Single-family house - city villa: Living room L or I shape?

We find the L shape more attractive. I have now drawn floor plans again. Each time ground floor and upper floor with a door in the north or in the east. (north is at the top), the plot has no slope and is completely flat. To the west there is a row of trees that borders the plot.

A construction company asked us if we want to bring self-drawn plans to a first meeting.

We like the door in the east better. However, we are still not quite sure about the layout of the rooms. What would you improve?

We're not quite sure about the room layout yet. What would you improve?

So much so that it will be completely different afterward (because then it won't fit together anymore if you try to insert individual changes). First: I wouldn't hang the plan up by the entrance. Most of the time you live in your house; going in or out takes only a few moments and hardly shapes the house experience. What you have drawn is a good pictorial representation as a layout sketch for initial discussions. It's not suitable for much more (which at this stage is not a big problem). The wall thicknesses look like symbolic 10 cm everywhere to me, and the dimensions of rooms and stairs are very roughly estimated. The upper floor only works with a 2m knee wall; at least I don't see any sloping ceiling areas. A typical amateur mistake is to start with the pictorial allocation of space – a room program as a "specification sheet" of rooms and square meters often feels too abstract. Especially for translating that into a one-and-a-half-story house, there is a lack of experience. But that's no shame and doesn't really bother the conversation with the planner. For them, it's simply a drawn wish list, and that's enough.

Yep, it should just be a wish list. I haven’t looked at wall thicknesses and exact measurements now. Just roughly.

We would prefer the entrance on the east side, so that the carport in the north doesn’t have to be set so far up and the driveway doesn’t have to be so long.

By pictorial area distribution, I think you mean exactly that. So, that we also have a list with square meters for the rooms and that can then be divided? We have that, but we are not quite sure about the necessary size for the hallway/stairs. I believe this 1/4 staircase actually takes up more space than the 2 x 1/4 staircase, but whether that is really the case in the end?

So, do you mean something like this, as said only approximate values, we will then rely on the architect and construction company:

Ground floor:
WC / shower: 3 sqm
Utility room: 7 sqm
Living / dining: 37 sqm
Kitchen: 12
Hallway: 11 sqm

Upper floor:
Children’s rooms: 2 x 13 sqm
Office / guest: 10 sqm
Bedroom (incl. dressing room, which is optional): 17
Bathroom: 10 sqm
Landing: 7 sqm

By pictorial area distribution, I think you mean exactly that.

No, I only meant the house floor plan, not the property layout with house and driveway, etc.

So you mean something like this, as I said just approximate values, then we also trust the architect and construction company:

Yes, that's what I meant. But in the first stage, even without assigning the rooms to the floors yet. Now you have already taken this next step and see in the result: ground floor and upper floor each 70 sqm, so equally large (and in both cases the corridor areas were left out, but that will not change the equality).

Equal top/bottom only works under the condition of two full stories. In one-and-a-half stories, you will be somewhere between about 63:37 and 66:34; with knee walls, you can still play around with that a bit.

If I add the forgotten corridors, you will need about 110 sqm of house floor area including wall areas, for one-and-a-half stories rather somewhat more than 130.

Mhm in another thread here I read:

Roughly, for rooms without sloping ceilings: floor area * 0.85 = living area

That would be for 110 sqm floor area:
110 sqm * 0.85 = 93.5 sqm, so would that be 23.5 sqm hallway per floor? Or am I thinking about this wrong.

A construction company that asks the client and thus indirectly requests to bring a floor plan to a first meeting will be overwhelmed with a written room program.

Expect these services to be carried out poorly by them and that you are always obliged to improve.

Best regards, Yvonne