ᐅ Initial Floor Plan Draft – Backyard Development – 1.5 Stories
Created on: 15 Oct 2025 14:31
S
Steiger
Hello everyone,
we would like to present our first floor plan draft and kindly ask for your honest feedback.
The house is designed for 2 adults plus potentially 2 children in the future and will be built on a rural plot of land. We are currently in the design phase and welcome all constructive comments and suggestions for improvement.
The plot is a backyard development, which means there are some restrictions. For example, we are not allowed to exceed a length of 7.0 m (23 feet) and an eave height of 3.7 m (12 feet). In addition, the assigned plots are not yet developed, so we will need to build a road access here.
On the site plan we were allocated plot number 4.
More details are included in the notes..
Building Plan / Restrictions
Homeowner Requirements
House Design
Why the design looks like this
We wanted a home that is family-friendly, functional, and suitable for aging in place, while complying with the building plan.
The basic idea: parents live fully on the ground floor, children live upstairs.
We are still optimizing and would appreciate feedback on:
We look forward to your honest feedback!
What would you improve or arrange differently?
Thank you very much in advance for your time and suggestions.
we would like to present our first floor plan draft and kindly ask for your honest feedback.
The house is designed for 2 adults plus potentially 2 children in the future and will be built on a rural plot of land. We are currently in the design phase and welcome all constructive comments and suggestions for improvement.
The plot is a backyard development, which means there are some restrictions. For example, we are not allowed to exceed a length of 7.0 m (23 feet) and an eave height of 3.7 m (12 feet). In addition, the assigned plots are not yet developed, so we will need to build a road access here.
On the site plan we were allocated plot number 4.
More details are included in the notes..
Building Plan / Restrictions
- Plot size: approximately 27.5 m (90 feet) wide × 41 m (135 feet) deep (~1,100 m² (12,000 sq ft))
- Terrain: flat, no slope
- Site coverage ratio (floor area ratio): 0.4
- Floor space index (floor area ratio): 0.4
- Building envelope / setbacks: 3 m (10 feet) boundary setback, house positioned on the right side, garage may be built on the boundary
- Number of floors: 1.5 stories (maximum ridge height 7 m (23 feet), eave height approx. 3.7 m (12 feet))
- Roof type: gable roof, minimum 25° pitch
- Architectural style: modern country house style
- Orientation: south is at the top of the plan
- Maximum heights: 7 m (23 feet) ridge, 3.7 m (12 feet) eave
- Additional requirements: the plot must be accessed via a new road. The style must blend with the neighborhood.
Homeowner Requirements
- Building type: single-family home, 1.5 stories, no basement
- Occupants: 2 adults, later 2 children
- Ground floor needs: parents’ area fully on the ground floor (bedroom, dressing room, bathroom), living/dining/kitchen area (living area preferably separate), utility room with access to the garage, guest toilet
- Upper floor needs: 2 children’s bedrooms, 1 office, 1 bathroom, storage room
- Office: for home office and flexible use
- Guest accommodation: rare (max. 2–3 times per year)
- Architecture: open, welcoming, with clear sightlines
- Construction method: rather conservative-modern (no flat roof, but light materials, clean lines)
- Kitchen: open kitchen with island
- Dining area: spacious, table for 6–8 people
- Fireplace: optional, mainly for design/coziness, probably no
- Music/stereo: no specific plans yet
- Balcony/roof terrace: no
- Garage/carport: double garage, direct access to utility room, cars might be parked under a covered entrance to keep the garage space free since there will be no attic
- Garden: usable garden area, south-facing terrace → I would like to plan a conservatory here for the future or optionally build it right away. Since we will have a south-facing garden with farmland behind, a conservatory is desired as a separated area to be used all year round.
- Special features:
- Smart home planned
- Parents’ area deliberately on the ground floor
- Conservatory desired either in the future or built-in from the start
House Design
- Designed by: architect
- What we particularly like:
- South orientation with bright rooms
- Functional floor plan and parents’ area
- What we don’t like (yet):
- Children’s bathroom upstairs might be too large
- Bedroom too small
- Pantry/storage room has a door to the utility room; maybe reduce utility room size to enlarge pantry
- Children’s bedroom closets block windows and might reduce lighting
- Driveway to garage is not ideal. The garage may need to be moved further back
- Price estimate from architect: not available yet
- Personal price limit (house + fittings): around 500,000 € (approximately), completely self-built, land already purchased
- Heating system: ground source heat pump with borehole, underfloor heating, technical room probably in the garage equipment room
Why the design looks like this
We wanted a home that is family-friendly, functional, and suitable for aging in place, while complying with the building plan.
The basic idea: parents live fully on the ground floor, children live upstairs.
We are still optimizing and would appreciate feedback on:
- Room layout on the ground floor (hallway, sleeping area)
- Living/dining/kitchen area: solution with an adjacent conservatory. Living area preferably separate, so children or adults can use different paths when guests visit.
- Garage size
- Children’s bathroom: size and whether the storage room could be bigger and the bathroom smaller. Possibly separate the toilet from the children’s bathroom?
We look forward to your honest feedback!
What would you improve or arrange differently?
Thank you very much in advance for your time and suggestions.
Steiger schrieb:
Maybe this could also be done with an interior wall, using it as a place to mount the TV, for example? Steiger schrieb:
So you basically create a separation with a TV wall or something similar. I think we had a detailed discussion about this with @tumaa.
ypg schrieb:
Drawing a wall with a tool is done in no time, but nobody wants to delete that “perfect” wall quickly afterwards. Nowadays, I’m also working more digitally—it’s simply more impressive for these designs than using pencil. The tool I’m using is called HomeByMe. I’m much faster with a pen (and even more so with the keyboard) than with the mouse. And for visualizing ideas in images, we have you, Katja, and Kerstin here. Adding me too would be an unnecessary redundancy ;-)
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
Steiger schrieb:
Feel free to criticize this. Gladly 🙂
At first, I looked for the garage on the west side 😉
I do say, it’s better that way.
At first, I thought: oh dear, another unnecessary hallway just to avoid having the staircase in the open-plan living area. I always find that so tiring. Well, it’s definitely better than the architect’s previous version before the turn.
Now it gets serious: the pantry is too narrow and should probably be combined with the utility room, one way or another.
I noticed the kitchen suffers from the pantry access: tall cabinets for the fridge, oven, and others seem less important?
For my (tidy) two-person household, the kitchen would be too small and with too little countertop space.
Please plan for 60cm (24 inches) wide cabinets for the wardrobe. The bedroom window is too large, and I wouldn’t want the bed with the door at the head.
The children’s room windows are far, far, far too small. They could easily be three times as large.
It will work out, won’t it? These are all minor details that can be fixed.
What I notice is that the dormer area in the children's rooms is somewhat difficult to use. Keep in mind that the sloping roof starts right above the beds again, and the space next to the doors is planned for wardrobes. Just try to imagine that.
It should be checked how far the hopefully not floor-to-ceiling windows can be moved away from the central wall towards the exterior, so that the wardrobes could possibly be placed against the central wall between the children's rooms. The desk would then be better placed in the dormer recess.
Narrow pantry corridors with floor plan dimensions of 120 cm (47 inches) depth are somewhat wasted spaces. In reality, this becomes more like a 115 cm (45 inches) deep room (due to plastering, etc.), where you can’t even place a freezer cabinet because the door won’t open properly inside the space.
And with the currently popular passage through the tall kitchen cabinet, you lose the option of having about 90 cm (35 inches) of actual tall cabinet space in the kitchen. Instead, it’s better to have access to the pantry from the hallway via a door opening into the corridor, or even better, to combine the pantry area with the utility room.
It should be checked how far the hopefully not floor-to-ceiling windows can be moved away from the central wall towards the exterior, so that the wardrobes could possibly be placed against the central wall between the children's rooms. The desk would then be better placed in the dormer recess.
Narrow pantry corridors with floor plan dimensions of 120 cm (47 inches) depth are somewhat wasted spaces. In reality, this becomes more like a 115 cm (45 inches) deep room (due to plastering, etc.), where you can’t even place a freezer cabinet because the door won’t open properly inside the space.
And with the currently popular passage through the tall kitchen cabinet, you lose the option of having about 90 cm (35 inches) of actual tall cabinet space in the kitchen. Instead, it’s better to have access to the pantry from the hallway via a door opening into the corridor, or even better, to combine the pantry area with the utility room.
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