Planning/Floor plan single-family house (approx. 140 sqm, basement, ground floor, attic)

What do you have to store away? A basement is fundamentally useful, but not if it comes at the expense of living space. Extending the house by 1.5 meters immediately adds 30m³ of living space. You can fit quite a lot in there. Plus, you save yourself a staircase. Today's building technology hardly makes any noise or mess anyway, and it doesn't take up much space. I have a basement, but I’m also trying to convince my wife that the washing machine belongs on the upper floor (where there is room for it). This would save a lot of stair climbing and has only advantages. Usually, you don’t run it at night. Then arguments arise like "it makes noise," "it looks ugly," "if it leaks, the whole house floods," "it makes dirt," etc., until finally the statement comes: "The washing machine belongs in the basement!" But then they want a laundry chute so you don’t always have to carry the baskets down to the basement.

Long story short: things used to be different, but today you have completely different possibilities and sometimes you just have to free yourself from old structures to come to much better solutions.

Hi bibo,

since we don’t have the biggest plot, it’s not so easy to simply make the house 1.5 meters bigger. You still want a small garden to play in and so on.

You can also, for example, put sweaty sports clothes by the washing machine in the basement until the next laundry without it starting to smell too much in the living area.
The garden furniture would also be stored in the basement for the winter etc.
We will definitely have it offered to us, and if it is financially doable, we would like to have a basement.

We have thought over your suggestions and comments again and have revised the floor plan.

Unfortunately, I can only give you our rough hand drawing with which we went to the building planner (BU). We will only get a properly drawn one later, but in principle everything should be recognizable. The scale is set to 1:100. The views are... well... drawing first grade primary school level, but I can’t do better.

We will now also go for 2 full floors. Thanks again to ktb09.

We have now connected the house entrance and the garage, so there is only one entrance and one path through the house. In this entrance area, we have planned a wardrobe.
The staircase still has landings but in a different design. In our opinion, this shape fits the house better because it extends more in width and doesn’t protrude too much into the house. Otherwise, we have now given up the storage room on the ground floor because the kitchen has become larger and we have now planned a wardrobe in the entrance area. As a result, the living/dining area has become a bit more spacious.

Upstairs, the walk-in closet is now a bit bigger and also usable, the kids’ rooms a bit smaller, and the bathroom hopefully feasible like this or something similar.

Could you please take a look at the drawings and possibly give feedback in advance before the BU turns these into a plan?

Thanks a lot in advance

If the garage here is edge development, it can happen that it is not approved because the garage is not independent. That has something to do with the setback areas. We just had a thread in the last few days where the OP asked whether it can be understood that the building authority did not give approval. Just as information. Please search for the thread! As I understood it, it would be possible if the corner in the garage belongs to the living area, i.e. separated from the garage.

The thread also immediately came to mind. And, I would do without the direct door into the garage. That also gives more parking space in the garage (bicycles, etc.). You are connected by the extended roof anyway, so no one has to get wet when coming out of the garage.

Basically, I find the floor plan much better. I also like platform stairs. But I fear that when drawing it accurately, it might get a bit tight in one or two places.

I know you want the bay window as a design element ... however, instead of the bay window, which doesn’t really have much use here, I would rather pull the entire house wall out by 30 to 40 cm. That could also provide the crucial centimeters for the bathroom/child 2 doors upstairs. And the kitchen would also benefit from it.

You can then also design the facade with color or material.

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What else I noticed, the whole thing is around 19 to 20 meters wide ... what are the plot dimensions?

So there are almost worlds apart. And very nice to look at.

What I would still like to point out is absolutely no storage space for vacuum cleaners, drink crates, etc. Everything has to be brought up from the basement.

If everything is drawn in cleanly, it could get tight in some places; consider extending the front extension plan on the left. This way you could gain a lot of space in the dining room. The children's room above would benefit and you could enlarge the bathroom.

The thread immediately came to my mind as well. And, I would skip the direct door into the garage. That also gives more parking space in the garage (bicycles, etc.). You are connected by the extended roof anyway, so no one has to get wet when coming out of the garage.

We find the direct door to the garage quite practical, but of course you are right, without it there would be even more parking space, both in the garage and in the cloakroom. We still need to think about it. It's already considerably more cloakroom space than in the first draft.

Basically, I find the floor plan much better. I also like half-landing stairs . But I fear it could get a bit tight in one or two spots when drawn accurately.

Yes, I think a few centimeters are missing in width, but the planner has to put some effort into our structural design. But I think they should be able to find some space somewhere.

I know you want the bay window as a design element... however, instead of a bay window—which doesn’t really have a real benefit here—I would rather extend the entire house wall by 30 to 40 cm. That could also provide the crucial centimeters upstairs for the bathroom/child 2 doors. And the kitchen would benefit, too.

You can also design the facade with color or material.

That's worth considering if necessary, but if possible we would still like to have a bay window. We like the look from the outside and it’s something different. Many new houses are otherwise just rectangular. We don’t want much more living space overall either. Around 140 - 145 sqm is completely enough for us.

What I also noticed: the whole thing will be around 19 to 20 meters wide... what are the plot dimensions?

Thanks for the hint. I measured and visited the plot, it should just barely fit. But we will have to have it properly drawn to scale.

Well, there are almost worlds apart here. And very nice to look at.

What I want to point out, though: absolutely no storage space for vacuum cleaners, beverage crates, etc. Everything has to be fetched from the basement.

If everything is purely drawn, it might get tight in some places; consider extending the left front extension plan. That way you could gain a lot of space in the dining room. The child’s room above would benefit and you could enlarge the bathroom.

Thank you for your suggestions. We have already thought about a storage place for the vacuum cleaner and cleaning supplies, etc. But should we really squeeze in a storage room just for that? Luckily, our Vorwerk vacuum cleaner isn’t that big, so it could also fit relatively space-saving in a cabinet in the cloakroom, possibly in the WC/shower or in a cabinet by the stairs.
We usually keep beverage crates in the basement anyway and only carry up one crate when we need something. We’re used to that and a nice staircase makes it quite pleasant to do.

We find the dining room already fairly generous and as I said, we don’t actually want to exceed 140 - 145 sqm much. But you are right, a couple of corners are drawn quite tight; I’m curious how the structural engineer will implement it in the final drawing.

I will gladly present the drawn plan to you then.

... we would really like to have a bay window. We like the look from the outside and it’s something different. Many new houses are otherwise just rectangular.

Uh, that’s exactly not true; as has already been nicely said here: why do houses all have to have such warts nowadays?
A bay window is currently trendy and I feel like all houses have to get a bay window no matter what, whether it makes sense or not.
A bay window can be a great design element, but it should never be pointless, meaning it should also bring an advantage for living itself. That’s not the case here, so: either design it so that it can really be used, or leave it out. Saves costs and energy.
Design-wise, you can do a lot without a bay window to keep the house from being "boring," whether it’s a wooden element, playing with color a bit, or an interestingly designed canopy—there are many (and cheaper and more energy-efficient) options. Don’t cling so much to this "wart."