Please give an honest opinion about our floor plan!!

As a father of two children: which child gets which room? If 2 are there/planned, change it! If there is a basement, why a pantry? I have everything in the basement and that’s fine. I would definitely use that space for the kitchen and take it out of the living room. You’ve planned a show kitchen there. Do you cook as well? Will it always look like a SHOW kitchen and be tiptop tidy? I’m happy to be able to close my sliding door to the kitchen soon when I want to (wife is baking cake, dishwasher is running, guests are here, kitchen not tiptop....)

Hello, first of all, thank you very much. We currently have 1 child who gets the larger room :-) The other is planned at some point and will get the "smaller" one. We also reconsidered everything again yesterday but somehow it doesn’t work any other way. And would a child even notice if a children's room is 3 sqm smaller? Pantry: Well, does your wife go to the basement every time she needs something? Ok, the pantry is very, very big, that might change a bit and the office made a little bigger. But I would like to have everything in the pantry. That means vacuum cleaner, cleaning supplies, freezer, etc. That’s why I wanted a large pantry. Why a show kitchen? I don’t know if you can see it that way. On the side where you go into the pantry, the whole area is a complete wall cabinet... which means you also go through the cabinet into the pantry. So I have full storage compartments on that side. And the cooking island is there for cooking.

No idea how to edit.... two more points:

You can get shade for the terrace cheaper than through a balcony (just as a remark... If there is money and you like it that way, then go ahead).
And how your TV needs are, I don't know either.... 47 inches at 3 meters are just big enough for me. For you, it might be a few meters more...

Yes, the balcony is also somewhat for breaking up the house :-) The living room is about 6m long and the wall where the TV is, is 3m wide. I definitely wanted a large living room because that's where you mostly spend time with the children.

I can only agree with perlenmann regarding the comments on the kitchen. It probably looks great as you planned it, but in the long run totally impractical. Furthermore, what I miss in all planned houses and why many homeowners build a second time: What if your children move out someday? I could never rent out the upper floor in the current plan. I am also working on my own floor plans and I would design the rooms downstairs so that the office can become a bedroom in old age when not as much space is needed. A large living/dining room could be reduced in size (put up 2-3 walls) – connections should of course be laid during construction for a future bathroom. The staircase must be planned so that it can also be accessible to a tenant but integrated into the living area as long as it is not rented out (when the children live there for 20-25 years).

All of this is doable and definitely not to be neglected!!!

Thank you very much for your answer as well!! Well, I think we definitely will not rent it out later. And so we still have a grandchild’s room :-) Or also a guest room which we currently don’t have.

Thank you very much for your answers, I hope there will be more :-)

Of course, we reconsidered everything again yesterday and are still working on it, but as I said, it is not that easy at all. To be honest, I imagined it to be easier.

Best regards Vroni

Furthermore, what I miss in all the planned houses and why many homeowners build a second time: What if your children move out? I could never rent out the upper floor in the current planning.

Why should I, when I am older and the children have left the house, feel the need to have strangers living above me (noise) and limit myself to a tiny living room, etc.???

If the house is really too big for me in old age, then I would rather sell/rent the whole house and build myself a nice age-appropriate bungalow in a great location or rent a nice apartment...

Furthermore, many people have separate bedrooms in old age (so you already have a purpose for one of the children's rooms) and from time to time you have grandchildren, etc. visiting (2nd children's room = guest room) and if you have too much free time in retirement you might also find an additional hobby room, etc. useful.. :)

Sometimes it helps to start completely from scratch. Is this a drawing that was made with an architect? If not, you might want to invest a few euros. Considering the total cost of the project, it’s worth it. Our architect also really turned our idea upside down. And honestly, we have more space in 140 sqm than you do in a much larger house. (Schlafzimmer hat fast 20 qm und die Kinderzimmer je 18 qm. Badezimmer hat 10qm. Wohn-Esszimmer hat knapp 37qm und wir haben eine offene Küche mit 10qm und eine 2qm größe Speisekammer. Und neben all dem haben wir noch die gesamte Haustechnik (Wir bauen ohne Keller) im EG und sogar noch ein Gästezimmer mit 12 qm. Haus hat 1,5 Stockwerke und Kniestock 1,0m)