Preliminary floor plan/room layout on a large northwest plot

Hello everyone,

Thankfully, about a year ago my was constructively and clearly criticized enough to prevent long-term annoyances and to dare a fresh start. After some delays, here is my draft for the room layout; windows have not been drawn in yet, and so far hardly any furniture either. Since we have an appointment with the architect on Tuesday, drawing them in now would take too long to receive and consider possible suggestions beforehand. Please be understanding. In any case, a larger window front is planned in the area of the southwest-facing air space above the dining area.

Checklist:

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot including hinterland / former agricultural land (already demolished greenhouses) total 2800 sqm
Slope: the front 32m wide plot descends from left to right by a total of 1.60 m. Towards the back, the plot also slopes slightly downward; within the 15 m deep building window the terrain drops by about 60-80 cm.
Floor area ratio 0.4
Floor space index 0.8
Building window, building line and boundary: visible in the processed development plan excerpt, planned building outlines are marked in red. The entire orange area including the white-backed path on the right edge of the plot belongs to us. Below this path is a public sewer line which must not be built over. Towards this path, we must keep 2 meters distance with the residential building, or if a garage is placed there, 1 meter distance. The development plan for the hinterland construction was passed at our request (for later use, intended for children or a retirement bungalow).

Edge development: left (southwest) bungalow, which due to its higher location can cast wide shadows in winter. Behind this bungalow at our property boundary there is a garage and behind that a neighbor’s shed, which unfortunately also darkens our property when the sun is low. Right (northeast) is 1.5 stories built with a garage on the boundary to our path.
Number of stories: 2 full stories
Roof shape: any, preferably shed roof (a visible roof is planned above the upper floor)
Architectural style: any
Garden orientation: northwest

Builder’s requirements
Architectural style, roof shape, building type: preferably classic “old-fashioned cozy,” may also be somewhat playful and combined with modern elements
Number of people, age: 4 persons 42 + 43 + 2.5 + 0.5 (3rd child/foster child rather unlikely, but you never know)
Office: among other things for private documents, books, etc.
Overnight guests per year: so far max. 10 overnight stays per year
Open or closed architecture: preferably open
Conservative or modern construction method: both have pros/cons, gladly a mix
Open kitchen, kitchen island: preferably open with option to close if opinion changes, kitchen island gladly if space allows, but not required.
Number of dining seats: daily 4, with guests sometimes 12-18
Fireplace: not necessary
Music/stereo wall: not necessary, compact system with 2 small speakers should find space somewhere
Balcony, roof terrace: not necessary for cost reasons
Garage, carport: at least one double garage
Other wishes/special features/daily routine, gladly with reasons why this or that should or should not be: see below

House design
Who created the plan:
- Do-it-yourself rough draft with roomsketcher
- Price estimate according to architect/planner: unknown yet
Personal price limit for the house, including equipment: 550-600k € including incidental costs
Preferred heating technology: geothermal heat pump, deep borehole (or does anyone have positive experience with wood chips? I could get those very cheaply.)

Why an own floor plan instead of a complete architect’s work? Our architect is technically very good and at the same time a good business partner professionally. However, changing plans often takes quite a long time with him due to heavy workload. To be able to ideally start in spring, I gladly do some preliminary work for him in the hope that it will help.

We have placed the house "diagonally" in the building window so that it aligns flush with the diagonally shaped building window on the right edge mentioned above in the checklist. The house wall runs parallel to the right neighbor. The reason is that while we want to enjoy the southwest sun that shines towards us from the left neighbor's direction, we would like to turn somewhat away from the view from the street and neighboring houses opposite there. The second reason is that due to the long shadow cast in winter by our higher left neighbor, we want to build as far away as possible from him to let in a bit more sunshine through our windows. For this reason, I have also planned our garage detached from the house on the left southwest edge for brightness reasons; it should then be built as flat as possible and in winter not cause significantly more shadow than the neighboring buildings already do.

The terrace, which is openly visible from the street because of the gap between garage and house, should be closed off with a hedge.

I was inspired for my draft, among other things, by the floor plan of a used property we had looked at in the meantime. There, as an eye-catcher when entering, you looked at a tall plant that stretched up to the upper floor through a 1x1m ceiling opening next to the left end of the stairs. The consideration is to plan the ceiling opening large enough so that a vertical lift could be retrofitted there in old age. The gallery/air space in that house was positioned as in ours and we liked it. The vestibule should mainly prevent drafts since here the terrace door is often open as well. I first placed the wardrobe behind the vestibule, open to the living room, so that the door of the vestibule does not conflict with a possible elevator solution and the necessary movement space around it.

On the ground floor, next to the stairs (above them in the plan) a wall is drawn which I assume might be required as a load-bearing wall for structural reasons because of the large living-dining "hall." This wall continues into the basement and upper floor and also serves a practical purpose for room division.

In the upper floor, I positioned the dressing room between bedroom and bathroom and intentionally separated it again with a door from the bedroom. The reason is our current living experience where our bedroom is only separated from the bathroom by a thin wall and one still hears too many sounds from the bathroom even when the door is closed. I still consider the solution somewhat imperfect but do not want to make the air space too small either. The very large bed planned in the bedroom is to be a 2.70 m wide family bed. Space beside it is still a bit tight. If I put it opposite on the exterior wall, it would conflict with the desire for windows on the sunny side, wouldn’t it?

By the way, the air space is a longstanding wish that we do not want to do without entirely, even if this requires, for example, doors with good sound insulation in the children's rooms.

Since this is still only a half-finished draft of a room layout, I would be happy to receive critiques and ideas so that I can incorporate them at the beginning of the planning with the architect. We also want to save a few square meters if possible and sensible somewhere.

Many thanks in advance for all suggestions!

Wanted to edit my post, but exceeded the 10-minute time limit, so here is an addition:

On the ground floor, built-in cupboards are to fit in the gap between the load-bearing wall and the wall to the office/guest room, usable half from the living room and half from the hallway (for cleaning supplies, etc.). The office/guest room is also intended in its early years to serve as storage space for some of our children’s toys, as long as they still like to play near their parents in the living area.

The air space is not completely delineated in the upper floor plan; you just have to imagine the continuous line, which starts as a wall to the left of the door to the master bedroom.

I have also attached a larger excerpt from the development plan here:

The first attempt was unfortunately useless. You plan very, very generously, but the layout is simply bad. - The kitchen is totally impractically shaped. You can't do anything with it, especially given the size. - The dining room as a passage area is uncomfortable, and above all, the area is too narrow. - How wide is the hallway behind the stairs? 0.80m? All in all, pretty amateurish. The basement and upper floor are better, but the design already died with the ground floor.

The first attempt was unfortunately no good. You plan very, very generously, but the layout is simply bad. - The kitchen is totally impractical in its layout. You can’t use it for anything. Especially considering the size. - Dining room as a passage area is uncomfortable and above all, the area is too narrow. - How wide is the corridor behind the stairs? 0.80m? All in all, pretty amateurish. Basement and upper floor are better, but the design already died with the ground floor.

For the kitchen, we thought of an island in the middle, it doesn’t necessarily have to be a cooking island, it can also be a rectangular “worktop island” with cabinets underneath. What do you mean by impractical, too wide to build without an island and too narrow with an island? So do you mean the walking distances in the kitchen are too large? The dining room as a passage between kitchen and living room we also have now, and we actually like it that way. No strangers pass by us, and we usually don’t sit at the dining table for very long. In everyday life, we prefer to lounge on the couch and sometimes also eat there. We don’t want to separate the areas from each other so that people can see each other there. It should also be possible, during large celebrations, to add a table to the dining table that then extends into the living room. But I had already feared that the area might be a bit narrow because of the stairs. Behind the stairs—if you mean in the plan above—there is no corridor; maybe I should have drawn an intermediate wall there. Between the stairs and guest/office room, there should be two built-in cabinets. Into the left half of this niche a cabinet operable from the living room, into the right half a cabinet operable from the corridor. Or do you mean the corridor to the right of the stairs on the plan? There should be about 1.10–1.20 m of space there.

You have a nice budget there and the plot of land is also quite impressive. Ok, the orientation isn't perfect, but you get good western sun on the terrace. I would build a small L shape onto the house and place the terrace on the northwest side. That way, you also get the southern sun on the terrace and still don’t sit by the street.

Putting the garage on the south side wouldn’t occur to me. Yes, the neighbors’ buildings are right on the border there. But the plot is quite wide. You can also raise the house including the terrace by 50 cm, so you yourself get higher up.
The staircase in the living room with two kids is semi-optimal. I don’t see a necessity for it here and therefore wouldn’t consider it. After all, a basement is planned where maybe a technician will have to go, who then every time runs through my private rooms, oh no.

Your design is still a bit oversized despite your nice budget. I drew up a sketch here for about 200 m² + basement, which in my opinion corresponds roughly to the budget. This is just a quick draft. Whether you actually want a balcony on the bedroom or rather want the terrace roofed - I didn’t find that important at first. I mainly wanted to show how to get light into the rooms and onto the terrace without sitting on the street and without building the garage in the west.

With the slope + 50cm out of the ground, the basement rooms in the east can definitely be planned with windows. This thing is going to be a hit! I hope your architect is really excited about it. I'm curious to see how it continues.