Single-family house – new construction project from day one - and the planning begins

It is difficult to use. That is always the problem with floor plans that use a straight staircase.

Unfortunately, a straight staircase is fixed. We have already tried all other types of stairs. But then, unfortunately, we do not get the required rooms within the (budget-limited) specified exterior dimensions.

If it were my house, I would try to get the panoramic fireplace on the outer wall at the bottom of the plan. Then it would act as a partition between the living area and the cooking/dining area.

We had that at the very beginning. It does not work with this floor plan. It looks totally chaotic and ruins the basic idea of spaciousness.

But then you would also have to arrange the furniture and the windows or terrace door differently. At the moment, when sitting on the sofa, you mostly look at the fireplace from the side or almost from behind. That would be suboptimal for me.

That will not really work. See the sketch of the site plan in #89. The terrace doors should be located in front of the terraces or the garden.

We had that at the very beginning. It doesn't work with this floor plan. It looks totally restless and ruins the basic idea of spaciousness.

That won't really work. See the sketch of the site plan in #89. The terrace doors should actually be located in front of the terraces or the garden.

What do you consider spacious?

At the moment, I see a living room that effectively has a depth of 3.8m by 2.8m. I don't see that as spacious.

If you consider unused open space as spacious, then you can do it that way. If I were you, when I enter your "all-purpose room," I would ask why the living room is so cramped into the corner when everything here is free. A floor lamp won't fix that problem.

Edit: Just looked at your property. I don't understand at all why you arrange it that way.
If I were you, I would mirror the living and kitchen/dining areas.

You're really wearing out your feet running from the kitchen to the terrace.
By the way, you don't get the evening sun in the living room either, because the sun sets in the northwest in summer.

What do you consider generous?

At the moment, I see a living room that effectively has a depth of 3.8m by 2.8m. I don’t see that as generous.

If you consider unused open space as generous, then you can do that. If I were walking into your "all-purpose room," I would wonder why the living room is squeezed into the corner when everything else is free here.
A floor lamp won’t fix the problem.

Edith: Just looked at your property. I don’t understand why you arrange it like this.
If I were you, I would mirror the living and kitchen/dining areas.

You’re going to wear out your shoes going from the kitchen to the terrace.
By the way, you don’t have evening sun in the living room either because the sun sets in the northwest in summer.

Great that you are so critical! Honestly, I hadn’t looked at it this way before!

Your suggestions combined with the floor plan and the picture from gave me a completely new idea. I’ll try to draw it tonight and then post it again.

Thanks!

The stove was recessed about 3cm towards the living room so that no crack would occur due to the expansion of the two different materials.

Otherwise, the recess would also be recommended as a shadow joint.

I also have a question about the gallery: Do you have children? How is it with the transmission of noise through the gallery into the bedrooms? Does it bother you if someone is sitting downstairs, for example in front of the TV, and the other is sleeping upstairs, or when you have visitors and the children are sleeping upstairs?

Currently, we have a 3-year-old son. The second one will be coming soon. Of course, you can hear a lot from downstairs to upstairs and vice versa. That’s why we decided on special doors with special seals. When they are closed, you can’t hear anything from downstairs anymore. During Corona, I often trained in the bedroom with the music turned up full blast. It was only barely audible downstairs. Of course, it has advantages and disadvantages and it’s not everyone’s thing. For us, however, this small gallery means a great feeling of life. The light coming in in the morning alone is world-class.

So I sat down again.

Based on your suggestions, I swapped the living room with the kitchen and included the staircase (position as in #115). However, the fireplace no longer works then and the living room still feels cramped. My wife didn’t like that at all and absolutely doesn’t want to change the position of the kitchen and the living room. No matter how you look at it, given the conditions (which are also specified upstairs), this is currently the best design for the ground floor.



Personally, I don’t think the living room looks squeezed in (it’s still 3.80m wide) and the hallway leading to the living area doesn’t feel like a corridor. Maybe it just looks that way because of the crappy furniture... Unfortunately, the program only offers these furniture patterns...

The living room is deliberately planned in the corner so that it’s separated from the rest and feels cozy... Maybe just a matter of taste.

Besides, I don’t think there is that much dead space. The planned chaise lounge uses the first left third well and a large plant, or at Christmas the Christmas tree, will go in the last third. The fireplace then protrudes into the middle third.

Regarding evening sun in the living room: I wouldn’t have that either if I put the living room on the other side. By the way, we currently have full evening sun in the living room and it annoys me personally so much that the shutters are always down in the evenings.