Single-family house on an elongated east-west plot

Hello everyone,

we are planning a massive brick house:

Bebauungsplan/Einschränkungen
Size of the plot: 838 m²
Slope: no. completely flat
Floor area ratio: not applicable, fits.
Floor space index: not applicable, fits
Building window, building line and boundary: building boundary present. But should not be discussed here.
Edge development: single-family house, 2 full floors, gable roof, garage on boundary
Number of parking spaces: 2 are mandatory
Number of floors: 2 full floors + basement
Roof shape: gable roof
Style: free planning
Orientation: east-west
Maximum heights/limits: not applicable, fits.
Further requirements:

Anforderungen der Bauherren
Style, roof shape, building type: gable roof, partly wooden cladding between windows outside.
Basement, floors: basement + 2 full floors
Number of people, age: 2 adults + 2 children
Space requirement on ground floor, upper floor: approx. 100 m² per floor
Office: home office as primary school teacher
Overnight guests per year: rather rare
Open or closed architecture: open kitchen/living/dining area. But enclosed hallway for better sound separation upstairs.
Conservative or modern construction: somewhere in between
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes
Number of dining seats: there should be space for guests -> at least 6
Fireplace: yes, between dining room and lounge
Balcony, roof terrace: balcony on bay window in office
Garage, carport: yes, double garage on north boundary
Utility garden, greenhouse: not planned yet
Further wishes/special features: We plan a utility room on the upper floor despite the basement. There will also be washing facilities in the basement. On the ground floor there is a lounge/reading corner with a window seat between living room and dining room. Terrace is planned to the west.

House design
Who designed it:
Designer from a construction company together with us as well as meetings with a newly qualified architect.
What do you especially like? Why?
Open floor plan on the ground floor. Still retreats on each floor. Window seat facing south. Double garage.
What do you not like? Why?
Not ideal is the distance to the property boundary in the south. However, the plot is “only” 21 m wide and therefore more space is difficult. We also definitely want a double garage. To the west the plot is very open (no house nearby), so the terrace faces this direction.
Price estimate: €700,000
Personal price limit for the house including equipment: as long as we stay under 5 million everything is okay :D
Preferred heating technology: heat pump

If you have to do without
- can you do without:
possibly the utility room on the upper floor
- cannot do without:
pantry with kitchenette, spacious cloakroom

Why is the design the way it is now?
The plot is oriented from west to east, approx. 39 m long and approx. 21 m wide. The house has the same orientation (currently 9.5 m wide, 13.5 m long). We like the garage on the north directly at the house. This keeps the west of the garden nice and free. To the south at 4 m distance is a neighbor’s house, but to the west there is no house yet (lots of evening sun). The garage is directly at the house because we did not want to build over the west area with a garage but rather have a maximum free view. Otherwise, my wife is a teacher (office as home office).

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
We would be interested in the opinion of other builders. Is there a flaw in the plan? Does something not make sense? Is something too narrow? For example, we hope that the space in the dining room is sufficient (3.50 m between south window and kitchen block; but this should also be the passage to the terrace).

We are open to all suggestions and ideas but also have concrete ideas, as can hopefully be seen from the floor plan. The planning is actually quite far advanced.
Is there anything you think we still need to consider or could do better?

Thank you very much for your support.

Does the garage have to or should be connected to the house? If not, maybe something like this: If yes, with the generous budget one could also imagine a partially underneath-the-house garage. And that strange balcony worm-like extension on the east side could be replaced by a roof terrace on the garage in the west.

That was also my first thought. There is indeed the desire to keep the west free, but for that, the south is sacrificed (4m of space is nothing). I would rather try to create some more room in the south (especially since the fireplace and living room are there). If instead of a solid garage, a somewhat airier carport is placed in the northwest, you also gain a bit more privacy towards the northern property. Perhaps the house could also be rotated 15-20° clockwise?

Overall, I like it. However, I consider the workspace in the kitchen to be insufficient.

How does the wall structure of 42 cm come about? – the so-called "emancipated" arrangement of the load-bearing walls (which seem overdosed to me here) will make the structural engineer’s head really smoke. And of course, I once again see plenty of planned botch-up spots. The sliding doors running in the walls also do not seem optimally planned to me. In my opinion, the kitchen is too small, and the bedroom balcony as well as the living room projection are expensive jokes. I recommend, although by no means "everything is bad", a replanning (and in doing so the separation of the building bodies "house" and "garage").

Planner from a construction company together with us as well as meetings with a newly minted architect.

How should one imagine the constellation?
The architect seems to me to be more than just freshly baked – I would even say still oven warm – if she hasn’t noticed the many cost-increasing unstructured aspects.

The planning is actually very far advanced.

What does that concretely mean?

Is there anything that we still need to consider from your point of view or could do better?

I believe that the passage through the structural engineer will prompt a reset (unless the 5 million budget is actually feasible and you are firmly committed to it).

[Roughly I like it. However, I consider the workspace in the kitchen insufficient.]
So, now with a bit more time.
Was the house bulged out according to the needs? In the living room, to have more space in the hallway, and in the office, because otherwise there would be no space.
These are cost eaters and areas where moisture can get into the ground floor medium-term. It doesn’t have to, the architect or the construction supervisor will probably veto it anyway, as long as the house gets built and lasts 5 years ;)
Personally, I also see such bulges as a relaxation of the facade, here I see no added value. To me, it looks arbitrary, especially the narrow bay window on the south side.
Rather, I would translate the upper floor somewhere as a curtain, then you would have a natural canopy.

Now I get to the main point:

generous wardrobe

Yes, very nice. That’s how it has to be.
Still: despite the pantry, the working surface in the kitchen is too small. In my tidy two-person household with storage space in the utility room, I have about half again as much and had to add on for the cooker hood and Diet+Dat … so it will never be enough.

Who is the shower on the ground floor for? It’s so alone without a bedroom.
Who is the guest room upstairs for? Since you have no overnight guests, is it a placeholder room?
Did the balcony upstairs come about by chance or what is it for?

What I find really unpleasant are the light wells everywhere – also where you plan a terrace or/and a terrace door.
You definitely plan that differently because it’s not nice. They also look quite arbitrarily placed... a straight 5 with stars.

you can do without:
possibly the utility room on the upper floor

I rather see the storage room on the ground floor as redundant because you have a pantry and a large wardrobe where shoe polishing equipment could also fit if necessary. Since laundry is done upstairs, it makes sense to have it up there.
What is the basement even for? I would do without it, adapt the house size a bit there where you need less or a bit more. But everyone has to decide about the basement themselves – some build only because they have too much junk.
And yes, I would also do it like , because glued-on garages always look so blocky. If you link them with the house, you also get a good technical and vehicle storage room there.

If the basement remains, then I would also plan a nice big light well in the basement for a great common room or the office there.