite exterior wall. Through the second section you can (partially) still look outside. I would have liked to have a free window as well, but then I would have had to place the couch like you or forego a lot of furniture for TV etc., which you also need. We don't have an open wall to the office either; ours is closed and that's where the TV, shelves, and even the fireplace are. Because of the way our sofa is positioned, we can also easily look at the fireplace. But yes, with your open floor plan you are of course limited in space to place furniture, there probably really is no alternative. I just wanted to mention it.

My wife is very consistent when it comes to the children's TV consumption (no TV during the week). This currently leads to occasional friction when I want to watch TV in the living room and the children are sitting at the dining table in the evening. Just speaking from current practice.

Just from practical experience, the TV stays off when child/children are present. They are not allowed, but adults are allowed.

(the first thing we did in our rental apartment was to take the door off the kitchen)

I just want to point out that even among "we want everything open, we love each other so much, we are family, etc..." people like you, there might be family members who "sometimes" want a retreat, regardless of the kids’ room.

You, I also like openness. We have an open hallway, an open living room ceiling, a gallery. Basically, three-quarters of the ground floor is open.
However, it’s annoying when I have my card night or my husband wants to watch soccer. We’re not really the Tupperware women / men’s night types, fortunately. But it does annoy one if the other is doing his workout with loud music. We often coordinate like "I’m going cycling now, you can do kickboxing then," etc. But what do you do? What do you do as a family of four when the kids in their teenage years want to bake pizza with friends? Undisturbed? "Mom, keep it down and close the door" doesn’t work. Mom doesn’t know where to go either, except the bedroom. Does your husband feel like coming home and seeing strange kids sitting on the sofa? Where does he go then? To the PC.., yeah, great... right next to the sofa. The men’s group doesn’t even come because the woman upstairs sewing or in the kitchen (listening) simply disturbs. You will inevitably get on each other’s nerves because there isn’t this privacy except in the bedroom. An open kitchen should not be underestimated. And a PC workspace neither. Official home office is not possible. Not even in 10 years,
And that it’s actually more than just a jam jar that needs to be stored is self-explanatory. I myself have two moving boxes! just with empty canning jars so that I can even preserve. And you don’t want to know where the boxes have already been shoved because they’re just there. In the apartment, they didn’t exist. There were many things that we now have to keep because of the house. It starts at 19 liters of Corona water as an emergency reserve, ends at replacement filters.

And that it is indeed a bit more than a jam jar that needs to be accommodated is self-evident....It starts with 19 liters of Corona water as an emergency reserve, ends with replacement filters.

Honey, go ahead and unpack your list.

... I just thought about the budget again and looked at the calculation and was horrified to realize that we embarrassingly miscalculated at one point, a really stupid mistake, and the whole thing according to the current plan costs 20,000 € more, which would put us at 235,000 €...with price increases, the usual percent buffer then unfortunately hardly realistic anymore. The family council will meet about it tonight, but the house will probably have to be much smaller and simpler. Ceiling height canceled, staircase more efficient as you say...let’s see. If everything fails, a semi-detached house on the plot is also possible, then we would have to sell half...

That doesn’t sound good. How are the access roads to the plot? Would a division for 2 single-family homes be possible? Even smaller – then you really have to cut radically. The office corner would go, I’d say.