Please provide opinions on the floor plan of a semi-detached house

Good evening,

after having read along here for some time and gathered suggestions, I would now like to introduce our floor plan and ask for constructive criticism ;)

It is a semi-detached house with a basement and an expanded attic, with a floor area of 11 x 6.5m. The terrace faces southwest. The building application is supposed to be ready in 5 weeks. The following things have already caught our attention or we are still unsure about:

- In the basement there are two light wells facing the terrace, so none of the doors would be without one of these. Especially barefoot in summer very uncomfortable. Therefore, we would put a light well in front of the garage.

- The house connections must probably face the street, as the supply lines are there. But presumably that is not possible because of the entrance and the light well?

- The door to the kitchen will be removed, preferably more wall space for furniture and a slightly longer path when bringing groceries.

- In the guest toilet the toilet should be placed under the window. We saw this in a show house and the flush button somewhat integrated in the windowsill looked very good.

- We are still unsure how to plan the kitchen (especially where stove and sink should go).

- 1st floor: bathtub in front of the window? What are your experiences with that?

- The side windows in the children's rooms are floor-to-ceiling with a French balcony. We would plan them about 60 cm further from the partition wall for a closet or reading chair with a view. The other windows on this floor are normal ones with windowsills.

- 2nd floor: planned is a flush tiled shower. But we would like to move it into the niche, provided that the waterproofing does not become significantly more complicated and thus more expensive. We are both 1.72 m tall and have reconstructed the ceiling height and slope by trial and find it high enough. Then the sink could be placed on the stairwell wall, the wall with the door to the bathroom at the same height as the stairwell door. And the pipe from the sink would not have to run under the ceiling of the 1st floor...

These are at least the most important things we have collected for the next appointment.

Thank you very much for your tips!

Hello, I would place the kitchen door, that is the door itself, at the latest at the staircase level. You will regret it later anyway, you have to walk enough with the 4 floors, and going around the wall when entering the house will definitely be annoying. I don't notice anything else at the moment about the space wonder :) I haven't looked at the basement. Do you already have a semi-detached house partner? asks Yvonne

Thank you for the quick response, yes there is a partner. However, the houses are built independently of each other, for which the city has precise regulations on eaves height, roof pitch, and house length to ensure it fits properly. Friends of ours have also already built semi-detached houses 'separately' here and it worked well. Our future neighbor will probably start about 2 months before us and build a prefabricated house. This means that no connecting wall will remain exposed for a longer time.

Regarding the shower and the height: you have to keep in mind that the showerhead also needs its space (I would do it that way too ;))

In the kitchen, consider that no wall cabinets fit because of the two windows...

In the basement, I would section off an extra room: we also had a basement like that, it’s nice to have food and kitchen items stored separately from the technical equipment.

Regards Yvonne

Basically, there is not much to criticize about the floor plan. I lived in a very similar townhouse and I only cursed. The path of the laundry from the very top to the very bottom is quite long. But well. I don't have to live in it anymore. I find the floor plan acceptable overall. However, I would swap the bathtub and toilet in the bathroom on the 1st floor. And the dining area could become a bit tight.

If it should be possible that a house sale comes into question in the medium term due to life changes, I would definitely not do it with a shower like that. In my opinion, that is not very practical.

By the way, children can also grow taller than their parents... 185 cm is enough to feel very uncomfortable in a shower that is half below the 200 cm line.

However, I would also plan the bathroom again.