Single-family house floor plan, opinions and suggestions please

Hello dear forum community,

my husband and I are planning the construction of a single-family house in a village in Lower Saxony with an architect, who has now sent us the first draft, for which we would like to hear your opinions.

Development plan/restrictions
Size of the plot: 691 sqm
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: 0.3 FAR: no specification
Building window, building line and boundary: 3m from the property boundary
Edge development
Number of parking spaces: 1
Number of floors: no specification
Roof shape: Plot. Roof pitch from 24 – 48 degrees, except for green roofs.
Style:
Orientation:
Maximum heights/limits: FH: 9.5; TH: 5.5
further specifications

Requirements of the builders
Style, roof shape, building type: gable roof with a low roof pitch, I don’t remember the exact angle right now, but under 24 degrees and therefore as a green roof, single-family house
Basement, floors: no, 2
Number of people, age: currently 2 (36/31), one child planned
Space requirements on ground floor, upper floor
Office: family use or home office? Family use
Overnight guests per year: very rare
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern construction method: modern
Open kitchen, cooking island: yes
Number of dining seats: 3
Fireplace: yes
Music/stereo wall: no, but 3.5 m bookshelves
Balcony, roof terrace: gladly
Garage, carport: carport
Utility garden, greenhouse: small utility garden later
further wishes/special features/daily routine: we like cooking and often have guests for meals, large family celebrations with up to 22 people

House design
Who is the planner: architect
What do you particularly like? The view from the entrance area, the large utility room, the bedroom, the light strip, the upper hallway
What don’t you like? see below
Price estimate according to architect/planner: €218,000 pure construction costs + €40,000 ancillary costs + plot costs €43,500 + notary and property transfer tax
Personal price limit for the house, incl. equipment: €330,000
Preferred heating technology: geothermal, if within budget

If you have to do without, on which details/extensions
-you can do without: see below
-you cannot do without: large utility room, open living-dining area, dressing area, straight staircase

The house is planned to be fully barrier-free or prepared in such a way that few conversion measures will be necessary if one of us should ever depend on a wheelchair. I have MS, so the probability is simply higher that this could happen someday. Therefore, the straight staircase, which is much easier for me to climb than a spiral staircase, and we would like to keep a space free for a possible lift. This could be attached to the light strip on the eastern wall.

We have quite a lot of books. Currently about 3.5 – 4m of bookshelves, and there are more and more. Our idea was to put them upstairs in the gallery, since I don’t read in the living room anyway and upstairs you would have the beautiful view.

I can’t really say that there is anything I don’t like. I have a little concern that we might not be able to furnish the living room properly, especially not find space for the TV. At the moment, we think it might be possible to place the TV plan bottom left in the corner, basically between the windows, but I don’t know how practical this idea really is. It is also not yet clear whether normal terrace doors or sliding doors are to be installed here.

The current furniture layout is not representative, especially on the ground floor. Neither the kitchen nor the bathroom upstairs is representative. On the left wall of the living cube, an armchair and something circular are drawn in. Here the architect spontaneously planned the fireplace. However, he has not drawn in a chimney shaft here. We definitely need to discuss this with him again. Fundamentally, I don’t think the location is bad at all, especially if the TV is actually placed in the corner below. Then the sofa could be placed on the left wall and you would have both the TV and the fireplace in view.

Basically, we could do without quite a lot, but so far we like the floor plan quite well and do not want to give up the openness it radiates for us. Personally, I could do without the roof terrace, but my husband has fallen in love with the idea, and since we have the cube anyway, I suspect the additional costs will be manageable.

We would be happy to receive a few unbiased opinions on the floor plan and are open to all suggestions. I fear that we are currently so enthusiastic that we might not even see any flaws.
So many thanks for your opinions and suggestions. I hope I have not forgotten any information.

First of all, a big compliment, everything together, site plan, north arrow, views, etc.

Then to the floor plan .. at first glance great, southwest-facing terrace very good, large utility/technical room etc. Decent cloakroom area, guest WC in a usable size

Then the second look .. I’m just going to collect some keywords:

[*]unfavorable placement of the entrance door, always past the car in the carport. Why not an entrance from the north? That would also mitigate the next point
[*]long hallway on the ground floor somewhat lessened
[*]kitchen .. For cooking with several people this area is extremely difficult to furnish, it would be interesting to see your thoughts on that. Also, I am basically a fan of planning the kitchen and dining area towards the terrace (extension in summer with grilling etc.) and the living area more as a secluded space
[*]upper floor .. children’s rooms facing north .. I actually think children’s rooms have a great need for south/west orientation as well
[*]master bedroom - dressing area, from there you have to cross the sleeping area again, which makes getting up separately more difficult .. and the parents have south/west light in the room, but actually don’t need it ;)
[*]stairs ... at least 2 steps are already covered by the upper floor ceiling. This can especially be a hazard when going downstairs (illustration from another house plan):

[*]bathroom on the upper floor awkwardly shaped, tub in front of the window etc.

That’s it for now ;)

I like it :) I would have liked to build something like that too.. had something in that direction somewhere *kram* Okay, not quite what you have... yours is definitely more coherent :D Still, a few comments (Kerstin has already said some of these):

[*]the kitchen is a pain - I don't think it can be arranged properly [*]In my opinion, the entrance should also face more towards the north [*]Lots of traffic area [*]I would also put a window at the end of the long corridor - so aligned with the entrance. [*]I would miss something for storage on the upper floor

posted a good approach. Because, at the moment, I don't see a possible place for an elevator in your design that would be easy to implement. There are still windows on the east side on the upper floor. As far as I know, such a space should also be planned with a corresponding ceiling recess right from the start.

Maybe consider having the parents' sleeping area on the ground floor, and possibly move the building services upstairs?

And especially with regard to a possible wheelchair, I would really remove the entrance from the narrow carport area.

And when designing the roof terrace, make sure the threshold of the terrace doors is wheelchair accessible. This requires advance planning, because there have often been reports of parapets that are too high in this area. Because a certain structure must also be ensured on the roof above the living room.

This is a nice, coherent plan :) but the weak points are there as well.

I would also move the entrance and carport entirely to the north side of the house.

For accessibility reasons etc., I would plan with floor-level sliding doors - because these are also not a tripping hazard if you can walk but sometimes have trouble lifting your feet.

I miss a covered terrace - perhaps already planned so that it could be converted into a conservatory. Either plan the roof terrace accordingly - then it would also not be a problem that the children's rooms face north, because up there would be a nice play corridor/conservatory - or also the optimal reading spot for you.

I would also move the kitchen to the terrace. We did that too and love it.

Whether your living room or dining room gets the sunny location depends on your lifestyle - there are people who prefer to lounge on the sofa and others who prefer to read the newspaper at the dining table. With children, however, you spend more time at the dining table playing, crafting, etc.


The front left corner of the house is the kitchen, adjoining it is the dining room, to the right the living room, behind in the yellow part of the house is the bedroom. The terrace roof is about 3m - adjoining it is a 5x5m area that we can cover with an awning.

I agree with kbt: definitely consistently move the bedroom downstairs if a severe walking disability is foreseeable. We are still lively and healthy, have our office and shower-toilet downstairs. If one of us gets sick, it would be repurposed. However, I also get annoyed by now that we didn’t consistently carry through having the bedroom, dressing room, and wellness bathroom on the ground floor. Office and guests can also be moved upstairs.

Regarding the layout itself: dressing room in the back area was mentioned. The kitchen, as it is, is simply impractical to walk around a block. Hallway/gallery area with an open view of the garden is nice, but having only a north-facing room for a child is not nice—I speak from experience. Whether the sum of 218000 fits the house, I have my doubts: a walkable flat roof, for example, is more expensive than a non-walkable roof. But I don’t want to overstate it. Entrance from the north, i.e. from the long side of the house, saves huge amounts of square meters and thus also costs.