ᐅ Floor Plan Design for a Single-Family Home with Garage and Roof Terrace

Hello everyone,

We are a young couple (26 and 28 years old) currently planning to build our single-family home. Two children are planned for the future. We have already purchased the suitable plot – it is located on the edge of a field in a small village, so it is a very quiet location.
At the moment, we are about to commit to a construction company that will handle both the building permit (planning permission) and most of the construction as general contractor. However, we would like to carry out some trades as self-performed work.

We designed the floor plan together with a friend who is studying for a Master’s degree in architecture. So far, these are still draft drawings, which we now want to turn into permit-ready plans. However, we have reached a point where we feel “stuck” – we literally can’t see the forest for the trees. Unfortunately, we don’t like the floor plan 100%, some rooms are missing, and we are unsure how to proceed.

Therefore, we would appreciate any input, ideas, or suggestions for improvements – but first, here is an overview following the question checklist:

Plot & Development

• Size: approx. 1,600 m² (17,220 sq ft)
• Dimensions: approx. 26 m (85 ft) wide × 60 m (197 ft) deep
• Topography: flat plot, no slope
• Location: edge of field in a small village
• Neighboring buildings:
• Northwest: Residential complex with two full stories + converted attic
• Northeast: large open meadow
• Development plan: none
• Requirements from building pre-application (preliminary enquiry):
• No explicit restrictions
• Recommendation to build towards the front (street side)

Our Preferences & Requirements
Building Style & Construction

• Two full stories
• Attic space used for storage
• Gable roof
• Timber frame construction
• Facade: combination of wood cladding and brickwork
• Style: modern, “clean”, clear lines – rather simple than ornate
• Basement: not planned

Rooms & Layout Concept

• Kitchen:
• Open, but separable with glass sliding door
• Pantry directly adjacent to the kitchen, ideally integrated into the kitchen cabinet front
• Dining/Living area:
• Open and spacious
• Dining table for 6 people, extendable to 10–12 people
• Master area:
• Bedroom with direct access to walk-in closet and separate bathroom
• Children’s rooms:
• Two equivalent children’s bedrooms
• Bathrooms:
• Children’s bathroom on upper floor
• Guest toilet on ground floor, ideally with shower
• Office/guest room (currently not included in the draft)
• Utility room:
• For washing, drying, and hanging laundry
• Technical room:
• Housing building services, possibly integrated into garage
• Garage:
• Simple design
• Technical room + separate toilet as an “external WC” can be integrated (as an idea, not yet part of the plan)
• Roof terrace over the garage desired (to enjoy unobstructed views of the sunset and the field)

Building Services (planned)

• Heat pump
• Photovoltaic system
• Ventilation system
• Smart home technology
• KfW-40 standard (energy efficiency standard)

Special Features & Current Challenges
What we like about the draft:

• Good orientation of rooms according to cardinal directions
• Simple, modern design without bay windows or building projections
• Long side of the house facing the garden = more openness to the south

We were uncertain for a long time whether the gable or the eaves should face the field. The current plan has the eaves facing the field – this seems more generous towards the garden. We are open to opinions on this!

What currently bothers us:

• The office/guest room is completely missing
• The laundry area is not ideally planned yet – e.g., where exactly do we dry clothes in winter?
• Covered entrance area – but will it be too dark there?
• Children’s bathroom vs. office/laundry room:
We are considering giving up the separate children’s bathroom to instead integrate the office or laundry/ironing room there. On the ground floor, the guest toilet could be made slightly larger and include a shower – in case mornings get busy or guests want to shower on the ground floor.

Garage idea:

• Relatively simple garage, only the technical room should be insulated and have a concrete floor slab
• The rest of the garage could remain paved and uninsulated
• Roof terrace on the garage with views over the fields – our heartfelt wish

Budget & Self-performed Work

• Total house cost including garage: €550,000–600,000 (without landscaping)
• Self-performed work:
• Earthworks
• Roofing
• Flooring
• Electrical work
• Painting
• Landscaping: currently approx. €15,000 planned for basic paving
• Overall budget including fixtures: €650,000–700,000

What could we possibly do without?

• If necessary, we could do without the separate children’s bathroom – although of course that would reduce comfort.
• Instead, a larger guest toilet with shower on the ground floor, and use the upper floor room as laundry space.

What we do not want to give up:

• Generous, well-equipped kitchen – we love cooking.
• The roof terrace on the garage – the view is really unique and very important to us.

About the development of the draft

• Currently, we are probably on the fourth draft
• Originally, the house was larger and had a gallery and open staircase – but that was not affordable
• The garage was initially attached directly to the house – now it is detached with a covered walkway

Our main question(s) to you:

• Do you have any ideas on how to integrate the missing office without losing the spaciousness of the design?
• Could the covered entrance become too dark?
• What do you think about orienting the eaves side to the field instead of the gable?
• Are there sensible alternatives for better positioning the laundry/drying area?
• Do you see ways to better tailor the room program to our needs without exceeding the budget?

Final summary
We are trying to create a modern, well-thought-out, and suitable home for our needs – with a realistic budget and self-performed work where it makes sense. It is important to us that the house is special but not excessive or “over the top.”
We look forward to any feedback – whether on room layout, building services, facade design, roof terrace, or details.
Thank you very much in advance!

Our architect, a father of three children, on the topic of a kids’ bathroom: “Do they enjoy cleaning so much that they’d spend money on it?” At first, the kids are too small, and the bathroom collects dust for years. Then they use it for maybe three or four years, and after that, they move out.

There’s some truth to that. So far, we would have been cleaning for ten years with no real benefit. Having a washing machine on the sleeping floor is wonderful and invaluable. Diapers leak at night, diarrhea or vomiting can quickly spread through the hallway. Even the regular laundry accumulates upstairs and can be washed nearby with short distances.

First of all, some thoughts on the floor plan, unordered.

Ground floor:
You enter, and you have to be careful not to hit the front door against the wall. This will often be a problem in everyday life.
Either there will be no side light next to the door, making the hallway really dark,
or there is no space for a conveniently reachable light switch. It would then have to be placed behind the door.
Simply reversing the door is also problematic because it would then open into the wardrobe area.

The pantry has two entrances. This means that very expensive circulation space is being created. About one-third of the pantry area is not usable but just a "corridor."

The utility room is very large with a lot of empty space in the middle. That is more than what will be needed.

How will the space under the staircase be used?

I would suggest:
- Make the utility/technical room smaller to allow for a somewhat brighter hallway.
- Use the space under the stairs for storage.
- Rethink the entire arrangement of the WC, pantry, and kitchen. A lot of space is invested here in a layout that mainly results in circulation area for the pantry.

Upper floor:
- Access to the roof garage terrace through the bathroom is inconvenient.
- In daily life: you get up, go to the bathroom, walk back past the bed to the closet area, then back to the bathroom… this will probably wake up partners who are still asleep.
- The bedroom has a lot of "dancing space" in the wardrobe area.
- A shower approximately 2.3m (7.5 ft) deep is something you have to really like.
...
To pause here:
I find the upper floor rather poorly planned both in terms of walking routes and usable space as well as everyday usability. I would completely revise it. Access to the roof terrace should be via the corridor; based on that, the rooms should be planned and sensibly reduced in size. A 23m² (247 sq ft) bedroom and a 15m² (161 sq ft) master bathroom are such a luxury that you could easily allocate reasonable circulation areas and probably also create a small office/guest room with a few further tweaks.

leah1003 schrieb:

• Timber frame construction
• Facade: combination of wood cladding and brick veneer

Neutral question: Are there specific reasons for choosing timber frame construction?
And for the facade combination?

leah1003 schrieb:

• Guest WC on the ground floor, ideally with a shower
• Office/guest room (currently not included in the design)

Guest WC: Ours is only marginally larger and already planned. It depends on room proportions and door position as well.
Office: Either rooms get smaller or are repurposed/rearranged (which would require larger revisions, e.g. changing the pantry), or the house becomes significantly bigger. As mentioned above, I would try to accommodate the office on the upper floor.

leah1003 schrieb:

Building services (planned)

• Heat pump
• Photovoltaic system
• Ventilation system
• Smart home
• KfW-40 standard

Heat pump: Air-to-water heat pump? Air-to-air heat pump? Ground source?
Also, smart home adds to costs.

leah1003 schrieb:

• Laundry area is not yet ideally planned – where exactly do we dry clothes, e.g., in winter?
• Covered entrance area – but will it be too dark there?
• Children’s bathroom vs. office/laundry room:

Laundry area: In the utility room. That could be made smaller and would still leave sufficient space.
The entrance area will be dark anyway, as mentioned before, due to the hallway design.
Children’s bathroom: I find a second shower reasonable. Whether a dedicated children’s bathroom is useful I don’t know.

Basically, to address the questions and focus on optimization regarding budget and everyday use, I see various possibilities for improvement.

I would:
- Enlarge the ground floor bathroom including a shower.
- Remove the children’s bathroom.
- Revise the room program on the upper floor, as mentioned above. In that context, also make the master bathroom usable for the children.
- Allow terrace access for everyone.
- Make the pantry, if absolutely necessary, fully enclosed and square-shaped (the current angled corner just creates unnecessary circulation space).
- Try to widen the hallway enough to allow a transom or side light above the door and a proper position for the light switch.
- Integrate the pantry under the stairs.

Hello, the windows in the stairwell do not fit. They are drawn incorrectly.

leah1003 schrieb:

Dimensions: approx. 26 m (85 ft) width × 60 m (197 ft) depth

But then the design doesn’t fit the plot at all, does it?! The whole structure including the garage is just under 22 meters (72 ft) wide. Depending on the state, you have to respect a setback of 2.5 or 3 meters (8 ft 2 in or 10 ft). (The higher the house, the greater the distance, as some regional building regulations require.) Taking the smallest value of 2.5 meters (8 ft 2 in) in the west, the garage would be built on the boundary and for fire protection reasons, it cannot have side windows or a roof terrace facing the neighboring plot.

leah1003 schrieb:

Neighboring buildings:

• Northwest: residential complex with two full floors plus converted attic
• Northeast: large open meadow

How should this be understood? Is parcel 24/2 the driveway to the multi-story building?

leah1003 schrieb:

The roof terrace on the garage – the view is truly unique and very important to us.

Is the beautiful view facing the green meadow or also across the street? A sitting window on the north side also suggests a view to the north. Honestly, except for the roof terrace, I don’t understand why the house isn’t oriented to the east towards the green meadow, with a window front there.

leah1003 schrieb:

What do you think about orienting the eaves side to the field side instead of the gable?

I’ll put it this way: you’re positioning the house across the plot. To me, this achieves exactly the opposite of spaciousness. Yes, you get more garden space at the back. But the plot is already large. Large doesn’t automatically mean spacious if the rest is so tight. There is practically no plot space on the west side. And that side gets the sun, so you’d want to find a way to make use of it. A short house side to the east without a view of the unique meadow. Surely you don’t plan to use the elevated, cold east roof terrace in autumn or winter to enjoy the view. In my opinion, the sitting window belongs there.

leah1003 schrieb:

Long side of the house facing the garden = more openness to the south

Those four running meters of windows can also be placed on the gable side.

leah1003 schrieb:

Could the entrance area become too dark because of the covered design?

Yes.

leah1003 schrieb:

The laundry area is not ideally planned yet – where exactly will we dry clothes in winter, for example?

With a dryer or/and outdoors. Cold air dries well. If necessary, the garage can be used.

leah1003 schrieb:

Garage:

• Simple design

In my opinion, a simply designed garage doesn’t go together with a roof terrace.

leah1003 schrieb:

Technical room + separate WC integrated as an "outside WC" (as an idea, not yet shown in the plan)

Oh dear. Technically, this means extra costs. Also, I just want to say “simple garage.” I would seriously consider why you can’t make do with 190 sqm (2,045 sq ft) and even want to outsource the technical room, since you can’t fit the usual number of rooms into such a large area! There are four-person families here who manage well with 140 sqm (1,507 sq ft). I think @roteweste has 150 sqm (1,615 sq ft) with three children.

leah1003 schrieb:

Currently, we are probably at the fourth draft

That’s fine. There may be more.

Regarding the draft: Personally, I would align the house lengthwise to the plot to open up the east a bit. Garage, if it doesn’t have to be cut back, in the northwest. I find the hallway area rather oversized, as well as the pantry. The pantry loses 2 sqm (22 sq ft) because of the door to the hallway. Then there’s this long wall that you have to go around to get to the kitchen. For example, put a door straight into the kitchen, then the guest toilet gains space. I don’t know anyone who prefers to enter the kitchen through the pantry.

The open-plan living area is a good size, as is the kitchen, though I have to say this “G” shape feels more cramped than spacious. In terms of area it is excellent! The bedroom is very impractical: the partner who is already asleep (or still awake) is constantly disturbed not only by light but also by the sliding bathroom doors. Also, a walk-in closet should preferably be located in front so the bedroom isn’t a passageway nightmare. For four people, I find a children’s bathroom unnecessary.

leah1003 schrieb:

Total budget including fittings: €650,000–700,000

15,000 € for paving a 6-meter (20 ft) driveway, the house’s long side, and terrace probably won’t be enough for your standards. Additional construction incidental costs of about €50,000 plus the garage still have to be deducted. Whether you find a general contractor willing to handle electrical and roofing work is questionable. Earthworks shouldn’t be a problem.

leah1003 schrieb:

Do you have any ideas how we can integrate the missing office meaningfully without losing the spaciousness of the design?

Plan the usual room layout with standard dimensions within 160 sqm (1,722 sq ft), then you’re financially safe. This works with an office, technical room, walk-in closet, and pantry.

The facade isn’t to my taste. Somehow too bland. You’d have to see it with real materials. Brick veneer is inexpensive and on top…

…I forgot, my first thought: a stretcher from the ambulance cannot get around the corner with a width of 1.80 meters (5 ft 11 in). We have a clear corridor of 2 meters (6 ft 7 in), but not the entrance in the corridor. We have white plaster, so it’s bright, but as said: no cover. For moving a ladder or furniture regularly, it’s too narrow long-term. Also, especially for strangers or families who gather or stand in front of the entrance waiting to be let in. Also, beverage crates or strollers sometimes need to be brought around the corner. That’s far from ideal.

ypg schrieb:

I think @roteweste has 150sqm (1,615 sq ft) with 3 children.

No, not quite. 174 square meters (1,873 sq ft). An update will come again once the shell construction is complete. ;-)

Are you building under Section 34? What is the surrounding area like, and especially, how tall are the neighboring houses?

I think your main idea is not practical. Roof terraces and balconies are usually only necessary for multi-family homes. In a single-family house, people don’t really use the balcony or roof terrace; they prefer to spend time in the garden.
Especially, no one goes outside through the bathroom. You would be wasting a lot of money on that for no reason.

The rest has already been said. The design is unusable for you, so don’t complain too much—just discard it. It wouldn’t fit in a rural setting anyway.