Single-family house - floor plan of the ground floor and upper floor

Hello dear experts,

I would like to take the opportunity here in the forum to show you the current floor plans for the construction of my single-family house and to ask for constructive criticism.

Some data about the house:

North is located in the attached site plan "at approximately 11 o'clock," so slightly top left.
Dimensions of the house approx. 11.25 x 8.75 m (+ additionally garage + basement)
Above the garage (approx. 7.50 m x 7 m) rooms are intended for free use. In the first step, these should not yet be used / developed, but serve long-term for flexibility (children's room, storage rooms, hobby room, ...).

I would appreciate tips for improvement, but also simply your opinions - whether positive or negative ... but please as objective as possible.

Many thanks!

Hello Bauschlau,
it is always advisable to read through some other topics beforehand, because then you wouldn’t have to ask the question: Where are the elevations?

Is there a basement being built?

I don’t think it’s a good idea to plan living space above the garage - because of the thermal envelope (insulation/non-insulation). I myself can’t explain the physics to you.

Regarding the floor plan: Personally, I would try to rotate all rooms on the ground floor by 90 degrees, so that the kitchen faces east, the WC and pantry face north, and the living or dining area faces west.
Then I would not plan the bathroom in the best corner upstairs, but with rooms that deserve windows. But the bathroom can then move east with the shift :)

It wouldn’t be my thing either to always go through the kitchen to get to the pantry, so I would decouple the pantry from the kitchen.
Otherwise, I would swap the office with the guest room and plan a shower as a second bathroom in the ground floor WC.
If possible, the walk-in closet should not be accessed from the bedroom end, but from the beginning of the room, so that the separate room also makes sense.

The position of the wood stove in a corner behind the door is not exactly what you want for a stove. Think about what purpose it should serve for you.

The hallway upstairs is not exactly elegant with the different widths…
Did the storage rooms upstairs come about because you didn’t know what to do with the surplus space???

The last question and the core question is whether this design is the one you really want to build, or whether to simply start over?

Welcome to the house building forum,
Regards Yvonne

Thanks for the feedback. For better understanding, here is also the site plan.

As mentioned, this is the first draft as a basis for discussion. I also have some changes here:
- Ground floor:
• Living space above garage => since there are currently no children, this will not necessarily be living space. At first, nothing will be built here, but it will simply be kept open as a flexible room.
• I might possibly move the kitchen, pantry, and WC to the north side, and instead put the office on the nicer south side
• If it remains as it is, then the WC and pantry will be rotated 90 degrees so that there are windows on the wall side everywhere
• An additional shower in the WC is to be planned
• Entrance possibly on the left side towards the street
• Whether I need the 2 stairs (garage + house) or just one still has to be clarified

First floor:
• I find the bathroom on the south side unfavorable, since the window and the view are hardly used in the bathroom => bathroom on the north side would be more favorable, and instead another room on the nice south side
• Dressing room: remove the door to the bedroom, instead add one to the bathroom

I think then the whole thing will make more sense :-)

Well .. if you want to keep the option open to expand the living space, then of course the entire concept must be designed so that it can be built accordingly above the garage.

The kitchen should always be oriented a little towards the terrace, because nothing is more annoying than having to fetch everything individually from the kitchen on a nice summer evening for a barbecue.

You are now moving individual rooms back and forth without considering connections. I also find it impractical to connect a walk-in closet only with the bathroom. A bathroom facing south also has advantages ... utilizing the sun's warmth for a cozy bathroom.

Where is the cellar supposed to be located? And what is supposed to take place in the cellar? And why did you put the stairs in the garage now? What is the idea behind that?

I think, considering that a cellar is also planned, there is a lot of hallway space and additional storage rooms that seem somewhat pointless.