ᐅ Floor plan of a single-family gable-roof house with a basement, approximately 200 square meters

Stein2023 schrieb:

@ypg: First of all, my husband and I would like to thank you for your detailed feedback. Much appreciated! Here is some basic information: We have quite clear ideas about how we want to realize our house. That’s why we tried to visualize our ideas in a draft ourselves, in a kind of DIY approach, which of course is not set in stone (otherwise we wouldn’t be active here in this forum). What we have often experienced among friends: endless back-and-forth with the architect until he or she gets frustrated and just slaps something together, as long as the client is quiet. We want to avoid exactly this endless loop and at least do enough preparation so that the architect can make modifications and not have to start the entire plan from scratch. And that is our main question: Could the architect build on this plan and work with it?

Thanks to many useful tips here, it seems to us that we have avoided major mistakes regarding distances or inefficient use of space. Some might see typical window seats or a laundry chute as highlights... For us, other aspects matter more, such as a short distance between the kitchen and basement, a spacious and always tidy wardrobe, a short, dry path from the car into the house, or the fact that two cars can be parked side by side under the carport. Just a few highlights from our draft... This may seem boring or a no-go for some, but every planner has their own ideas, wishes, and priorities, so every design should be seen as individual and not immediately labeled a failure...

Now to the specific draft:

- Window widths and arrangements: Yes, they look very awkward. But here we rely on the architect’s expertise.
- Basement stairs from the living room: Not a deal-breaker for us since we store many supplies in the basement and mainly use it to bring up provisions. Gardening tools, car tires, tools, etc. can be accessed via the exterior basement entrance.
- Terrace roof: A covered terrace is important to us because we often use the outdoor kitchen, including in winter. We are very familiar with the constant hassle of covering garden furniture from our parents’ experience. The view is less important to us. However, we have wondered whether it might actually get too dark? We have planned two double doors facing south. Shouldn’t that be enough?
- Balcony: Honestly, we might really need it. It just happened to fit. Originally, we wanted to use it for hanging laundry, but we could probably do that on the garage roof as well.
- Carport: Planning a corner lot with driveway, parking, garage, and a proper main entrance plus everything else isn’t easy. For us, the proposed solution is quite good: two dry parking spaces for cars plus a garage. If this costs an additional +30,000 due to statics, we might reconsider.
- Exterior view from the north side: We also disagreed about whether it looks unattractive. So we are thinking about shortening the bay window on the north side and straightening the entire north wall (ground floor + upper floor). That would give us the necessary width in the bedroom (a total of 7-8sqm (75-86 sqft) more, not 20-30sqm (215-323 sqft)).

Maybe we can get some constructive criticism based on our approach and find out whether the floor plan is livable or where there are still major mistakes.

Thank you very much.

ypg schrieb:

I have been a member here for 10 years now. Honestly? I’m tired of reading these justifications for why people prefer a house done poorly rather than well. It’s always the same or similar naive arguments: “I want it to be individual, I’m different, I’m special, no (architect) will understand me, or you don’t understand me.”

The house has almost the same room layout as nearly every family house for four people. You are not special in this regard. That can be explained to the architect in three sentences. And a covered terrace, a bedroom, a bathroom, or basement access can all be done ‘well.’

Also, this distorted idea that drying laundry needs 30sqm (323 sqft) — okay, please do it properly with access from the utility room and without the neighbors watching.

How do you imagine this? You give the architect your draft, and when they start to straighten out the structural challenges and improve everything with professional expertise, you get upset and say to yourself: see, they don’t understand our design.

And in case you still don’t get it: outstanding architecture is not feasible with this budget.

By the way, you yourself have been playing this ping-pong game well for over a year without an architect.

Stein2023 schrieb:

What we have often experienced within our circle of acquaintances: an endless back-and-forth with the architect until they get fed up and just slap something together, as long as the client stops complaining. We want to avoid exactly this endless loop and at least do the preliminary work so that the architect can make modifications instead of having to rewrite the entire plan from scratch. For us, the main question is: Can the architect start with the plan and work from there?

Stein2023 schrieb:

Maybe based on our approach we will get some constructive feedback and see if the floor plan is livable or where we might have made major mistakes.

Stein2023 schrieb:

We adapted an existing design from an architect to fit our needs.