ᐅ Single-family home, approximately 1500 square feet, with 2 children’s bedrooms – What do you think of the floor plan?
Created on: 4 Aug 2018 14:18
S
Stege90Hello,
we have been offered a plot of land by a developer and would like to build our future home there. The plot is located at the end of a cul-de-sac in a traffic-calmed residential area (infilling development).
I should mention upfront that we have not yet received much information from the developer. We shared our rough requirements with him, and he has created a first draft, so far only for the ground floor.
It would be great if you could help us evaluate this early on before we progress too far in the planning and have to make major changes later.
The positioning of the house on the plot is due to the fact that all other options we considered would cast too much shadow on the rest of the plot.
The plot shown as undeveloped on the site plan has meanwhile been built on with a bungalow (marked). A carport will be constructed between the bungalow and our plot.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: approx. 750 m² (about 8,070 sq ft)
Slope: none
Floor area ratio: no information received yet
Plot ratio: no information received yet
Building window, building line, and boundary: no information received yet
Edge development: no information received yet
Number of parking spaces: no information received yet
Number of floors: no information received yet
Roof shape:
Architectural style:
Orientation: see image
Maximum heights / limits: ?
Additional requirements?
Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: A mono-pitched roof was preferred to minimize sloping ceilings, but according to the developer and the development plan this is not permitted, so a gable roof was proposed – this still needs clarification.
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 floors
Number of occupants, age: currently 3 (28, 28, 1), planned: second child
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: Ground floor: guest toilet, utility room, kitchen/dining room, living room; Upper floor: 3 bedrooms, office, bathroom
Office use: family or home office? office to be used occasionally as a mobile workspace; initially also as a guest room
Guests per year – every 3 months 2-4 people
Open or closed layout – rather closed
Conservative or modern construction: probably a mix
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen connected to dining room – no freestanding kitchen island; separation from dining area by a counter
Number of dining seats: minimum 6, option for a large dining table (big family)
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: yes, in the living room where the sofa is currently planned (wall on the left towards the carport); sofa arranged in an L-shape facing north and east – pictures might be hung on the wall towards the dining room
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage was requested, but we also like the current proposal
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be included:
Bathroom – T-shaped bathroom with shower cabin desired; a large washbasin
Walk-in closet not desired
No basement
Access via the garage/carport
House Design
Designed by:
- planner from a construction company
What do you particularly like and why? What do you dislike and why?
We definitely want the carport to be wider than in the initial floor plan – at least 4 meters (about 13 feet).
Noticeable is the missing entrance area, i.e. the actual front door. Initially, this seemed strange to us, but it provides many opportunities for the interior layout, so after some consideration we don’t find it so bad.
Price estimate according to architect/planner; personal price limit for the house, including fittings: approx. €260,000
Preferred heating technology: not discussed yet
If you have to give up something, which features/extensions
- can you do without: garage – already left out by the developer to enable the design without a main entrance area
- cannot do without: kitchen/dining area – pantry next to the kitchen
Why is the design like it is? For example:
We do not want a completely open living/dining area. Therefore, the living room should be a separate, closed room.
[U]What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
What do you think about the missing traditional entrance area?
Please feel free to criticize and offer suggestions for improvement. For now, the focus is on the house location on the plot and the ground floor layout. Since we are still at the beginning, many things are still changeable.
we have been offered a plot of land by a developer and would like to build our future home there. The plot is located at the end of a cul-de-sac in a traffic-calmed residential area (infilling development).
I should mention upfront that we have not yet received much information from the developer. We shared our rough requirements with him, and he has created a first draft, so far only for the ground floor.
It would be great if you could help us evaluate this early on before we progress too far in the planning and have to make major changes later.
The positioning of the house on the plot is due to the fact that all other options we considered would cast too much shadow on the rest of the plot.
The plot shown as undeveloped on the site plan has meanwhile been built on with a bungalow (marked). A carport will be constructed between the bungalow and our plot.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: approx. 750 m² (about 8,070 sq ft)
Slope: none
Floor area ratio: no information received yet
Plot ratio: no information received yet
Building window, building line, and boundary: no information received yet
Edge development: no information received yet
Number of parking spaces: no information received yet
Number of floors: no information received yet
Roof shape:
Architectural style:
Orientation: see image
Maximum heights / limits: ?
Additional requirements?
Client Requirements
Style, roof type, building type: A mono-pitched roof was preferred to minimize sloping ceilings, but according to the developer and the development plan this is not permitted, so a gable roof was proposed – this still needs clarification.
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 floors
Number of occupants, age: currently 3 (28, 28, 1), planned: second child
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: Ground floor: guest toilet, utility room, kitchen/dining room, living room; Upper floor: 3 bedrooms, office, bathroom
Office use: family or home office? office to be used occasionally as a mobile workspace; initially also as a guest room
Guests per year – every 3 months 2-4 people
Open or closed layout – rather closed
Conservative or modern construction: probably a mix
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen connected to dining room – no freestanding kitchen island; separation from dining area by a counter
Number of dining seats: minimum 6, option for a large dining table (big family)
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: yes, in the living room where the sofa is currently planned (wall on the left towards the carport); sofa arranged in an L-shape facing north and east – pictures might be hung on the wall towards the dining room
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: garage was requested, but we also like the current proposal
Utility garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be included:
Bathroom – T-shaped bathroom with shower cabin desired; a large washbasin
Walk-in closet not desired
No basement
Access via the garage/carport
House Design
Designed by:
- planner from a construction company
What do you particularly like and why? What do you dislike and why?
We definitely want the carport to be wider than in the initial floor plan – at least 4 meters (about 13 feet).
Noticeable is the missing entrance area, i.e. the actual front door. Initially, this seemed strange to us, but it provides many opportunities for the interior layout, so after some consideration we don’t find it so bad.
Price estimate according to architect/planner; personal price limit for the house, including fittings: approx. €260,000
Preferred heating technology: not discussed yet
If you have to give up something, which features/extensions
- can you do without: garage – already left out by the developer to enable the design without a main entrance area
- cannot do without: kitchen/dining area – pantry next to the kitchen
Why is the design like it is? For example:
We do not want a completely open living/dining area. Therefore, the living room should be a separate, closed room.
[U]What is the most important / fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
What do you think about the missing traditional entrance area?
Please feel free to criticize and offer suggestions for improvement. For now, the focus is on the house location on the plot and the ground floor layout. Since we are still at the beginning, many things are still changeable.
This all sounds very unfortunate. A house design can really only be developed once the entire room program has been compiled and distributed across the floors. What we see here instead is an attempt to somehow fit rooms into a buildable floor area. And on top of that, the second half of your living space requirements is supposed to be accommodated—uncertain as to how much volume the attic will actually provide. This is a foolhardy approach and cannot lead to a coherent and functional result.
Am I right in assuming the trigger was that you liked a house from this developer? Or was it simply because they were nearby?
Is this person even a developer (someone who sells a built or partly built property, which doesn’t necessarily mean construction has already started), or more of a builder/contractor (who may also broker the plot but sells the house and land separately)?
I hope you haven’t signed anything yet. Someone who blindly picks from the lottery of available plots in the market, just to sell you a house build on that basis, is more of a gambler than a reliable partner for what is supposed to become a home for your family.
Experienced and successful developers do not operate in batch sizes of “just one single-family home” — that is more typical of desperate builders (who also strongly advise against taking completion guarantees/insurance from such parties).
Don’t rush into this disaster; keep looking.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Am I right in assuming the trigger was that you liked a house from this developer? Or was it simply because they were nearby?
Is this person even a developer (someone who sells a built or partly built property, which doesn’t necessarily mean construction has already started), or more of a builder/contractor (who may also broker the plot but sells the house and land separately)?
I hope you haven’t signed anything yet. Someone who blindly picks from the lottery of available plots in the market, just to sell you a house build on that basis, is more of a gambler than a reliable partner for what is supposed to become a home for your family.
Experienced and successful developers do not operate in batch sizes of “just one single-family home” — that is more typical of desperate builders (who also strongly advise against taking completion guarantees/insurance from such parties).
Don’t rush into this disaster; keep looking.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
At the entrance area, I don’t see anything unusual. You enter and stand in the hallway, just like in almost every house I know.
I don’t think the layout start is completely unsuccessful. The dining room feels too narrow and uncomfortable to me. In my opinion, the house needs more depth there – also to make the kitchen a bit larger.
I would remove the storage room under the stairs, reverse the stair direction, and allocate half of the stairs (and the space underneath) to the utility room. Large sliding doors between the dining area and the living room make everything feel much more spacious.
However, the discussion doesn’t really make sense without the upper floor yet.
Placing the house all the way to the west ruins your chance for a west-facing terrace and evening sun. But if you’ve already spent a lot of time on this consideration, I’ll save my keystrokes.
I don’t think the layout start is completely unsuccessful. The dining room feels too narrow and uncomfortable to me. In my opinion, the house needs more depth there – also to make the kitchen a bit larger.
I would remove the storage room under the stairs, reverse the stair direction, and allocate half of the stairs (and the space underneath) to the utility room. Large sliding doors between the dining area and the living room make everything feel much more spacious.
However, the discussion doesn’t really make sense without the upper floor yet.
Placing the house all the way to the west ruins your chance for a west-facing terrace and evening sun. But if you’ve already spent a lot of time on this consideration, I’ll save my keystrokes.
kaho674 schrieb:
I don’t think the initial layout is completely off. It’s not the ground floor plan itself that’s bad, but rather the methodical approach—*ahem*—“highly questionable” of drawing the ground floor for the client, even though it’s still unclear what exactly will go into the upper floor.
Anyone who blunders this badly during the planning stage will leave a more disappointed client than the general contractor from @R.Hotzenplotz.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
You are right. Without the upper floor, everything is difficult to plan. We also want to get the development plan / building permit first to know all the details.
We are buying the plot from the builder, so naturally, we will have to build with him afterward. I understand your general doubts about this builder, given how things currently look, but in the end, we have great trust in him. He is a typical rural builder, one of only two builders in our region with a very good reputation. It feels like he has built almost every other house in our town. We will definitely address his approach critically, and then things will work out.
I find that interesting but don’t fully understand it yet. With this option, the space under the stairs, which is currently drawn as a storage room/niche, would be added to the utility room. What would be the advantage? Or how could I better use this space there? As it stands, I would have a sloped ceiling including a niche, which would cost me a “wall of cabinets,” or am I misunderstanding?
I am still open to this, but we believe we have thought it through. Positioning the house in the southeast would cost us a lot of sun during the day (no south-facing windows on the ground floor), and the house would also cast a large shadow over much of the plot. Only from the late afternoon in summer would we get good sun exposure.
As a possible solution to the issue you mentioned, we are considering placing a terrace in the northeast corner of the plot.
We are buying the plot from the builder, so naturally, we will have to build with him afterward. I understand your general doubts about this builder, given how things currently look, but in the end, we have great trust in him. He is a typical rural builder, one of only two builders in our region with a very good reputation. It feels like he has built almost every other house in our town. We will definitely address his approach critically, and then things will work out.
kaho674 schrieb:
I would remove the storage room under the stairs, reverse the staircase direction, and add half of the staircase (and the space under it) to the utility room.
I find that interesting but don’t fully understand it yet. With this option, the space under the stairs, which is currently drawn as a storage room/niche, would be added to the utility room. What would be the advantage? Or how could I better use this space there? As it stands, I would have a sloped ceiling including a niche, which would cost me a “wall of cabinets,” or am I misunderstanding?
kaho674 schrieb:
Positioning the house all the way to the west ruins your chance for a west-facing terrace and evening sun. But if you’ve already spent a lot of time on this decision, I’ll save my keystrokes.
I am still open to this, but we believe we have thought it through. Positioning the house in the southeast would cost us a lot of sun during the day (no south-facing windows on the ground floor), and the house would also cast a large shadow over much of the plot. Only from the late afternoon in summer would we get good sun exposure.
As a possible solution to the issue you mentioned, we are considering placing a terrace in the northeast corner of the plot.
Stege90 schrieb:
He is one of the two main contractors in our region and has a very good reputation. It feels like he has built every second house in our town. Well, the people from Büttenwarder aren’t exactly a demanding clientele either.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
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