Please look critically at our floor plan draft

Hello dear house builders,

we would gladly benefit from your experience and would be happy if you critically questioned our floor plan draft. Attached are the pictures.

We recently found a plot of land and started planning. In terms of house shape and design, I fell in love with a house from Kitzlinger (reference house Erkenbrechtsweiler). This Cape Cod in sandalwood or cappuccino color just looks great, I think, and goes perfectly with white. Using a freeware program, I copied the exterior dimensions and rearranged the interior walls and staircase entirely to our taste. So it is only an amateur’s draft. But of course I copied as much as possible from other floor plans.

The ideas behind it:
- We prefer a straight staircase even though it takes up a lot of space. But it’s not a must-have.
- The office/guest room (northwest) should be on the ground floor because my wife needs it for work and also likes to occasionally take documents into the living room.
- The idea with the separable kitchen: an open kitchen is great. But we would like the possibility to close it. If you look closely, I left a gap in the wall between the pantry and the kitchen. There you could install a thin, light partition as a sliding element that would allow the kitchen to be completely separated from the living room. I know that would be 4 meters. Such a long sliding door is a custom-made item and the question is whether it can even be built.

Other:
- KFW 55
- Solid house with bricks (then probably the wall thicknesses in the floor plan are not correct)
- Air-to-water heat pump with underfloor heating

Best regards

Hello!

Please fill out the pinned questionnaire in this subforum, thank you.

Regards, Yvonne

A quick initial assessment: Has the plot already been purchased? The development plan looks like it allows for two-story building, the house does not. With its length plus garage - it could be tight on a plot narrower than 20 meters.

Living room dimensions do not match the photos. In the photo, the living room is at least 5 meters wide.

I like the house aside from that. The staircase is planned too short. How long it needs to be is also pinned at the top. I find the island too short. It is immediately noticeable that you have not drawn in any real furniture, at least they are planned very tight: 50 cm cabinets, 160 cm bed, which is somewhat short. You will probably not achieve the effect in the dormer with your double bed, unfortunately. Hallway as big as the children's room seems disproportionate to me. Expensive address - how much is the little house supposed to cost?

Best regards, Yvonne

In terms of house shape and design, I fell in love with a house by Kitzlinger (reference house Erkenbrechtsweiler). [...] I copied the exterior dimensions and rearranged the interior walls and staircase entirely according to our taste.

Well, this probably helps amateur planners to create a visually well-structured house, instead of ending up with a seventeen-sided floor plan after combining the rooms.

Nevertheless, I would rather develop a floor plan based on needs than backwards from the exterior (which even advanced planners do not always manage, but they usually work forwards).

So it is only an amateur's draft. But of course, I copied from other floor plans as much as possible.

For that, you are an expert in "yourself and your family," and you will "copy" the needs of these persons better than existing houses. But for the approach, the result is quite respectable.

- Solid house made of bricks (then the wall thicknesses in the floor plan are probably not correct)

The wall thickness of 35 cm for the exterior wall in your plans is not that far from the 36.5 cm in reality. Does "solid house made of bricks" mean what I fear?

There are certainly reasonable reasons for different construction methods, but also plenty of "myths in bags." "Solid" is repeatedly romantically associated with higher solidity and durability, whereas the reverse usually results in "slander" against other construction methods. And the brick is also often a romantically glorified nutritional king among the materials you can bake houses from.

A stone is a stone. Yes, there are differences – but they do not justify the angelic chants or hate speeches surrounding them. Once you have found a competent builder, you shouldn't try to test him with the Gretchen question. If the suitable processor is more experienced with X, you shouldn't have him build with Y.

I will try to answer the questionnaire at the end. But first, to the direct questions:

:
The plot has not been purchased yet. It is about 21m wide. 600 sqm in size. But true, with the double garage it gets quite wide.
What makes you think the living room is more than 5m wide in the picture? I thought it should fit.
True, the staircase is probably too short. Hmm, that’s difficult now.
I naively took the furniture straight from the program. I was inaccurate here.
What do you estimate something like this should cost?

:
What do you fear about "solid house with bricks"?
I didn't want to start a fundamental discussion about solid house or prefab house. My wife would like a solid house because of the cold storage capability in summer. I would prefer a wooden house (prefab wood frame construction), but my wife always finds such houses oppressive/stuffy. As the saying goes "Happy Wife, happy life" she wins. Bricks are also okay for me. Our favored builder also likes to work with them.

Now to the questionnaire:

Development plan/restrictions:
Plot size: 600 sqm
Slope: Yes, sloping south. Should be leveled like the neighboring houses.
Site coverage ratio: see attachment
Floor area ratio: see attachment
Building window, building line and boundary: see attachment
Edge development: see attachment
Number of parking spaces: for 2 cars
Number of stories: 2 possible
Roof shape: preferably gable roof with dormer
Style: country house
Orientation: south, slightly west
Maximum heights/limits: total height max. 518.80
Further requirements: not known

Client requirements:
Style, roof shape, building type: modern country house style, gable roof, single-family house
Basement, floors: Yes, 2
Number of persons, age: 2, approx. 30
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor: total 150 sqm without basement
Office: family use or home office? Home office
Guests per year: 4
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction: conservative
Open kitchen, cooking island: Yes, but we are trying to make it separable
Number of dining seats: 4-8
Fireplace: Would certainly be nice, but not a must-have
Music/stereo wall: yes
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: 2 cars should be under roof, so either double garage or garage+carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: no

House design
Who planned it: so far do-it-yourself
What do you particularly like? Why?:
- I like symmetry. The windows should definitely be symmetrical from the outside. Also inside as much as possible.
- We like the straight staircase because it looks spacious and open. You can look up from the cloakroom or the other way around. We like the airy feeling and somewhat higher ceilings.
- We need the office on the ground floor because the office work tends to move to the living room otherwise.
- We like the large pantry

What don’t you like? Why?
- We don’t like the roof slopes if they are too pronounced at the edge of the house. That is why we originally thought of a city house with a hip roof.

Price estimate according to architect/planner: There is no price estimate yet
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: 333k
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump

If you have to give up, on which details/extensions
-can you give up: the second bathroom, the double garage, the dressing room, possibly also the straight staircase
-can you not give up: office/guest room

Why did the design turn out as it is now?
A mixture of many examples from various magazines...

How do you determine that the living room is more than 5m wide in the picture? I thought it should fit.

my trained eye I wrote at least 5 meters, not more than...

I would prefer a wooden house (prefabricated house with timber frame construction), but my wife always finds such houses oppressive / stuffy.

That is because many (or in the past) have dispensed with a ventilation system (have dispensed).
Especially the first energy saving ordinance houses as prefabricated buildings without controlled residential ventilation feel stuffy because hardly any air exchange takes place (except when airing)
Nowadays this also applies to solid houses, since they have to be built according to the energy saving ordinance. Therefore, this argument is outdated. However, you should definitely install a ventilation system, not only because your wife is sensitive to stuffy air. But there are enough posts on this topic in this forum and it should not be the topic here.