ᐅ First draft, floor plan for a single-family house, 160 sqm

Hello dear forum community 🙂,

I have been reading various topics here with great interest for several weeks now and I’m very happy to finally have the first draft from our architect in my hands today.
We are open to suggestions for improvements and look forward to your comments.
Here are a few details:
- planned living area is about 160 sqm (1,722 sq ft) plus a double garage with an adjacent storage room
- the house is located on a 956 sqm (10,296 sq ft) plot in a new residential development
- the entrance faces north
- brick construction (my partner is a bricklayer 🙂 )
- the house should have room for four people, although we are currently only two
- the drawn furniture is for better visualization only

Thank you very much for your help!

If you’re going to have such an expensive gable, it should be used meaningfully, not just for heating or a hallway.

I find it unattractive that the stair landing protrudes like that. People will likely trip over it when stepping backward after greeting someone...

One more thing.
Is there a reason why there is no 2m (6.5 ft) line drawn below the roof in the southern part?
The toilet under the sloped ceiling could become problematic.

Sorry: What is the toilet doing in the garage!?

Hello,

I think the ground floor is very well designed.

I also like the idea of having a toilet in the garage – when you’re hosting on the terrace or in the garden, you don’t have to run through the whole house just to use the restroom.

The access from the garage through the utility room is also a good solution.

In my opinion, there is enough space for a wardrobe or coat rack in the entrance area.

I also like the 45° sloped walls in the upper floor. Some people here in the forum see these as space-consuming compromises, but you can have a different view. For example, in our upstairs hallway, we also have two sloped walls, purely for aesthetic reasons – it had nothing to do with a compromise. We still have plenty of right angles.

What I don’t find ideal is the bathroom layout. The position of the toilet seems likely to cause bumps for taller people. Also, I find the position of the shower, placed directly opposite the door, less than optimal.

What type of heating system will you have?

Is it possible to install it in the attic space? That way, you could potentially turn the boiler room and the hallway end into an additional room. The potential noise from the heating system might also be better contained under the roof.

Regards,

Dirk

Hello everyone,
Thank you very much for the quick responses!

I will try to address the comments one by one:

- I also don’t like the slanted wall on the upper floor... How could this be improved without enlarging the hallway further?
- We had planned the boiler room with a window there to avoid reducing the size of the utility room on the ground floor. Maybe we could move the boiler room to the unfinished attic and use the freed-up space as a reading nook. Does anyone have experience with installing heating systems in the attic? 🙂
- The storage room is mainly intended for items like tools and the lawn mower. We had planned to store the bicycles in the large garage.
- According to the architect, frost protection in the garage bathroom is not an issue since the walls are well insulated.
- The wardrobe cupboard might be a bit tight, but I don’t really like built-in closets... Does anyone else have alternative ideas?
- The staircase will be enclosed with walls, so it should not pose a tripping hazard 🙂
- I can’t answer about the 2-meter (6.5 feet) line on the south side under the roof… I will bring this up tonight!
- The bathroom fixtures are not finalized yet, but thank you for the note!
- Since we also want to use our double garage as a party room, we planned the garage bathroom (additionally, guests sitting on the terrace in summer can use this toilet without having to walk through the whole house to the guest bathroom).