ᐅ Critique of the Floor Plan Design for a Farmhouse

Hello to the forum community!
I have been following this forum diligently for over a year now (since I started looking into house construction), and I have already gained a lot of valuable information here.
Now our house building plans have matured enough that I would like to present them to you.
The basic planning is in place. However, we are currently experiencing some project blindness, which is causing the planning to stall a bit. This is where I need your feedback and ideas!

We want to extend the parents-in-law’s house. For planning reasons, the new building should be designed as an extension of the existing house, creating a multi-generation home. If this is not approved by the building authority (building permit / planning permission), we will split the plot at the existing garage and register easements.
The idea is to build a sleeping house using solid construction, adjoining a kind of living barn in timber frame construction. We want to separate the areas for children/parents/living, have an inner courtyard at the back of the house, and stylistically create a small farmyard-like complex to blend in with the surroundings 🙂

Development plan/restrictions: none
Plot size: approx. 900 sqm (total approx. 2300 sqm)
Slope: no
Building zone, building line, and boundary: NE: street; SE: existing house with garage; SW: meadow; NW: field path
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of stories: 2 / 1
Roof type: gable roof / shed roof
Style: farmhouse – sleeping house with living barn
Orientation: southwest

Client requirements
Style, roof type, building type: farmhouse, gable roof / shed roof
Basement, stories: no basement, 2 / 1 (approx. 210 sqm + attic)
Number of people, ages: 2 + 2 children + 1 planned
Office: family use and home office (very small space requirement)
Occasional overnight guests per year: about 10 times for 4 people
Open or closed architecture: sleeping area closed; living area open and bright
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes, possible
Seating places at dining table: 6–8
Fireplace: yes
Carport: yes

House design
Who designed it: architect
What is liked: arrangement of living, parents, children areas.
What is disliked?
- Carport darkens the bathroom
- Entrance to the parents’ bathroom
- Layout of living barn: Where to place the fireplace? How to design the kitchen? Kitchen and dining room should form a unit. Living room separated (by fireplace, timber frame wall?)
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: 370,000 (own estimate: minimum 400,000 – without exterior landscaping)
Preferred heating technology: ground source heat pump / gas???
If you have to cut back, on which details/features
- can be omitted: could be smaller as well.
- cannot be omitted: large windows in the living area

Now I look forward to your opinions and ideas!

(In the floor plans, north is at the bottom right)

I really like the floor plan. I would just mention that I would choose the appearance of all floor-to-ceiling windows to be the same, and I don't quite understand why the smaller windows in the "barn" look so different from those in the main house (height and then the shutters).

Regarding the labels of the elevations... could it be that there is a mistake? East and West elevations appear to be swapped.

Where are you currently feeling stuck? Sorry, reading helps... as you already mentioned 😉

grinchmaster schrieb:
What don’t you like?
- Carport darkens bathroom
- Entrance to master bathroom

In the bathroom, you will probably have something in front of the window anyway, like blinds or similar. So the "carport" darkening wouldn’t bother me.

Entrance to the master bathroom… what exactly bothers you?

Living room… the suggested furniture layout, is that realistic or more of a rough idea? In principle, I could imagine a fireplace on the left side between the last two floor-to-ceiling windows or all the way in the top left corner.

I quite like it as well. It’s something different. The only thing I don’t like is that the distance from the couch to the bathroom is a bit too far. I would take a corner from the large utility room and plan a guest bathroom there.

@Manu1976 .. you would also have to go through the vestibule, since you wouldn’t want to enter the bathroom from the kitchen side. Besides, that space is ideal for a well-designed tall cabinet wall with storage areas in between.

kbt09 schrieb:
then you would also have to go through the vestibule, because you don’t want to enter the bathroom from the kitchen side,

Yep, that's true. But nearly 20 meters (65 feet) walking distance is still too far for me. That’s the only thing that bothers me here. Everything else is really well designed.