ᐅ Preliminary design floor plan for a single-family house with double garage, feedback requested
Created on: 1 Jul 2025 15:43
V
vineyard9
Hello everyone.
My wife and I are currently planning our house with our architect and now have a preliminary draft of the floor plan for which we would like to get your feedback.
The house will be built in a new residential area with the following conditions.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 619 m2 (6660 sq ft)
Floor area ratio (FAR): 0.35
Gross floor area ratio (GFAR): 0.6
Building envelope, building line and boundary: Building boundary 2.50 meters (8 feet)
Edge development: Max. 9 meters (30 feet)
Number of parking spaces: 1.5
Garage: Double garage, additional parking spaces in the yard in front of the garage
Number of floors: 2 floors with wall height of 6.50 meters (21 feet) on the eaves side
Roof type: No general restrictions on roof design
Architectural style: Classic, straightforward
Building plot: P06
Other: The construction area is located on a plateau with sloping terrain towards the south and west, offering a view over a river valley.
Owners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: Classic single-family house with gable roof and basement
Number of floors: Fully basement, two full floors above ground
Number of occupants, age: Couple (mid-30s), one infant, another child planned
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: Desired living area between 180 and 210 m2 (1937 and 2260 sq ft)
Office: Family use or home office?
Used as a home office but also for private use by family members
Guests per year:
Not yet predictable, guest room will be regularly used by grandparents and friends
Open or closed architecture:
Open, but with defined separate areas
Conservative or modern design: Probably conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Open kitchen with kitchen island, adjacent pantry
Number of dining seats: 6–8
Fireplace: Yes, possibly also as room divider
Music/stereo wall: Not present, standard media wall
Balcony, roof terrace: No, but a large terrace facing south/west with a roof covering
Garage, carport: Double garage with storage space, access through a mudroom into the house
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why some things should or should not be done:
Separated hallway for sound insulation of bedrooms, open living and dining area, mudroom as access to the garage, master bedroom facing north, two children’s rooms
House Design
Planning by: Architect
What do you particularly like? Why?
Bay window with a view over the beautiful valley, garden orientation at the front of the house
What do you not like? Why?
Shape of the children’s rooms, long and narrow and possibly too little natural light
Corridor on the upper floor is quite narrow – could this cause problems? Especially when moving furniture, etc. The house is generally rather long and narrow
Price estimate according to architect/planner: Not yet available
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: 700,000€
Preferred heating system: Heat pump, possibly combined with district heating
The current draft is attached, along with some updates from our side regarding the current status.
On the upper floor, we are planning, as a deviation from the draft, a concrete ceiling and also to align the ceiling height with that of the ground floor.
In addition, we are discussing the size of the children’s rooms. In the previous version, the house was about 0.5 m (1.6 feet) narrower. This naturally reduces the width of the children’s rooms by 0.25 m (10 inches) each to just under 3 m (10 feet) and an area of about 16 m2 (172 sq ft). The older drafts of the ground and upper floors are also attached.
Is a width of just under 3 m (10 feet) enough for a children’s room? Because that half meter more in the overall house width clearly makes a significant difference in terms of area, cost, and distance to the neighbor.
We look forward to your assessment and constructive criticism of the design.
Thank you very much and best regards.
My wife and I are currently planning our house with our architect and now have a preliminary draft of the floor plan for which we would like to get your feedback.
The house will be built in a new residential area with the following conditions.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 619 m2 (6660 sq ft)
Floor area ratio (FAR): 0.35
Gross floor area ratio (GFAR): 0.6
Building envelope, building line and boundary: Building boundary 2.50 meters (8 feet)
Edge development: Max. 9 meters (30 feet)
Number of parking spaces: 1.5
Garage: Double garage, additional parking spaces in the yard in front of the garage
Number of floors: 2 floors with wall height of 6.50 meters (21 feet) on the eaves side
Roof type: No general restrictions on roof design
Architectural style: Classic, straightforward
Building plot: P06
Other: The construction area is located on a plateau with sloping terrain towards the south and west, offering a view over a river valley.
Owners’ Requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: Classic single-family house with gable roof and basement
Number of floors: Fully basement, two full floors above ground
Number of occupants, age: Couple (mid-30s), one infant, another child planned
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: Desired living area between 180 and 210 m2 (1937 and 2260 sq ft)
Office: Family use or home office?
Used as a home office but also for private use by family members
Guests per year:
Not yet predictable, guest room will be regularly used by grandparents and friends
Open or closed architecture:
Open, but with defined separate areas
Conservative or modern design: Probably conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island: Open kitchen with kitchen island, adjacent pantry
Number of dining seats: 6–8
Fireplace: Yes, possibly also as room divider
Music/stereo wall: Not present, standard media wall
Balcony, roof terrace: No, but a large terrace facing south/west with a roof covering
Garage, carport: Double garage with storage space, access through a mudroom into the house
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why some things should or should not be done:
Separated hallway for sound insulation of bedrooms, open living and dining area, mudroom as access to the garage, master bedroom facing north, two children’s rooms
House Design
Planning by: Architect
What do you particularly like? Why?
Bay window with a view over the beautiful valley, garden orientation at the front of the house
What do you not like? Why?
Shape of the children’s rooms, long and narrow and possibly too little natural light
Corridor on the upper floor is quite narrow – could this cause problems? Especially when moving furniture, etc. The house is generally rather long and narrow
Price estimate according to architect/planner: Not yet available
Personal price limit for the house including fittings: 700,000€
Preferred heating system: Heat pump, possibly combined with district heating
The current draft is attached, along with some updates from our side regarding the current status.
On the upper floor, we are planning, as a deviation from the draft, a concrete ceiling and also to align the ceiling height with that of the ground floor.
In addition, we are discussing the size of the children’s rooms. In the previous version, the house was about 0.5 m (1.6 feet) narrower. This naturally reduces the width of the children’s rooms by 0.25 m (10 inches) each to just under 3 m (10 feet) and an area of about 16 m2 (172 sq ft). The older drafts of the ground and upper floors are also attached.
Is a width of just under 3 m (10 feet) enough for a children’s room? Because that half meter more in the overall house width clearly makes a significant difference in terms of area, cost, and distance to the neighbor.
We look forward to your assessment and constructive criticism of the design.
Thank you very much and best regards.
vineyard9 schrieb:
Regarding the orientation on the plot, does the picture help?And how does this picture relate to the one in the initial post? Where are the contour lines?D
derdietmar2 Jul 2025 14:10Hello,
The satellite image in the first post includes contour lines. The land around the garage and the house is fairly flat (370 m (1,214 ft)), but it slopes down by 2 m (6.5 ft) toward the southwest corner.
Best regards
ypg schrieb:
And how does this image relate to the one in the original post? Where are the contour lines?
The satellite image in the first post includes contour lines. The land around the garage and the house is fairly flat (370 m (1,214 ft)), but it slopes down by 2 m (6.5 ft) toward the southwest corner.
Best regards
V
vineyard92 Jul 2025 14:35Hello ypg,
Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a plan that shows both the contour lines and the house at the same time. We only have the excerpt from the land-use plan where the elevations of the entire building area are marked.
It is as Dietmar described: the plot slopes toward the southwest.
Thanks, Dietmar, for your design ideas; we are also considering a similar roof structure.
Good luck
Unfortunately, we don’t yet have a plan that shows both the contour lines and the house at the same time. We only have the excerpt from the land-use plan where the elevations of the entire building area are marked.
It is as Dietmar described: the plot slopes toward the southwest.
Thanks, Dietmar, for your design ideas; we are also considering a similar roof structure.
Good luck
derdietmar schrieb:
The satellite image in the first post shows contour lines. Alright, everyone. The mistake is clearly mine, as I mistakenly looked at plot P08. Of course, it’s quite difficult to analyze the correct plot that way. I’ll reset and take another look tomorrow.
V
vineyard92 Jul 2025 21:51ypg schrieb:
So, my dear ones. The mistake is clearly mine, as I mistakenly looked at plot P08. Naturally, this makes it quite difficult to consider the correct one. I will reset and take another look tomorrow. Ah, that probably explains a question or two, it happens.
ypg schrieb:
So, my friends. The mistake was clearly mine, as I mistakenly looked at plot P08. Of course, that makes it quite difficult to review properly. I’ll reset and take another look tomorrow. “Tomorrow” ended up being almost eight weeks later. That was because of my vacation 🙂
It fits on the plot like this.
I would rotate the bed so that you face it when entering and don’t have the door right behind you.
I’d prefer to have access to the walk-in closet from the middle of the hallway, so the closet and bedroom would be along the north wall. However, the closet door needs to be opposite the stairs to get furniture around there.
In the bathroom, I would place the bathtub and shower towards the front, with the toilet and washbasin at the back near the window.
I have noted that the three rooms on the ground floor are arranged rather awkwardly and I still feel that way. To me, it seems unfinished.
What have you decided on now? The narrower version?
700,000 € (approximately) could also be tight here. Have you already increased your budget?