Plot - Ideas and suggestions on orientation and development plan

Hello,

after a long wait, I would like to now share our current status of the floor plan planning to get some feedback and a few good suggestions.

Here are the current plans first.

Unlike originally planned, we have abandoned the guest room on the ground floor and instead are making the living and dining area spacious. For this, the office on the upper floor will be an enclosed room and not a walk-through room, and in the basement there will be a large hobby room that can also be used as a second home office – with a light well facing west and underfloor heating.

We are already quite satisfied, but still many things are on our minds:

The first draft had a wall instead of a beam on the ground floor, so that the hallway could be separated. However, the basement entrance (there was also a closet planned in the hallway) seemed very dark and narrow to us... and actually we like to live openly. Now we are wondering whether it is good to always see the basement door in the dining area... or if it would be better to turn the stairs and have the basement entrance directly next to the front door, with an open connection from the dining area to the upper floor? Would that still be possible? What would the entrance area then look like? Entering the house directly next to the basement door?

We are actually quite satisfied with the upper floor.

In the bathroom, I am rather thinking of a space-saving bathtub on the northern wall; the corner bathtub seems small to me. And access to the shower should still work...

The children's rooms are not spacious, but both get a 1.40 m deep loft (the one in child 1’s room extends into the office). This relaxes the space below, since no bed has to be placed...

Oh yes, in the northwest corner on the ground floor should be the sofa area...

And maybe someone has a good idea for the carport and bike shed? We would like the shed to be larger, but we are limited in maximum length by the boundary building line... and currently the plan is designed so that the bike shed in the south does not protrude, so as not to block the morning sun, but that pushes the house 40 respectively 90 cm to the south... Actually, I wanted to place the house as far north as possible in favor of the garden, but would also have accepted 3 m distance to the street... What do you think? Could the storage room also be allowed to protrude?

The second parking space is in the very northwest, directly on the neighbor’s boundary and the street.

We look forward to feedback :-)

We definitely need a basement, we are sure about that.

You are planning too small.
I see dimensions that are too small for practical use.
But first of all, I have to congratulate you on the graph paper – it’s still the best and most effective way to plan. Most people shy away from the several-euro price but spend 50 on software they can’t operate.

In general: 2cm of plaster on every wall, additionally tiles in the bathrooms, baseboards in the rooms, furniture placed 5 cm in front of a wall. Variations in stone and masonry—all that should be factored in by a layperson. That means you should plan more into your sketch than exactly edge to edge.
If you as an amateur planner plan with a precision of 10cm, there can be tight spots. For example here: guest WC shower. You have just under 80 cm drawn with a sharp pencil. If a general contractor now takes your idea 1:1, then you barely have space for a 70 cm shower. If you think a 1-meter shower is too big, then at least draw it in anyway, even if you only plan 80. Then you come to a 90 cm space. The remaining 10 cm benefits the room. The size of the washbasin is only just okay for hand washing.
Kitchen with a 60 cm row. No cabinet stands on a groove on the plastered wall, a countertop is often 62 cm deep, so better take 70 for the sketch. Two 60 cm cabinets need 150 cm in width...
A wardrobe should also accommodate hangers, so plan it like a wardrobe with a 60 cm depth.
The staircase with 4 meters has a good length for planning.
I would turn it (as you have already noted) and have it start at the front from both sides, so 2x winding.
Try drawing your furniture in the living room – with a width of 3.30 and open to the front, I can’t see a really nice room there.
Leave the beam to the architect to plan. With narrow houses you do not always need one.
Instead of a seating window, just plan large window fronts that allow a place for a variable armchair.

Basically, the open-plan room is very large, which I personally like, but in my opinion it is not well shaped. There is little retreat space. Even at Tupperware parties, card evenings or football games with friends/guests, the other residents have no possibility to withdraw from the event bustle.

On the upper floor: the wall in front of the staircase exit is awkward. That’s why my suggestion with the 90-degree turn.

In the meantime, we have had the idea to open up the rooms on the upper floor all the way up to the roof, if possible also extending it over the hallway, and thus create a second level in the children’s room, which would still result in a spacious children’s room despite the small room footprint... but these are all just ideas at the moment...

Personally, I wouldn’t do that with a steep roof pitch. But that’s up to you. The room can quickly lose atmosphere instead of gaining it.
I find the sleeping area very unfortunate with the wardrobe. It’s better to place the wardrobe behind the door. For that you then plan the room accordingly with about 70 cm behind the door.
The dimensions advice also applies here in the bathroom. Besides that, with four people, you should have access to two wash areas. Also, the bathroom could use 1-2 sqm more.

Could the storage room protrude beyond?

Of course! The problem with the morning sun is only that you either experience it in the office, while shopping, oversleep it, or enjoy it on the terrace.

I still see a lot of potential in the planning, possibly one meter longer or one meter shorter and half a meter wider.

The plot is simply short and not generous... so you can well plan the terrace by the dense hedge at the sidewalk... or put the kitchen with terrace on the west side.
I would probably try to move the house forward and the carport much further back...

Here are the current plans first.

What kind of planning grid and wall constructions are behind these strange dimensions?

But first I have to congratulate you on the graph paper – it is still the best and most effective way to plan. Most people shy away from the several-euro price but spend 50 on software they can't operate.

What I find good about graph paper is that with 1 mm = in 1:100 10 cm it "trains" you to think in whole decimeters: 40 cm for exterior walls and 20 cm for interior walls (the "non-load-bearing" ones can still be made thinner later on) are, in my opinion, a practical "flat rate." I find classic 5 mm squares even better – clearer and well adapted to the 50 cm stretcher bond pattern in masonry. From Rensch-Haus I used to have planning sheets with 6.25 mm squares.

Thanks already for your feedback!

This floor plan was created in collaboration with the planner of a timber construction company based on suggestions from other floor plans that we like. It will be a timber frame. The wall thicknesses are the finished wall thicknesses for their wall construction (KfW55 including installation level, facade, and interior cladding).

I will try to consider your comments on distances and baseboards... The planner is currently not taking these into account in his sketches either, but I will mention it here as well...

The issue with the wardrobe is also always on my mind... Unfortunately, I don’t have a good feeling about estimating the required spaces... We want to avoid lift-and-slide doors, so there should be enough space at the dining area to sit comfortably at the table even with the window open... The position of the wall and the resulting only 40cm cupboard are partly due to the fact that the wall in the first plan went all the way to the dining area... On the other hand, we want a large kitchen island. Friends have one measuring 1.10 x 2.80m, and we really enjoy cooking in their kitchen. Ideally, we would also like the island to be freestanding... We are currently still discussing the pros and cons of the island touching the wall or at least having enough distance to allow for a continuous window... Of course, we could also reduce the size of the island... Whether the sink is in the island or moved to the back is still an option... We have also thought about rotating the kitchen. Currently, it is unfortunately not so easy to just look at many things. When it was still possible, we were in the Baufritz house Lichtblick, where the island is by the window front. That was nice too...

We have also considered whether the guest bathroom with shower might be better situated as a narrow solution behind the kitchen, basically a tube with the minimum width necessary for a shower (what would that be? inside 1.50m?). The area in the south, which is not used for the bathroom, could then be used as a mini storage room next to the kitchen. That would push the kitchen further west – rotation would no longer be possible – and the dining area further towards the living room... Since we can’t extend the terrace across the entire width anyway and I would find it nice to at least be able to access the outside between the living and dining areas, so the walk from the living room to the outdoors isn’t too far, that might also be advantageous in combination with an overhanging shed for the morning sun (if you actually ever experience it at breakfast) and for the wardrobe area, which could then be in the northwest corner of the house... What is your assessment? Would that be advantageous for the living space layout? What would you change to improve the layout?

Regarding the staircase: we were actually happy that we could realize a straight staircase, but when I think about how I might rotate the staircase, it quickly ends with having a straight staircase. Currently, we are still resisting spiral staircases; it feels like you need much more attention when walking on them... For quarter-turn staircases, I only find such staircases where the angled steps go all the way to the middle... is there another solution?

The recess for the shower will make the bathroom very tight... so I would be reluctant to give it up and would rather allocate the space for the staircase... We have not needed a double washbasin so far, and in my parents’ house, we had a bathroom with a double basin, but we only used it as a secondary bathroom; basically, the four of us got along well with just one basin in daily life...

Placing the wardrobe in the bedroom behind the wall would always have been my favorite. It was like that in the floor plan we copied as well... I’ll attach it... Alpina Optima 9. Unfortunately, with realistic wall thicknesses, there was no longer enough space for the combination.

We plan to leave the rooms open up to the roof, but to have that be advantageous for the sense of space, we currently no longer have a full upper floor, but rather an interior wall height of 2.31m combined with a roof pitch of 30°. And the galleries inside the children’s rooms or only the strip above the office. Although in the meantime I came across a picture where in the hallway area there is a normal room height – that is, a ceiling – and above the stairs it remains open. For the height of the gallery, it is advantageous if it lies within the children’s room; then you can make the gallery area about between 2m and 2.20m.

Planning the terrace along the dense hedge unfortunately does not help in our case: “Enclosures to public streets, paths, and squares are allowed as free-growing or clipped hedges as well as wooden, wire or metal fences up to a max height of 1.20m.” Therefore, we plan strictly according to the motto: rather just a fence, so that anyone who peers in at least feels watched ;-) ... and that’s why I want to keep the garden strip as wide as possible.

I have not yet succeeded in compressing the layout a bit, as it is our wish that the children’s rooms are equal and the living spaces face south.

I am attaching one of the inspirational floor plans and the plan with the kitchen facing the window front.

Best regards

We were - when it was still possible - in the Baufritz house Lichtblick, where the island is next to the window front. That was nice, too...

We have it diagonally - to the window and to the table. A highlight for every visitor - and every day for us.

Currently we are still resisting spiral stairs, it feels like you need so much more attention when walking on them...

You practice... and don’t fall as far if you do fall.

actually, in everyday life we managed well with four of us using one sink..

How old are the children? Don’t they all have to get out in the morning? Girls included? (Although: the boys are catching up in vanity)