Hello,
My wife and I visited a model home park for prefabricated houses yesterday, and we noticed that each house offered various features and floor plans whose practical benefits I don’t quite understand. That’s why I’m starting this thread, hoping you can explain the advantages of these choices or point out what I might be missing and why it still makes sense to design a house that way:
1. Almost every house had floor-to-ceiling windows installed. What’s the purpose of these? I imagine they would be terrible both in summer and winter. Wouldn’t it get extremely hot in summer? And in winter, don’t you constantly have to lower the blinds so that anyone passing by can’t look directly into the living room or inside the house? Also, isn’t the effort to clean those windows huge? Am I missing something? Do they have advantages that I don’t see?
2. There wasn’t a single house where the kitchen and dining area were separated from the living space; at best, the kitchen was separated from the dining area. I understand that having everything open makes the space appear larger and is better for hosting many people, but isn’t it very impractical? If I’m frying or cooking something in the kitchen, doesn’t the whole living room end up smelling like food? It would also bother me that as soon as my wife or I have guests over, the other person couldn’t sit in the living room and watch TV quietly, for example. This might sound a bit picky, but for me, it’s important that everyone can invite their friends without the other person always being within earshot or needing to get out of the way somehow. Why are open-plan ground floors so common? What are the real advantages?
3. The balconies on the upper floor are always accessible from one of the children’s bedrooms and the parents’ bedroom. Doesn’t that significantly affect privacy? I can’t imagine it’s great if my child can constantly knock on our bedroom door via the balcony, for example. Also, if you have two children, wouldn’t the one without a balcony be at a disadvantage?
I don’t want to bias you with my opinions here—I’m completely open to your views because I’d like to be convinced of the benefits. So I would like to know your reasons for including such features in your plans. Alternatively, has anyone built in a more “traditional” way and can speak to the practicality of these layout choices?
Best regards
My wife and I visited a model home park for prefabricated houses yesterday, and we noticed that each house offered various features and floor plans whose practical benefits I don’t quite understand. That’s why I’m starting this thread, hoping you can explain the advantages of these choices or point out what I might be missing and why it still makes sense to design a house that way:
1. Almost every house had floor-to-ceiling windows installed. What’s the purpose of these? I imagine they would be terrible both in summer and winter. Wouldn’t it get extremely hot in summer? And in winter, don’t you constantly have to lower the blinds so that anyone passing by can’t look directly into the living room or inside the house? Also, isn’t the effort to clean those windows huge? Am I missing something? Do they have advantages that I don’t see?
2. There wasn’t a single house where the kitchen and dining area were separated from the living space; at best, the kitchen was separated from the dining area. I understand that having everything open makes the space appear larger and is better for hosting many people, but isn’t it very impractical? If I’m frying or cooking something in the kitchen, doesn’t the whole living room end up smelling like food? It would also bother me that as soon as my wife or I have guests over, the other person couldn’t sit in the living room and watch TV quietly, for example. This might sound a bit picky, but for me, it’s important that everyone can invite their friends without the other person always being within earshot or needing to get out of the way somehow. Why are open-plan ground floors so common? What are the real advantages?
3. The balconies on the upper floor are always accessible from one of the children’s bedrooms and the parents’ bedroom. Doesn’t that significantly affect privacy? I can’t imagine it’s great if my child can constantly knock on our bedroom door via the balcony, for example. Also, if you have two children, wouldn’t the one without a balcony be at a disadvantage?
I don’t want to bias you with my opinions here—I’m completely open to your views because I’d like to be convinced of the benefits. So I would like to know your reasons for including such features in your plans. Alternatively, has anyone built in a more “traditional” way and can speak to the practicality of these layout choices?
Best regards
I’ll join in as well
We are also part of the “old-fashioned” camp when it comes to our house—at least that’s been the reaction every time a new tradesperson showed up or during the regular planning sessions with the architect.
We don’t mind, because we like it that way
1) Floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere: For us, this was almost a dealbreaker. In the architect’s first draft, it felt like there were floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere.
Even though we live in the middle of the forest and nobody can really look in, we finally decided to have only one large floor-to-ceiling window in the living room. All other windows have sills. They are set at 1.20 m (4 feet) in the bathroom and hallway, 0.90 m (3 feet) in the kitchen and living room, and the same applies to the separate apartment.
2) Open kitchen/dining/living area: We have lived in our old house with an open-plan kitchen and living space for over 12 years, and I can’t wait to move because then I can prepare things without our pets constantly getting in the way.
An open kitchen-living area is a must-have here since most of our daily life happens in the kitchen. We sit comfortably there with guests, chat, and of course, eat with the family.
We only use the large table in the living room for family gatherings or holidays when we have visitors.
That’s why in the new house, the pantry is directly connected to the kitchen with an exit towards the garden/carport/terrace.
3) Balconies: Well, no one here really has them^^ and we don’t either— we have a garden ^^
4) Walk-in closet: According to the plan, we do have one, but it’s mostly designed as an office with an additional wardrobe. It’s a sort of buffer zone to the children’s room, and we preferred separating the space rather than having a huge bedroom. That way, my husband can still play on the computer in the evening if needed, while I can watch TV or sleep.
5) Bathrooms: We have one bathroom upstairs for everyone, which is how we grew up (just like generations before us). We have lived fine with that so far, and I don’t see why we’d need a second one. There is a separate toilet downstairs, which was important to us so guests don’t always have to use our bathroom, and so there’s an alternative if the upstairs one is occupied.
I think that’s everything
We are also part of the “old-fashioned” camp when it comes to our house—at least that’s been the reaction every time a new tradesperson showed up or during the regular planning sessions with the architect.
We don’t mind, because we like it that way
1) Floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere: For us, this was almost a dealbreaker. In the architect’s first draft, it felt like there were floor-to-ceiling windows everywhere.
Even though we live in the middle of the forest and nobody can really look in, we finally decided to have only one large floor-to-ceiling window in the living room. All other windows have sills. They are set at 1.20 m (4 feet) in the bathroom and hallway, 0.90 m (3 feet) in the kitchen and living room, and the same applies to the separate apartment.
2) Open kitchen/dining/living area: We have lived in our old house with an open-plan kitchen and living space for over 12 years, and I can’t wait to move because then I can prepare things without our pets constantly getting in the way.
An open kitchen-living area is a must-have here since most of our daily life happens in the kitchen. We sit comfortably there with guests, chat, and of course, eat with the family.
We only use the large table in the living room for family gatherings or holidays when we have visitors.
That’s why in the new house, the pantry is directly connected to the kitchen with an exit towards the garden/carport/terrace.
3) Balconies: Well, no one here really has them^^ and we don’t either— we have a garden ^^
4) Walk-in closet: According to the plan, we do have one, but it’s mostly designed as an office with an additional wardrobe. It’s a sort of buffer zone to the children’s room, and we preferred separating the space rather than having a huge bedroom. That way, my husband can still play on the computer in the evening if needed, while I can watch TV or sleep.
5) Bathrooms: We have one bathroom upstairs for everyone, which is how we grew up (just like generations before us). We have lived fine with that so far, and I don’t see why we’d need a second one. There is a separate toilet downstairs, which was important to us so guests don’t always have to use our bathroom, and so there’s an alternative if the upstairs one is occupied.
I think that’s everything
B
Bieber081516 Oct 2017 14:42Caidori schrieb:
open kitchen/dining/living area: We have been living in the old house with the open-plan kitchen and living area for over 12 years, and I will be very glad when we move out — if only because then I can prepare things without the pets running around in the way. An open kitchen is a must here,[...]I don’t quite understand your statements regarding this question.
Caidori schrieb:
...I will be so relieved once we’ve moved, if only because I can prepare things without the animals running around in the way. Well, those pets are badly trained! Both the dog and the cat are allowed in my kitchen, but they’re not allowed to run around or sniff the food.
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