ᐅ Floor Plan Optimization for a Single-Family Home with a Secondary Suite
Created on: 19 Jan 2026 10:26
D
DieHnnH
Hello everyone,
We are a couple (both 34 years old) looking to build our home in a rural area of Baden-Württemberg. Important preliminary information: no children planned, but a dog. A separate apartment (granny flat) is mandatory with at least 23sqm (250 sq ft).
We would appreciate your input to help us avoid making major mistakes.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 494sqm (5314 sq ft)
Slope: none
Site coverage ratio: 0.32
Edge building allowance: garage permitted
Number of parking spaces: 3
Number of stories: 2 full stories required
Roof style: gable roof with a pitch of 25–38°
Orientation: see plan
Additional requirement: separate apartment
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style: country house / modern Swedish style
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of occupants, age: 2 adults (34), 1 planned dog, 1 person in separate apartment
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: 120sqm (1292 sq ft) for us plus at least 23sqm (250 sq ft) for the separate apartment
Office: home office, 1 person working fully from home
Guest stays per year: total about 5–15 nights
Open or closed layout: open
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with kitchen island or U-shape preferred
Number of dining seats: 4–6
Fireplace: desired for coziness, small in size, probably not really necessary
Garage, carport: carport plus 2 additional parking spaces
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: small greenhouse plus kitchen garden
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be: the most important space to us is the kitchen and living room combined as an open area. We want it to be cozy, which is very important. The building plot faces east on the edge of the village, with no further development planned in that direction. We really like this view, but we would also like the terrace to face south.
In general, we want to make the best possible use of the remaining garden and are looking for ideas on how to place the house on the plot to maximize garden usability. We understand the garden won’t be very large.
We both have home-centered hobbies that require space: my husband plays drums, I play piano—space needed upstairs. I enjoy baking, he enjoys cooking—space needed in the kitchen. I like to read—books require space too. We both enjoy gardening.
House Design
Designed by: architect (BU)
What do you like especially and why?
- Layout of the open space and size of the kitchen
- Location of the separate apartment
- Additional space gained upstairs. We originally considered a single-story extension for the separate apartment, but the architect said it’s more expensive than enlarging the whole house. This way, we can keep the technical room small downstairs and move the utility room completely upstairs. We would swap room usage upstairs: bedroom → utility room in the northeast, office → bedroom (this also allows a nice built-in wardrobe niche).
What do you dislike and why?
- The separate apartment has no room for a closet
- Unsure if the size of the open space is sufficient
- The bathroom is very large—like a ballroom. We considered extending the hallway to create a small extra storage room. However, this would reduce western light in the bathroom.
- We don’t like the windows and terrace doors at all yet
- Carport location: needs to be rotated and, in our opinion, moved to the boundary
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: €600,000 including secondary construction costs
Tasks we will do ourselves: roofing, purchase and installation of photovoltaic system & battery, wall and ceiling boarding, filling, painting, flooring, bathrooms
Preferred heating system: air-water heat pump with underfloor heating
If you have to give up some details / expansions
- Can give up: fireplace, so much space upstairs
- Cannot give up: separate apartment, large kitchen
Why has the design turned out this way?
Because this reflects our wishes, the separate apartment, and respects the development plan. We tried ourselves to design a squarer house to create space on the south side, but that didn’t work with the separate apartment.
We’re happy for you to roast the floor plan and welcome any improvement suggestions—thanks in advance.
Circled in green and oriented to north.
Sunny regards
We are a couple (both 34 years old) looking to build our home in a rural area of Baden-Württemberg. Important preliminary information: no children planned, but a dog. A separate apartment (granny flat) is mandatory with at least 23sqm (250 sq ft).
We would appreciate your input to help us avoid making major mistakes.
Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 494sqm (5314 sq ft)
Slope: none
Site coverage ratio: 0.32
Edge building allowance: garage permitted
Number of parking spaces: 3
Number of stories: 2 full stories required
Roof style: gable roof with a pitch of 25–38°
Orientation: see plan
Additional requirement: separate apartment
Homeowners’ Requirements
Style: country house / modern Swedish style
Basement, floors: no basement, 2 full floors
Number of occupants, age: 2 adults (34), 1 planned dog, 1 person in separate apartment
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: 120sqm (1292 sq ft) for us plus at least 23sqm (250 sq ft) for the separate apartment
Office: home office, 1 person working fully from home
Guest stays per year: total about 5–15 nights
Open or closed layout: open
Open kitchen, kitchen island: open kitchen with kitchen island or U-shape preferred
Number of dining seats: 4–6
Fireplace: desired for coziness, small in size, probably not really necessary
Garage, carport: carport plus 2 additional parking spaces
Kitchen garden, greenhouse: small greenhouse plus kitchen garden
Other wishes / special features / daily routine, also reasons why certain things should or shouldn’t be: the most important space to us is the kitchen and living room combined as an open area. We want it to be cozy, which is very important. The building plot faces east on the edge of the village, with no further development planned in that direction. We really like this view, but we would also like the terrace to face south.
In general, we want to make the best possible use of the remaining garden and are looking for ideas on how to place the house on the plot to maximize garden usability. We understand the garden won’t be very large.
We both have home-centered hobbies that require space: my husband plays drums, I play piano—space needed upstairs. I enjoy baking, he enjoys cooking—space needed in the kitchen. I like to read—books require space too. We both enjoy gardening.
House Design
Designed by: architect (BU)
What do you like especially and why?
- Layout of the open space and size of the kitchen
- Location of the separate apartment
- Additional space gained upstairs. We originally considered a single-story extension for the separate apartment, but the architect said it’s more expensive than enlarging the whole house. This way, we can keep the technical room small downstairs and move the utility room completely upstairs. We would swap room usage upstairs: bedroom → utility room in the northeast, office → bedroom (this also allows a nice built-in wardrobe niche).
What do you dislike and why?
- The separate apartment has no room for a closet
- Unsure if the size of the open space is sufficient
- The bathroom is very large—like a ballroom. We considered extending the hallway to create a small extra storage room. However, this would reduce western light in the bathroom.
- We don’t like the windows and terrace doors at all yet
- Carport location: needs to be rotated and, in our opinion, moved to the boundary
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: €600,000 including secondary construction costs
Tasks we will do ourselves: roofing, purchase and installation of photovoltaic system & battery, wall and ceiling boarding, filling, painting, flooring, bathrooms
Preferred heating system: air-water heat pump with underfloor heating
If you have to give up some details / expansions
- Can give up: fireplace, so much space upstairs
- Cannot give up: separate apartment, large kitchen
Why has the design turned out this way?
Because this reflects our wishes, the separate apartment, and respects the development plan. We tried ourselves to design a squarer house to create space on the south side, but that didn’t work with the separate apartment.
We’re happy for you to roast the floor plan and welcome any improvement suggestions—thanks in advance.
Circled in green and oriented to north.
Sunny regards
DieHnnH schrieb:
Yes, we agree. How can it be improved? As I have said a hundred times: by starting with the translation of the detailed room program into concrete floor plans AT THE TOP!
DieHnnH schrieb:
We did not request this large terrace roof; therefore, it is irrelevant because it will not be implemented. You can already see in the plan that such a "detail" is basically on the chopping block even before drawing. A pointless stillborn feature, in other words.
DieHnnH schrieb:
One idea we considered was to partly relocate the technical equipment to the attic. That is a wise decision, which @Golfi 90 has already demonstrated here https://www.hausbau-forum.de/threads/gedaemmten-technikraum-fuer-die-gastherme-auf-dem-dachboden-schaffe.j4d4y9/.
DieHnnH schrieb:
We HAVE to build two stories, so the 1.7m (5.6 ft) knee wall is already at the lower limit. Also, a pitched roof with a 25 - 38° slope is mandatory.
We were hoping for some cost savings with the 1.7m (5.6 ft) knee wall. A 1.7m (5.6 ft) knee wall is neither mandatory nor ideal, and as I explain in the mentioned external post, it is more of a broken egg than Columbus’s egg. Unfortunately, many providers see requests to raise the knee wall as a gold mine.
So, if the overall building height allows it – a 25° roof pitch does contribute to this – I would raise the eaves height here.
11ant schrieb:
Sorry – once again I had an issue where you can jump to the absolute latest posts, but not directly to the first unread one :-( By the way, you currently need to insert a space between a closing quotation mark and a closing bracket, otherwise the forum software combines them into an unwanted winking smiley!
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
ypg schrieb:
Why does the drawing show a balcony?
I would probably omit the roof covering on both the north and east sides. The entire dining area will become too dark. I would design the main entrance canopy using glass, reference this in the terrace roof design, and beyond its ridge, possibly take inspiration from @ateliersiegel.
https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/
ypg schrieb:
Yes, you can live with that, but why not go straight for better? Glad to go for better, so many thanks for your "quick & dirty" ideas. We’ll take a closer look later.
ypg schrieb:
However, I don’t understand why two people would get so entangled Good question, maybe because our eyes are used to everything always taking place in enclosed rooms with a specific assigned purpose.
I really like the idea of placing the wardrobe in the guest/hobby room. Also the storage room and thus the enlarged bathroom.
As someone who lives in older houses, I find it hard to imagine having an open workspace upstairs because my first thought is that it would be cold there. Probably less so with underfloor heating.
In my opinion, purposes other than work and exercise don’t really fit an open concept. But I’m happy to be proven wrong here.
11ant schrieb:
Quick & dirty, the OP should first clarify whether a full-height straight-walled upper floor ("town villa") would be possible here, or if the framework for considerations is a single-story building. A full-height upper floor is possible. We were hoping to save costs by lowering the knee wall. But not at any cost. If this causes other problems, for example with windows, then the question of added value needs to be reassessed.
DieHnnH schrieb:
As someone who has only lived in "older" houses, I find it hard to imagine having an open workspace upstairs because my first thought is that it would be cold up there. This has nothing to do with the mentioned underfloor heating keeping the upper floor warm, but rather with modern thermal insulation. Underfloor heating is not typically adjusted room by room; instead, each room is kept at a more or less constant temperature whenever possible. Although it is possible to have some rooms cooler, we’ll leave that aside for now.
I would recommend that even if you are already in the planning phase, you visit model homes. Even if there isn’t a display village nearby, there are often houses close enough to visit. You can also find house tours on YouTube, which makes this easier.
Regarding technology installations in the attic, don’t forget that many builders do not offer this option for structural reasons. Most don’t even provide the option of a walkable attic space.
Similar topics