Our floor plan - Please give your opinions

Hello everyone,

as "threatened" in the introduction thread, I would like to present to you here the current status of our floor plan. We are relatively satisfied. Only a few adjustments are to be made on the upper floor. More on that below.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 660sqm
Slope: No
Site occupancy index: 0.35
Floor space index: n.a.
Building window, building line and boundary: Free, only 3m around
Edge development: Garage 9m
Number of parking spaces: 2 independently accessible
Number of floors: 1 (1.5)
Roof shape: SD, WD 30-45°, PD 10-22°
Style: Free
Orientation: Main ridge direction parallel or 90° to the access road
Maximum heights/limits: FH max. 9m
Further specifications

Requirements of the builders
Style, roof shape, building type
Basement, floors: No basement, 1.5 floors
Number of people, age: 25, 26 – 2 children planned
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor: see floor plan
Office: family use or home office?: No
Overnight guests per year: No separate guest room necessary
Open or closed architecture: Open
Conservative or modern construction: Modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Open kitchen, island not a must
Number of dining places: 4-6, for parties 10-12
Fireplace: Yes, does not have to be built immediately
Music/stereo wall:
Balcony, roof terrace: For now no
Garage, carport: Double garage
Utility garden, greenhouse: Only for small things, nice to have
Further wishes/special features/routine

House design
Who designed it: Preliminary draft submitted to architect -> architect
What do you particularly like?: Floor plan is, from our point of view, already quite perfect
What do you not like? Windows on the upper floor currently without shutters. Might become too low for us? We cannot yet reconcile with the windows below the gable. These would become even smaller with shutters.
Price estimate according to architect/planner:
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment:
Preferred heating technology: Not yet determined. Geothermal is probably ruled out for cost reasons. For air-water heat pump I do not want an outdoor unit. Therefore, gas with solar + central controlled residential ventilation for energy saving ordinance is most likely.

- All doors are planned at 1m
- Ground floor: A fireplace should still be provided in the living room. We would like to place it on the right-hand wall of the living/dining room. Since we do not like a freestanding chimney on the flat roof, it will end up on the bottom wall in the plan. Here we are still considering whether to leave the windows on this wall as in the plan and place the fireplace in the middle or place a double-wing window in the middle and the fireplace in one of the corners.
- Ground floor: The kitchen island will not extend all the way to the wall
- Upper floor: The roof shape is not yet fixed. As already mentioned above, the window planning is still unfortunate. Our architect is currently checking whether it can be better implemented with a different roof shape. It is important to us that at least the windows in the bedrooms can be darkened and access to the garage roof is possible. At some point, it might be possible to plan a kind of mini granny flat on the upper floor (e.g. for a parent who can no longer live alone)
- Upper floor: Since we still need some storage space, we want to move the bathroom to the right-hand wall. The space currently drawn for the bathroom could then be used as a storage room.

I look forward to your comments and hope that you can still give us valuable tips and ideas!

Best regards

Hi,

a quite interesting design, it’s something different... :-)

But I do notice that you have insanely large hallway areas. The numbers are hard to read but the impression arises that the design only offers relatively small real living spaces. For the house size, I simply find 13 sqm children's rooms too small. Also, despite the house size, there is no space for an office and guest room.

An open kitchen is a matter of taste, we currently have it and say: “Never again!”, yes, it looks nice, but it’s not practical for everyday life.

The way from the house entrance to the kitchen/pantry is forever long. And since you have to go completely through the living/dining room, you will first have to temporarily store everything in the hallway on bad weather days and then pick it up again and carry it into the kitchen.

I would leave out the window in the pantry. Otherwise, there is hardly any space left for shelves. I would also better leave out the window in the utility room. A heating system is not that nice to look at, that I would have to look at it from the outside.

In general, the house hardly has any storage areas, that would be a no-go for us. But it’s always a matter of personal preference.

You will probably want to take Venetian blinds in the living room, but what about the bedroom? Roller shutters are imperative there, but that looks only mediocre in combination with Venetian blinds. If necessary, I would also reduce the window areas in the bedroom. You basically only stay there to sleep (or in situations where you do not want spectators).

The ground floor bathroom is quite large, but has no bathtub????

As said, the children's rooms upstairs are too small. And again a 12 sqm bathroom but without a tub and this time only one sink? It says something about a gallery, but where is it? The windows in the children's rooms cannot be darkened like this, but that is a must! Bedrooms without roller shutters are a really bad idea. Unless you absolutely want your children to wake you up at 4:00 a.m. in summer ;-)

And the gable view does not fit the floor plan, the garage entrance door is missing in the floor plan.

Structurally, the house will probably also be a challenge because you have no load-bearing walls under the gable walls. That works, but it won’t be cheap either. If, for example, you make the wall between the ground floor bedroom and ground floor bathroom a load-bearing wall, the structure looks much friendlier right away.

Many greetings,

Andreas

Hello Andreas,
thank you very much for your detailed message!

es fällt mir aber auf, dass ihr irrsinnig große Flurflächen habt

Do you mean also on the ground floor? On the upper floor, as I wrote, the bathroom will be extended forward up to the staircase. In the rear room, a wall closet / storage room will be created.

Der Weg vom Hauseingang bis zur Küche/Speis ist ewig lang

Yes, unfortunately that’s true (but the kitchen island will not be extended up to the wall as drawn). At first, we wanted to plan the utility room / connection room directly next to the garage. But that did not work with the overall concept.
Do you have a suggestion?

Das Fenster im Vorratsraum würde ich weglassen

This is not final either. I could also imagine leaving out the wall between the utility room and pantry and installing a clerestory window.

Generell hat das Haus kaum Stauflächen

Yes, that’s why we are shifting the bathroom. Then we would still have the rooms utility room/pantry, dressing room, garage to store things.

Ihr werdet vermutlich im Wohnzimmer Raffstores nehmen

No, we are currently planning normal roller shutters everywhere.

Die Fenster in den Kinderzimmern sind so nicht zu verdunkeln

Also here we want roller shutters as written at the beginning. Maybe read it all again ;-)

Im OG sind wie gesagt die Kinderzimmer zu klein

Do you think so? Or only in relation to the rest? Are 10-15 sqm not standard?

Das EG Bad ist recht groß, hat aber keine Badewanne?

Yes, correct. Whether we will still shift the area of the master bedroom, bathroom and dressing room a bit is still open.
No bathtub because we haven’t used our current one for 5 years. We prefer to shower. For this reason, we would prefer an oversized shower. The positions in the bathroom will certainly still change somewhat.

For the bathroom upstairs, however, we would like to have a tub. Children, especially when they are still small, tend to be bathed.
-> But the situation of the bathroom upstairs is still open.

im Grundriss die Garageneingangstür

True. But that will be included ;-)

Statisch dürfte das Haus auch eine Herausforderung werden

The bedroom wall will probably be extended to the height of the living room’s outer wall and designed to be load-bearing.
In the living room, a beam will be inserted between the door to the living room and the outer wall. There was initially a piece of wall on the side of the living room door. We want to forego that. If we want to install a kind of room divider, we can do that. With a load-bearing wall, this freedom of choice would not exist.

Is there a reason why you are setting back the upper floor? Why the extension (corner in the house) of the bedroom in the basement? Wouldn't it be more sensible to build the upper floor right away and have all the living spaces upstairs? Or is it already intended as a senior living facility? The storage room would then only be accessible through the bathroom or directly from the hallway? The "gallery" is then basically the storage room? Should the staircase be open or closed? Basically on the left side of the plan an open area to the ground floor or will that be closed? Otherwise it might not be great acoustically if child 1 "lives" directly above the front door, meaning if the kids’ room door is ajar, you can hear the front door etc. through the open gallery.

The upper floor is only suitable as a children's floor or an office, but not for an aging parent - it is also not suitable for you, unless you want to sleep separately later on.

Therefore, I would extend the upper floor forward and build it larger, as this opens up more possibilities.

Is there a reason why you are setting back the upper floor? Why the extension (corner in the house) of the bedroom in the basement? Wouldn't it be more sensible to build the upper floor right away and have all the living spaces upstairs? Or is it already intended as a senior living facility?

We have set back the upper floor for aesthetic reasons and square meter reasons. We definitely want to live on just one level. Also with a view to later in old age. Since we want to have as much garden as possible, the idea came up to move the children's rooms with the children's bathroom into a small upper floor.

the floor is not suitable for you either

Do you think so? We have the next appointment with our architect soon. Until then, he also has the task of reconsidering the upper floor regarding usability, shutters. Possibly with a different roof shape? Do you perhaps have an idea about this? We are already over our limit in square meters. Therefore, a further enlargement is rather not an option.

Should the staircase be open or closed? Basically, on the plan on the left, open area to the ground floor or will it be closed? Otherwise, it might not be so good acoustically if Child 1 is "living" directly above the entrance door

Yes, the area above the front door is planned to be open. Thank you very much for the hint. We will think about it again!

Is there anything else? What do you like or dislike?