Our floor plan is under discussion

Hello Climbee,
We had already played around with the entrance, but since the plot is quite narrow, that is suboptimal again. We would like to have two garages and as much garden as possible at the back...
The entrance would also be quite hidden...
And two parking spaces for the cars one behind the other... in principle, you always need the one that is parked at the back...
Therefore, we have a garage next to the house (border construction east) and a parking space on the street side. From the west, the house is hardly visible because there is a palisade there and also a somewhat overgrown fence in front of the house. Therefore, the driveway is also limited.

Best regards
Tanita

Oops, overlapped... I also think the window situation, as you (ypg) described it, should be sufficient, just additionally on the west side an extra one in the kitchen besides the large one in the dining room (so the herbs can grow too... The kitchen practically cries out for a wall of tall cabinets and an island... (although I don't want a stove on the island!)

So, I’ll try my first jpg upload:



I placed the garage and an additional carport on the street side. You could still push that all the way to the property boundary on the left according to the plan and basically create a forecourt (where, if necessary, a third car could stand when visitors come).

The entrance is now on the right according to the plan, and the rest is roughly sketched. But in this way, you can somewhat interrupt the "tube," there is enough useful area above for cars, bikes, etc., and since this is a long, narrow property, I find the idea of using the length for parking space very charming.

This is now roughly sketched because, unfortunately, there are no measurements on the site plan.

What I notice: the neighbor to the right is very close to the property boundary. Here I would definitely inquire about the required setback distances! I assumed 3m, but it could also be more if theirs is closer.
Then it would also be good to know how much boundary construction is allowed. So, can I, for example, build the garage fully with two sides on the property boundary?
I planned only a carport between the garage and the house because it takes less space and you get a passage to the other side of the garden. Also, you can still plan windows on the upper side of the plan, even if they look into the carport.

So, shift the whole house more toward the bottom of the plan (I assume that is south) and plan space above for garage, carport, possibly a garden house or similar, move the entrance downward, and especially open the house toward the front.

Tanita, quick question: do you two have a garden now?

You don’t have children, both probably working full-time?

I love gardening and now have a small garden in my rental apartment.

And I’ll tell you: in our house that we are planning, the garden will be as small as possible, because we hardly manage (at least not if you are very busy professionally) to maintain our current garden (and it really isn’t big) adequately.

Our plan: lots of terrace (with wood, so it doesn’t get too hot), the rest with river gravel (that’s from our home river and that’s where we want to get the stones from) with low-maintenance perennials.
Space for a raised bed (about 1.5 x 2m is enough for us) and possibly a small herb bed near the kitchen. If somewhere there’s still room for a small greenhouse, great. Another sunny spot for my tomatoes and my gardening ambitions are completely satisfied.

I never want again:
flower beds, larger lawn area, perennial beds or anything else that I have to maintain a lot.
I usually leave the house just after 6 a.m. and get home shortly before 7 p.m.

I find gardens beautiful, but the work is not compatible with my life situation.
I love my home-grown vegetables and with the raised bed I am sufficiently occupied.

Otherwise, we will design it to require as little work as possible.

I know many people who move from an apartment to a house and are riiiight excited about the garden. That’s a nice thing too. But it is also a lot, a whole lot of work. Many people who have lived without a garden so far don’t realize that.

Think carefully about what fits your life situation. If you are both declared garden freaks who like to devote a good part of their free time to the garden, then forget what I just wrote. Then it fits.
But if you don’t want your free time to be dictated by the needs of a garden (and it does, because there are tasks that MUST be done at certain times and weather situations that don’t leave you much choice. You have to go back after work, whether you feel like it or not. That’s why the weekend is planned, whether you would like to do something else or not), then think carefully about how you want to design it.
A big garden is nice, but it makes you its slave. If you like that, then that’s okay.

We have VERY consciously decided against it.

Hello Climbee,
Thank you for your comment! It is definitely true, gardening is a lot of work. But 434m² is also not too much, I would have preferred 600m² (but I understand!)
I currently have a large balcony (beans, tomatoes, etc. are also planted there...) and my partner has a small garden, I commute on weekends and we both work full time. So I know exactly what you mean!
But there won’t be much "garden" left either: the plot is about 30m long - 5m distance area - around 11m house - 2-3m terrace. If a little greenhouse is to be set up, some lawn "must" be there for my partner as well, there isn’t much left for herbs, fruit trees, some vegetables and (really also last) flowers...
Estimated about 8-10m + terrace we already have at my partner’s as well (but narrower) and that is really little!

30m long? That's quite long. All the more reason to put the garage + carport and house in a row rather than side by side!

5m clearance? Around the house on every side, or how is that meant?
With 434sqm and 30m length, I come to a width of about 14m.
With 3m clearance on each side, the discussed 8m remains for the house. And as I said, I'm still not quite sure if that also applies on the side with the neighboring house.

Then calculate 11m house, about 7m garage and carport (that's generous, it can also be a bit tighter), that's 18m.

You still have 12m garden in front, that's not a small garden!
14x12=168sqm. Just in front!
A comfortable terrace in front with 5m (5*10m = 50sqm terrace should be enough, the terrace is a bit wider than the house).
There are still 118sqm pure garden left.

Trust me: That's enough to stress you out.