Single-family house with staggered floor, southwest location in Bonn

Interesting thought. Our idea was that we would like to have the parents' area by the terrace because we would use it the most, especially in the long term.

You could also simply swap the children's and parents' sections (children's rooms upstairs, parents downstairs), then you'd have the terrace.

Downstairs, the passage from the garage through the utility room would disappear

But then the front door is right next to the garage; you could also just put a door into the garage on the side at the back.

disappear and the utility room upstairs.

You currently have a laundry room or utility room on each of the three floors. Where do you actually do your laundry?

I find the long narrow hallway with that dark maze at the back near the children's room, as well as the windowless dressing room and the bathroom accessible only through the bedroom, to be, to put it mildly, simply "suboptimal."

I can also post exterior views sometime

Gladly, I'm curious!

What still amazes me is what everyone has against this transition between kitchen and living room. They already overlap slightly, and making it simply angular now seems more discordant.

A 45-degree angle is already an '80s thing, but a 25 (?) degree angle just looks very unusual. I don’t like it either. I would just leave it open. If noise or smells bother you later, you can always add a glass door or something similar afterwards.

Ok, the option to leave it completely open of course also exists.

The utility room is mainly the one on the ground floor for the washing machines, and the one upstairs is more of a storage/ironing room. The one in the basement is on top of that and will probably be more of a pantry etc. with an additional refrigerator and so on. So far it is still called utility room:

We are still thinking about the rest. Sure, you could simply swap the parents' and children's areas, but I don't really like that either.

The utility room on the ground floor is mainly for the washing machines and the one upstairs is more of a junk room/ironing room.

If this corresponds to the habits, fine. Otherwise, I would not plan it that way. Semi-redundant room functions are, for me, alarm triggers to take another critical look at a planner.

I don’t know anyone with a garden and kitchen on the ground floor who uses a balcony on the upper floor.

Here :D However, our balcony is a loggia. It is often used in the evening because we have sun there for longer. Also when the weather is bad since it is more protected from wind and rain there. In this case, I would also say that it certainly won’t be used that often and would rather go for a flat roof with greenery. Since it is more like a terrace, I don’t think the area would be used differently than the terrace on the ground floor. And then it is unnecessary – unless you have an amazing view from the floor. That would be the only justifiable reason for me. For the many square meters, unfortunately, the entire floor plan does not look generous enough to me. The door from the kitchen to the dining room is a no-go in my view. What absolutely doesn’t work for an architect – and what I would never ever do: access to the bathroom through the bedroom! Just imagine the routine in the morning / evening / whenever... That really wouldn’t be acceptable to me and I find it a disaster for a house of such size! Overall, I don’t like the current plan at all compared to the hand drawing, unfortunately. I understand why you had to redesign, but there are quite a few issues here (starting with the staircase position). It somehow all looks like a makeshift solution now...

No idea why anyone would want to put up with such a kitchen space. A huge room, minimal wall surfaces to place anything. If counter seats are desired, then the storage space in this kitchen is no more than in a 250cm wide townhouse kitchen.

But what absolutely does not work for an architect – and what I would never ever do: access to the bathroom through the bedroom! Just imagine the routine in the morning / evening / whenever... That really wouldn’t be acceptable to me at all, and I think it’s a disaster for a house of that size!

That is complete nonsense since there is still a separate bathroom (children's bathroom)! I think you have not understood the principle of parents' bathroom / en suite bathroom!