ᐅ New Single-Family Home Construction Without a Basement: Seeking Floor Plan Review and Improved Upper Floor Layout

Hello home builders,

I’m new here, so please forgive me if I accidentally break any forum etiquette.

A brief introduction: I’m 49 years old, a mechanical engineer, separated, with 2 children (9 and 12 years old). I have renovation experience since I completely renovated a house built in 1978 together with my ex-partner, doing most of the work ourselves. The children live with me about 30% of the time.

I think it’s great that forums like this exist and I’m looking forward to your answers.

Development plan / restrictions
Plot size: 573m2 (6,171 sq ft)
Slope: no
Site coverage ratio: no development plan
Floor area ratio: no development plan
Building envelope / building line / boundary: Requirement that the house should be positioned similarly to the previous house on the plot (heritage-listed, but no longer salvageable)
Border development: to the north (top), a 2.5m (8 ft) setback from the center of the path must be maintained
Number of parking spaces: no requirement, double garage planned
Number of floors: 1.5, or adapted to surrounding buildings
Roof type: gable roof with approx. 40° pitch
Architectural style: adapted to surroundings, reddish-brown tiles
Orientation: gable facing the street
Maximum height / limits: adapted to surroundings
Other requirements

Client requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type: Single-family house, timber frame, KfW40 standard
Basement, floors: no basement, 1.5 floors with 1.5m (5 ft) usable knee wall height
Number of occupants, ages: 3 people, 49, 9, 12
Space requirements on ground floor / upper floor: Ground floor with utility room, guest WC, storage room, open living-dining area, entrance from the courtyard, not from the street
Office: family use or home office? 95% family use
Annual overnight guests: 10 (mostly the children)
Open or closed architecture: open
Conservative or modern style: conservative to fit the surroundings
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes + yes
Number of dining seats: 4-6
Fireplace: no
Music / stereo wall: TV wall
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: double garage with workshop room behind
Utility garden, greenhouse: eventually...
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, including reasons why certain things are desired or avoided
Wish: platform staircase for aesthetic and comfort reasons, lots of natural light on the ground floor, space for a small study that can also be used as a guest room

House design
Who designed it: The plan is from me (engineer, can’t help myself), almost adopted 1:1 from several prefab home suppliers and my carpenter’s design office
What do you especially like? The open layout of the ground floor facing the garden
What don’t you like? Why?: The upper floor, as there is always some unused space and no proper walk-in closet (though the walk-in closet is not a must since there’s no woman in the house ;-) )
Price estimate according to architect/planner: 365,000 as a shell house
Personal price limit for house, including fittings: 510,000
Preferred heating system: air-to-water heat pump with underfloor heating, ventilation system

If you had to give up, which details or expansions
- you could give up: walk-in closet and … if it really brings a big advantage -> platform staircase
- you couldn’t give up: open living-dining area

Why did the design turn out like it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner?: Looked at many show homes, thought it through, then created several variations myself in CAD
Which requests were implemented by the architect?
A mix of many examples from various magazines...
What makes it, in your opinion, particularly good or bad? The room layout on the upper floor gives me a headache... it can definitely be optimized

The dimensions in the hand sketch of the site plan are not 100% accurate, it still shows 9.5m (31 ft), but now I’m at around 8.3-8.5m (27-28 ft)

Best regards from sunny Baden-Württemberg,
thorsten2025