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icarus1238 Mar 2023 13:04Hello dear forum members.
I have been quietly following for some time and would now like to take the opportunity to gather some tips and advice. We are currently planning our house and would like to share our initial drafts with you.
We are completely flexible in the planning and want a functional home for 4 people. Important features for us are a kitchen island, fireplace, and walk-in shower on the ground floor.
We would appreciate any tips and suggestions, as we have never planned or built a house before.
Thank you very much in advance.
Development plan / restrictions
Plot size 774 m² (8,328 sq ft)
Slope no
Floor area ratio 0.25
Site coverage ratio
Building envelope, building line and boundary 12 m wide (39 ft)
Edge building: no
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hip roof
Style: urban villa
Orientation: garden terrace south/west
Maximum heights / limits 8.5 m ridge (28 ft)
Bend protection strip including bend 6.8 m (22 ft)
Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Mediterranean
Urban villa, 2 full floors
Number of residents, ages: 4 persons, 28, 32, 3, 1
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Office: partial home office
Open kitchen, kitchen island yes
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: yes
Garage: yes
House design
Who designed it: general contractor (GC)
What do you like most? Why?
What do you dislike? Upstairs bathroom not finalized yet, drainage pipe is annoying.
Personal budget limit for the house including fittings: fixed price with buffer available
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump
If you have to give something up, which details/extras
- can give up: many things except those below
- cannot give up: fireplace, kitchen island, walk-in shower
Why did the design turn out the way it is?
Design by GC planner based on sketch.






I have been quietly following for some time and would now like to take the opportunity to gather some tips and advice. We are currently planning our house and would like to share our initial drafts with you.
We are completely flexible in the planning and want a functional home for 4 people. Important features for us are a kitchen island, fireplace, and walk-in shower on the ground floor.
We would appreciate any tips and suggestions, as we have never planned or built a house before.
Thank you very much in advance.
Development plan / restrictions
Plot size 774 m² (8,328 sq ft)
Slope no
Floor area ratio 0.25
Site coverage ratio
Building envelope, building line and boundary 12 m wide (39 ft)
Edge building: no
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 2
Roof type: hip roof
Style: urban villa
Orientation: garden terrace south/west
Maximum heights / limits 8.5 m ridge (28 ft)
Bend protection strip including bend 6.8 m (22 ft)
Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: Mediterranean
Urban villa, 2 full floors
Number of residents, ages: 4 persons, 28, 32, 3, 1
Room requirements on ground floor and upper floor:
Office: partial home office
Open kitchen, kitchen island yes
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: yes
Garage: yes
House design
Who designed it: general contractor (GC)
What do you like most? Why?
What do you dislike? Upstairs bathroom not finalized yet, drainage pipe is annoying.
Personal budget limit for the house including fittings: fixed price with buffer available
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump
If you have to give something up, which details/extras
- can give up: many things except those below
- cannot give up: fireplace, kitchen island, walk-in shower
Why did the design turn out the way it is?
Design by GC planner based on sketch.
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icarus1238 Mar 2023 13:33We had already considered an alternative for the bathroom. If you mirror the staircase, the shower could extend into the hallway. I tried to illustrate this, but I’m not very skilled at it.
The staircase is very inconveniently placed because it dictates the large hallway upstairs. I would move it further towards the top of the plan, possibly swapping it with the guest WC. Upstairs, the 5m² (54ft²) utility room is quite confusing. You will probably regret it, as it will hardly be usable. For the hallway downstairs, I would already start taking dance lessons.
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icarus1238 Mar 2023 13:55Hello SoL.
Thank you for the quick response.
Our bedroom is currently planned to be about 15 square meters (160 square feet). We were considering adding a small lightweight partition wall for a walk-in closet. The home office is actually intended for occasional use only, since both of us can work remotely on short notice and one of us can retreat there. However, it is indeed quite small. We haven’t come up with any alternatives (maybe integrating it into the bedroom after all). The children’s rooms should remain around 13 square meters (140 square feet) for us.
The hallway and stairwell area with the bathrooms are also causing us some concern, but we don’t know how we could significantly change anything here. We really like the living room/dining area/kitchen layout as it is...
Thank you for the quick response.
Our bedroom is currently planned to be about 15 square meters (160 square feet). We were considering adding a small lightweight partition wall for a walk-in closet. The home office is actually intended for occasional use only, since both of us can work remotely on short notice and one of us can retreat there. However, it is indeed quite small. We haven’t come up with any alternatives (maybe integrating it into the bedroom after all). The children’s rooms should remain around 13 square meters (140 square feet) for us.
The hallway and stairwell area with the bathrooms are also causing us some concern, but we don’t know how we could significantly change anything here. We really like the living room/dining area/kitchen layout as it is...
icarus123 schrieb:
We really like the living room/dining room/kitchen area as it is...How do you plan to furnish it? Like in the design with the dining table next to the sofa? With this kind of floor plan, I would expect the dining table to be placed in the open area at the top left. However, in this design, that space is too small for a dining table.
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icarus1238 Mar 2023 14:36We originally intended to keep the dining table as it is. The space in front of the kitchen island is meant for the children to play while we cook, and we liked keeping the area open since we expect to use the sliding patio door leading to our terrace quite often.
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