Our floor plan design for an affordable house

Unfortunately, I can't get excited about the upper floor. At the top of the stairs, you run into a wall - boom - that's not impressive. On the other hand, a lot of space next to the stairs is wasted, which is missing in the children's rooms. The famous reading corner definitely won't work there either, because you would want peace and quiet for reading. It's too little for a play corridor, and the children would also be in the way. So it's basically just wasted space, which might be great in a villa but has no place in a compact house for 4 people.

I find the floor plan from #123 very well done. Compact, fulfills your wishes (for me it would also be too open). Everything accommodated. Thumbs up!

Thank you very much!

I find it rather normal to discard the floor plan frequently.

I agree.

The condensing boiler is about the size of a large refrigerator (drawn at the very bottom in the utility room), so it should fit.

Keep in mind that the boiler will not be mounted directly on the wall.

Right, in the attached floor plan the windows are now pretty much final. The views are still pending, I'll gladly upload them once we've finished crafting them. After much back and forth, we have now decided on external dimensions of 11.7 x 7.5 m.

I also really like the floor plan from #123! I find that "reading corner" on the upper floor really great, it must make a wonderful impression when you come upstairs! I also find the staircase starting from the living room super nice, it probably feels very open.
We have the staircase in the hallway, so separated from the living room, which certainly has its advantages, but sometimes I also wish I could go directly from the sofa to the stairs and go upstairs, that creates a nice connection to the upper floor.
In our case, the living area and the rest of the house are quite separated and the rest is therefore used less, so you did everything right with yours!

I also like the current floor plan best of your previous suggestions. Whether it will be a reading nook in the upper floor or a sewing spot, I would just decide spontaneously. My 3 boys loved it when I turned on the sewing machine – unfortunately back then still in the dining room. Their excited "renrenren" was always so sweet and everyone wanted to watch. The only downside was that I always had to clear the dining table again in the evening. Now I hardly sew anymore because the boys are long past the age where they wear self-sewn clothes. I even have a large workroom now, but thanks to 2 PCs with accessories, a piano, and bookshelves, there is unfortunately no space left. So years ago I would have wished for such a corner where something could be left lying around, and now I just carry everything to the dining table and back again when I sew or mend something for myself.

An idea for the stair railing. Instead of a banister in the upper floor hallway, we installed cabinets – with a baseboard 95 cm high and 50 cm deep. All the bed linen, towels, and supplies for the bathrooms are stored there. That saves space in the other rooms. Perhaps you could fit cabinets with a depth of 30 cm there. We have considerably more space than you do, but maybe you can still make use of the idea.

If the budget is tight, then the tips regarding "custom furniture" etc. only help to a limited extent

Here again, it is a matter of creativity. Those who go to the carpenter with "custom furniture" buy at somewhat different prices than at Ikea. However, furniture such as cabinets, dressers, shelves can also be built by yourself or even more simply installed (apparently there is some craftsmanship). Furthermore, other countries have different standards and dimensions. Looking beyond the horizon there provides new options than the "always the same" furniture of the "always the same" manufacturers in the "always similar" furniture stores. For example, with upholstered goods. Some ready-made furniture can be modified in size with manageable effort. I have, among other things, reduced the width of Pax cabinets. Nobody notices. Those who have ideas, tools and their own or access to craftsmanship also have access to individual, suitable, inexpensive solutions.