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
Opinions vary so much... we find floor-to-ceiling windows absolutely fantastic. The sense of space is so much better; everything feels more open, inviting, and simply more beautiful, both inside and out. Surface area… okay, we have enough of that anyway, but for example with plants: a large pot with a beautiful plant in front of a floor-to-ceiling window looks much nicer (from both inside and outside) than a bare window sill with small flowers... ; For children, floor-to-ceiling windows all around the house are a huge advantage—they can look outside anywhere without having to climb... at least ours really enjoy that (yes, they’re allowed to go outside sometimes, not just look out).
J
j.bautsch28 Mar 2018 10:10I strongly agree with maria and nordlys. If you have the space, they really make an impact. But the footprint is also more valuable to me.
I fully agree with Tego when it comes to floor-to-ceiling windows.
An entrance from the garage to the utility room... well, in the past, there was the delivery entrance, so overall it’s not impractical—IF you have enough space. That means a utility room that is large enough. If in doubt, I would always give up this door in favor of more parking space. But it does have its charm not having to carry beverage crates all through the house to the utility room, but just opening one door and—voila—straight from the trunk to the place where the stuff belongs.
Regarding the typical size of a utility room in a single-family home, I agree with Kaho: it’s better to skip it.
An entrance from the garage to the utility room... well, in the past, there was the delivery entrance, so overall it’s not impractical—IF you have enough space. That means a utility room that is large enough. If in doubt, I would always give up this door in favor of more parking space. But it does have its charm not having to carry beverage crates all through the house to the utility room, but just opening one door and—voila—straight from the trunk to the place where the stuff belongs.
Regarding the typical size of a utility room in a single-family home, I agree with Kaho: it’s better to skip it.
Tego12 schrieb:
Opinions vary so much... we think floor-to-ceiling windows are absolutely fantastic. The sense of space is so much better, everything feels more open, inviting, ... simply nicer, both inside and out. Floor space... well, we have enough of that anyway.If you have enough floor space, then it works. I like it too—unless eventually the desk with all the cable mess ends up right in front of it. And that’s actually what I usually see as standard in newly built areas on the upper floor (or half-drawn pleated blinds...).
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