ᐅ Creating a Submission Plan for a 140m² Single-Family Home – Feedback and Tips?

The long hose needed to get from the entrance to the kitchen is very impractical and guaranteed to cause frustration.
The small toilet is far too cramped, and the shower does not work.
The utility room (HAR) located on the side facing away from the street could cause issues with the service providers.

zuluindia schrieb:
We want to use the office as a cloakroom until it becomes a bedroom when we retire.

But then only a double bed fits in there, meaning one less wardrobe.

zuluindia schrieb:
We also want to store some things in the attic above the upper floor

You don’t want to open the attic hatch for every jacket, tool, or decoration item. A housewife and a handy man can easily enter the utility room or storage room several times an hour during active times. It’s also not practical to carry seasonal or sports equipment up and down stairs all the time or constantly pack boxes and crawl around in the attic. In that case, the roof should be the more expensive warm roof version, even though a cold roof would usually be more suitable.

zuluindia schrieb:
The shower should fit with a room height of 2.60 m (8 ft 6 in) and a low-profile shower tray

Oh, do you actually have 3.20 m (10 ft 6 in) room height??? I can hardly imagine that, as larger rooms would normally be planned. This shower can only be a makeshift solution; it is definitely not age-appropriate.

zuluindia schrieb:
Do you still see the design more negatively?

Absolutely.

zuluindia schrieb:
Since I have been planning this for so long, I probably see my design with blinders on...

Unfortunately, I don’t see much time invested, nor much knowledge or understanding of space and size.

The office planned to be used later is too small, the bathroom with shower is too narrow, the shower doesn’t work, and it’s certainly not suitable for aging in place. Where is the wardrobe supposed to go later? The office will become a messy room if the children throw their shoes in there.

The pantry is unnecessary; it’s not even big enough for a recycling bag. The route to the kitchen is unnecessarily long. The storage room is unnecessarily large; such extensions are costly and unnecessary with good planning. The hallway is very narrow — it becomes a bottleneck. The path to the terrace always goes through the TV/lounge area... why not place the kitchen near the terrace?

Upstairs, you have to consider the sloping ceilings: a lot of wardrobe space is lost due to height restrictions. Different wake-up times will disturb the person still resting, multiple times due to light exposure. No closet space fits behind any door — so the wardrobe has to be free-standing in one of the rooms. The toilet should have a washbasin, since you wash your hands before touching the door handle; in this respect, the room is too small.

I think these are some points to reconsider. I would recommend consulting an architect or planner — someone who really knows what they are doing.

Regards, Yvonne

I also find the long distance to the kitchen very inconvenient; carrying heavy shopping baskets will likely become frustrating quickly.

And please keep in mind that doors usually open inward into the room, not into the hallway...

Wow, that’s quite a bit of criticism. Some of it only makes sense when you consider that Lower Austrian building culture is unknown in Piefkeland, so some elements of the design come across as awkward here. Other parts really are problematic.

Having the living room door open into the hallway is perceived as odd, and in this particular case, combined with the staircase, it’s definitely not a clever solution.

The pantry has become uncommon here and, especially in this forum, is often interpreted as a utility storage room (for which it would, of course, need to be larger). That’s why the comment about the "yellow sack." This (sometimes called the green bin) is a recycling container used in Germany’s "Dual System," somewhat disparagingly referred to as the "yogurt cup collection system."

In Piefkeland, you buy yellow bags for this at tobacco shops (which are called something else there). Regarding your trash bins, I’d suggest storing them in the generously sized carport, perhaps in the corner where the storage room door currently swings open.

About the shower, I’m quite sure it won’t work as planned—try drawing a cross-section to check. Give the house half a meter more width (the carport space should allow this) and about a whole meter more depth. At the top of this section, you’ll find a pinned post on “floor plan design” that includes a drawing with minimum staircase dimensions. Yours doesn’t seem to meet those requirements upon recalculation.

This also applies to the headroom where the staircase reaches the attic, above the bathtub, and where the beds are placed. The knee wall (dormer knee wall) appears to be about 1.20 m (4 feet) high according to your elevation drawing and could be higher—try 1.50 m (5 feet)—even if that might make it less typical of the local style.

And, I have to agree: placing a cabinet about 70 cm (28 inches) behind each door swing would be possible. You probably just forgot to include the small washbasin in the upstairs WC on the drawing.

One compliment: the window sizes are pleasantly consistent. In many plans, you see nine different sizes among thirteen windows. You should reconsider their positions though: does the kitchen window swing open over the faucet?

Also, the one above the corner bench at the dining table doesn’t seem ideal. Executing it as a horizontal slot window, as is modern here, doesn’t fit the type of Lower Austrian settlement house. I assume the sill height is about 85 cm (33 inches). From the finished floor level, this is probably appropriate. What is allowed there might differ between Austria and Germany.

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@11ant
Let’s not be so dismissive.
What doesn’t work in a traditional German house won’t work in a house abroad either.
You don’t experience culture shocks in gable-roof houses, nor do you have to deal with unfamiliar living styles there.

Regards, Yvonne

ypg schrieb:
What doesn’t work in a Germania house won’t work in a house far away either.

Well, the original poster has faced quite strong opposition. Take the example of the door to the living room: around here, it would naturally open into the room itself, since it’s large enough and not just an auxiliary space. However, there is no corner or wall on either side of the door for it to rest against when opened. For that reason, some might find it more comfortable to have it open into the hallway. Every culture tends to have a different fundamental approach here; Lower Austria is somewhat “Bohemian” in its orientation—down-to-earth, rather than stylish.

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