Why 2 floors instead of 3? Aren't 3 floors more practical?

A vacuum cleaner helps on every floor and a cleaning cupboard. I am already "middle-aged" and not so good on my feet anymore. But with proper planning, a 3-story house with a basement is still manageable. And if necessary, there will eventually be a stairlift. We have had that checked to see if it is possible.

Yes, there are quite a few things to make work easier. No matter how many floors there are. We have a broom closet or a built-in cabinet for vacuum cleaner, mop, cleaning supplies, toilet paper stock etc. on each floor. I find that – despite having 3 floors – more comfortable than a 1.5-story house without any storage options upstairs. A laundry chute in both bathrooms (upper floor and attic) will ensure that the laundry arrives downstairs without any effort and can be taken directly outside after washing on the ground floor (patio door in the utility room). Everyone is responsible for bringing the laundry back up from the utility room themselves. Everyone gets a basket for clean laundry. At the latest when the wardrobe is empty, the basket will already be picked up. Our older kids are already 9 and 12 anyway. We are not fans of basements anyway. (a 1.5-story house with a basement also has 3 floors). Apart from that, we will soon have no reason to go to the attic anyway when the two boys have their own floor with a shower bathroom here. Only the storage room will then still be my "zone" to get decorations etc. As I said, it depends on the needs. A bungalow can also be nice, but for us with 3 children it is currently rather unusable.

Oh yes, there are a thousand possibilities nowadays... I’m just saying:

Laundry chutes
Water connections on every floor
Central vacuum systems
etc.

everything is possible... however, usually the development plan says otherwise, as many have already written here... our neighbors weren’t even allowed to build 1.5 stories, since they are in the third row...

You can see again that everyone has their own perception.

My husband and I are very picky when it comes to cleanliness and order. But personally, I want everything in a single utility room and not to have everything duplicated on every floor.

We also don't collect or hoard anything. Everything that is meant to go away, goes away.

Although I clean a lot and often, I don't want to be confronted with this topic on every floor. Personally, I want a single room where everything is inside and where you can always keep a good overview of what is available and what is not!

Maybe it’s also because we both work full-time, have a child and a very large family. We want it clean, tidy, and still very cozy. Those ugly "cleaning cabinets" bother me.

When you build yourself, of course you can plan all the amenities as long as the budget allows it.

But with existing properties, that’s not always so easy!

If you gut the existing property and renovate it according to your own needs and there is a good carpenter, the cleaning cabinet doesn't look like a cleaning cabinet. But it is really a matter of personal taste how you do it. I would argue like this: "If something is empty, I can still borrow 2x from myself.

I once lived in a townhouse with 4 floors (basement+ground floor+first floor+attic). It was just annoying. Up the stairs, down the stairs, a toilet and shower on every floor that of course also had to be cleaned. I never want to live like that again.

One question, do you already have children? Do you know how complicated it is with small children when you have to go up or down the stairs 5 times at night because the child is crying? Many children are afraid when the parents are not in close proximity (on the same floor).
Storage room on every floor – ok – but where do you put the toilet paper? Where the vacuum cleaner? A vacuum cleaner on every floor or carrying the vacuum up and down 3 floors? It will always be the case that wherever, for example, the vacuum cleaner is needed, it is just on a different floor, etc.
So building on 3 floors is always a last resort for me. We have our living space on 2 floors and keep the attic for storage and an additional play area for the children.