ᐅ Single-family house floor plan, 200 sqm, wooden house in American style, concrete slab foundation
Created on: 22 Jun 2024 13:10
T
TRomz_y
Hi everyone,
we are planning to build a prefabricated timber-frame house in the American style.
Before choosing a supplier, we worked with an architect to develop a floor plan. The architect’s latest draft was acceptable, but we made some corrections and have now incorporated them into the floor plan via screenshots. I hope everything is still clear enough for evaluation despite that.
We are now entering the third round with the architect. After this, any further planning or changes will incur additional costs. Therefore, we are hoping for tips and constructive criticism.
Note: In the house visualizations, the carport roof is still very high (architect’s planning mistake, as the upper floor windows would have looked directly onto the carport roof...). The roof pitch will be lowered so that only a small roof remains.
Rear view: There is no railing on the back terrace, as the small roof at the carport should serve as a bicycle parking area, but this will be removed.
Thank you very much in advance for all your efforts.
Development plan / restrictions
Plot size: 1000sqm (about 10,764 sq ft)
Slope: no
Floor area ratio (FAR): 0.28
Plot ratio / building coverage index: n.a.
Building envelope, building line and boundaries: see site plan
Edge development
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 1
Roof type: gable roof, hip roof, half-hipped roof, etc.
Style: n.a.
Orientation: S/SW
Maximum heights / limits: ridge height 9m (30 ft), eaves height 4.30m (14 ft)
Other requirements: none
Client requirements
Style, roof type, building type: American farmhouse, gable roof
Basement, floors: no basement
Number of occupants, age: 2 adults, 1 child
Floor space required on ground floor (GF), upper floor (UF): approx. 160-170sqm (1,722-1,829 sq ft)
Office: family use or home office? Workspace for 2 people, both working from home, private use
Guests per year: 5
Open or closed layout: open kitchen-dining area
Conservative or modern style: farmhouse / modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport, 2 parking spaces required
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes / special features / daily routines, including reasons why some things are preferred or avoided:
- Because of the American style, we have covered terraces both at the front and back. We hope this means we won’t have the typical “mudroom” at the entrance (dirt settles on the terrace, shoes can possibly stay outside).
- No office on the upper floor due to sloping ceilings. The desks are height-adjustable, and we have bookshelves there... this would be difficult to accommodate.
- Laundry room on the upper floor with space for a drying rack is great – short distances.
- The living room should be separable to reduce noise from the kitchen (currently we have an open kitchen-dining-living area and it’s hard to watch TV when someone is cooking).
House design
Who designed the plan: Architect and our ideas
What do you like best? Why? Large kitchen-dining area
What do you dislike? Why?
The upper floor feels too big because we have – unfortunately – more rooms downstairs than upstairs. Does anyone see potential to save some floor space?
The wardrobe ended up there because the small room was still “left over.” It was originally the guest bathroom without a shower. We would like to have 2 showers in the house.
Estimated price according to architect/planner: 800,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house, including fixtures: 800k
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump, underfloor heating
If you had to give up any details or additional features:
- can give up: "all-purpose room" (see floor plan)
- cannot give up: mudroom
Why is the design as it is now? For example:
The floor plan ideas come from a collection of house tour videos and Pinterest inspirations.
Since the construction method places strong emphasis on symmetry and harmony in the façade, moving windows around is not “just possible” without causing visual chaos from the outside.
What do you think are its strong and weak points? Well, that’s the question. For us personally, everything is now taken into account, but is it also “logical”? Are there planning errors? What can be improved?
we are planning to build a prefabricated timber-frame house in the American style.
Before choosing a supplier, we worked with an architect to develop a floor plan. The architect’s latest draft was acceptable, but we made some corrections and have now incorporated them into the floor plan via screenshots. I hope everything is still clear enough for evaluation despite that.
We are now entering the third round with the architect. After this, any further planning or changes will incur additional costs. Therefore, we are hoping for tips and constructive criticism.
Note: In the house visualizations, the carport roof is still very high (architect’s planning mistake, as the upper floor windows would have looked directly onto the carport roof...). The roof pitch will be lowered so that only a small roof remains.
Rear view: There is no railing on the back terrace, as the small roof at the carport should serve as a bicycle parking area, but this will be removed.
Thank you very much in advance for all your efforts.
Development plan / restrictions
Plot size: 1000sqm (about 10,764 sq ft)
Slope: no
Floor area ratio (FAR): 0.28
Plot ratio / building coverage index: n.a.
Building envelope, building line and boundaries: see site plan
Edge development
Number of parking spaces: 2
Number of floors: 1
Roof type: gable roof, hip roof, half-hipped roof, etc.
Style: n.a.
Orientation: S/SW
Maximum heights / limits: ridge height 9m (30 ft), eaves height 4.30m (14 ft)
Other requirements: none
Client requirements
Style, roof type, building type: American farmhouse, gable roof
Basement, floors: no basement
Number of occupants, age: 2 adults, 1 child
Floor space required on ground floor (GF), upper floor (UF): approx. 160-170sqm (1,722-1,829 sq ft)
| Room | sqm |
| Ground floor |
| Living room, kitchen, and dining area | 55 |
| Entrance area | 10 |
| Utility room / mudroom | 10 |
| Technical room | 10 |
| Pantry | 4 |
| Office / private computer room | 15 |
| Guest bathroom | 4-6? |
| Upper floor | |
| Bedroom | 15 |
| Dressing room / walk-in closet | 10 |
| Child’s bedroom | 20 |
| Bathroom | 13 |
Office: family use or home office? Workspace for 2 people, both working from home, private use
Guests per year: 5
Open or closed layout: open kitchen-dining area
Conservative or modern style: farmhouse / modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes
Number of dining seats: 6
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport, 2 parking spaces required
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: no
Additional wishes / special features / daily routines, including reasons why some things are preferred or avoided:
- Because of the American style, we have covered terraces both at the front and back. We hope this means we won’t have the typical “mudroom” at the entrance (dirt settles on the terrace, shoes can possibly stay outside).
- No office on the upper floor due to sloping ceilings. The desks are height-adjustable, and we have bookshelves there... this would be difficult to accommodate.
- Laundry room on the upper floor with space for a drying rack is great – short distances.
- The living room should be separable to reduce noise from the kitchen (currently we have an open kitchen-dining-living area and it’s hard to watch TV when someone is cooking).
House design
Who designed the plan: Architect and our ideas
What do you like best? Why? Large kitchen-dining area
What do you dislike? Why?
The upper floor feels too big because we have – unfortunately – more rooms downstairs than upstairs. Does anyone see potential to save some floor space?
The wardrobe ended up there because the small room was still “left over.” It was originally the guest bathroom without a shower. We would like to have 2 showers in the house.
Estimated price according to architect/planner: 800,000 EUR
Personal price limit for the house, including fixtures: 800k
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump, underfloor heating
If you had to give up any details or additional features:
- can give up: "all-purpose room" (see floor plan)
- cannot give up: mudroom
Why is the design as it is now? For example:
The floor plan ideas come from a collection of house tour videos and Pinterest inspirations.
Since the construction method places strong emphasis on symmetry and harmony in the façade, moving windows around is not “just possible” without causing visual chaos from the outside.
What do you think are its strong and weak points? Well, that’s the question. For us personally, everything is now taken into account, but is it also “logical”? Are there planning errors? What can be improved?
Attached is the architect’s draft with measurements. Not all aspects suited us, so we redesigned some rooms (pictures in the original post).
To explain what we did not like about the architect’s draft:
Ground floor:
- The built-in tall cabinets (3 x 60cm (24 inches)) above the kitchen island are too far from the work area. Therefore, they need to be moved closer to the island/counter. This, however, obstructs the door to the pantry.
- The guest bathroom lacks a shower (we only have one upstairs in the family bathroom).
- The door between the pantry and the utility room takes up space in the pantry. Also, the utility room would have had two doors in a 10sqm (108 sq ft) area, which is likely not ideal considering the amount of equipment that will be installed there.
We liked the placement of the cloakroom.
Upper floor:
- Children’s room is huge, nearly 30sqm (323 sq ft).
- My husband did not like the idea of having to walk from one corner of the house to the opposite corner at night just to use the toilet. If he wanted to shower, he would have to walk even further.
- One wardrobe side with 40cm (16 inches) deep cabinets is not practical for us.
To explain what we did not like about the architect’s draft:
Ground floor:
- The built-in tall cabinets (3 x 60cm (24 inches)) above the kitchen island are too far from the work area. Therefore, they need to be moved closer to the island/counter. This, however, obstructs the door to the pantry.
- The guest bathroom lacks a shower (we only have one upstairs in the family bathroom).
- The door between the pantry and the utility room takes up space in the pantry. Also, the utility room would have had two doors in a 10sqm (108 sq ft) area, which is likely not ideal considering the amount of equipment that will be installed there.
We liked the placement of the cloakroom.
Upper floor:
- Children’s room is huge, nearly 30sqm (323 sq ft).
- My husband did not like the idea of having to walk from one corner of the house to the opposite corner at night just to use the toilet. If he wanted to shower, he would have to walk even further.
- One wardrobe side with 40cm (16 inches) deep cabinets is not practical for us.
I don’t find either design well thought-out, although it will of course be a very nice house.
Yours seems even less practical. The mudroom and pantry somehow interfere with each other, and the square meters are not used efficiently. How do you actually get through the carport door when a car is parked inside?
I also don’t understand why pantries are constantly planned, but the kitchen itself is neglected. Where do opened beverage bottles go during the day? Where is the coffee machine/food processor supposed to be? Only tall cabinets are planned, but no countertop space. Your pantry would only work with shelves, no cabinet doors!
Your restroom doesn’t work at all. Also, a cloakroom is missing; the architect seems to have included it in the mudroom, but you have some sort of improvised solution at the end of the hallway.
I prefer the upper floor plan by the architect. Your dressing room is just a dark, narrow space.
The children’s room seems excessively large to me.
Maybe it would be better to plan an attic on the upper floor and reduce the size of the freezer room or storage slightly.
I would place the carports along the property boundary.
Yours seems even less practical. The mudroom and pantry somehow interfere with each other, and the square meters are not used efficiently. How do you actually get through the carport door when a car is parked inside?
I also don’t understand why pantries are constantly planned, but the kitchen itself is neglected. Where do opened beverage bottles go during the day? Where is the coffee machine/food processor supposed to be? Only tall cabinets are planned, but no countertop space. Your pantry would only work with shelves, no cabinet doors!
Your restroom doesn’t work at all. Also, a cloakroom is missing; the architect seems to have included it in the mudroom, but you have some sort of improvised solution at the end of the hallway.
I prefer the upper floor plan by the architect. Your dressing room is just a dark, narrow space.
The children’s room seems excessively large to me.
Maybe it would be better to plan an attic on the upper floor and reduce the size of the freezer room or storage slightly.
I would place the carports along the property boundary.
S
Schorsch_baut23 Jun 2024 18:51I find the ground floor unnecessarily complicated, with many oversized hallways that lead to small, cramped rooms. It feels like a rabbit warren. I especially dislike the combination of the mudroom and pantry. I always wonder what kind of dirt is supposed to be contained there. This isn’t a ranch where a farmer and his 15 children come in after a hard day castrating bulls. It just creates strange chambers with many doors and little usable space, trying to fit everything into a rather small floor plan.
I would suggest designing the floor plan less based on aesthetics and wish lists, and more according to actual usage and needs.
I would suggest designing the floor plan less based on aesthetics and wish lists, and more according to actual usage and needs.
B
Buchsbaum06623 Jun 2024 20:09I would not build a timber frame house, regardless of the style, in Germany. The climate here is not suitable and it only causes problems. At least the ground floor should always be built with solid construction. The upper floor can still be done using timber frame construction.
ypg schrieb:
I don’t find either layout very practical, although it will definitely be a very nice house.
Yours seems even less practical. The mudroom and pantry somehow interfere with each other; the square meters aren’t really used efficiently. How do you get through that carport door if there’s a car parked inside?
I also don’t understand why pantries are always planned, but the kitchen gets neglected. Where do you put opened drink bottles for the day? Where do the coffee machine and food processor go? Only tall cabinets are planned, but no countertop space. Your pantry can only work with shelves, no cabinet doors!
Your WC layout doesn’t work at all. And there is no proper cloakroom; the architect seems to have included it in the mudroom, but you have that improvised setup at the end of the hallway.
I like the architect’s layout of the upper floor better. Your dressing room is a dark tunnel.
I think the children’s room is oversized.
Maybe you should just plan a storage room upstairs and make the freezer room or storage a bit smaller.
I would place carports on the property boundary. Thanks for your feedback so far!
What exactly do you mean by "mudroom and pantry somehow interfere with each other"?
You can get through the carport door because we only have one car at the moment, so there is space. If we get a second car, it would just be parked slightly further back. I don’t see this as a real problem.
I have only planned 3 tall cabinets along one wall in the kitchen. Do you think that’s a lot? The rest of the kitchen (4-5m (13-16 feet)) is dedicated countertop space. That’s where the coffee machine and food processor will be. The toaster and air fryer will go in the pantry.
Why do you think the pantry doesn’t work? It could be slightly deeper, but otherwise it consists of standard 60cm (24 inches) kitchen cabinets with drawers, and a minimum 1m (3 feet) wide walkway in front.
Could you explain in more detail why you think the WC layout doesn’t work?
The architect didn’t plan the cloakroom inside the mudroom but as a small separate area to the right (left side of the entrance). However, that will be removed because the front door is being shifted to the left. So we are looking for a new location for the guest cloakroom.
Putting a proper cloakroom inside the mudroom goes against the main concept of the mudroom itself.
The dark tunnel dressing room will of course get a skylight. It was hard to screenshot, but thanks for pointing it out.
What do you mean by "storage room upstairs"? Storage = attic? Most items are needed downstairs, so upstairs would be inconvenient.
Having a utility/technical room smaller than 10m² (108 sq ft) is a no-go.
We cannot place the carport on the property boundary because it has a roof.
Schorsch_baut schrieb:
I find the ground floor unnecessarily complicated, with many oversized hallways that end in small cupboards. It feels like a rabbit warren. I especially dislike the combination of a mudroom and pantry. I always wonder how much dirt they’re supposed to block there. It’s not like it’s a ranch where a farmer and 15 kids stomp in after a hard day castrating bulls. It just creates strange little rooms with many doors and little usable space, trying to squeeze everything into a rather small floor plan.
I would suggest planning the layout less based on appearance and wish lists, and more according to actual usage and needs. Hi and thank you for your response!
Our idea behind the "mudroom" is that groceries can be brought into the kitchen quickly and covered, without wearing dirty outdoor shoes (rain, snow, grit, etc.).
Or that our son can come home from sports or school and just drop his backpack and sports gear in the corner.
I know plenty of regular coat areas in houses that overflow and always look messy.
In addition, the mudroom also contains wardrobes for storing winter jackets and is part of the utility room.
Perhaps the combination of pantry and mudroom isn’t ideal. However, the intention was that one shopping bag with supplies and frozen goods (the freezer is also located there) could stay in the mudroom, while the other bag goes directly into the kitchen. So basically, unloading everything in sequence on one direct route.
The floor plan actually developed from a description of our daily routine. The architect then designed based on that.
Personally, I even find it impractical to carry groceries from a carport to the front door—especially in the rain—as many people do when their garage or carport isn’t attached directly to the house.
A covered, short route met our needs and reflects how we realistically use the space.
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