ᐅ First Draft Single-Family Home 160m² – Request for Feedback

Hello everyone,

I have been a silent reader of this forum for months. Now, we are at the stage of choosing a home builder. An architect is not an option for various reasons. Our preferred builder has provided us with the following initial draft.

Development plan/restrictions: there is no development plan
Plot size: 500 sqm (5380 sq ft)
Slope
Site coverage ratio
Floor area ratio
Building envelope, building line, and boundary
Perimeter development
Number of parking spaces: 2 (preferably tandem)
Number of floors: 1.5
Roof type: gable roof
Architectural style
Orientation
Maximum heights/limits
Other requirements

Client requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type
Basement, floors: no basement
Number of occupants, age: 2 (31 and 32 years), 2 children planned
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: living room, guest/study room, 2 children’s rooms, bedroom
Office: family use or home office? Both
Number of overnight guests per year: 10
Open or closed architecture: open
Traditional or modern construction: preferably modern
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes
Number of dining seats: 8
Fireplace: no
Music/sound wall: yes
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport with storage room
Utility garden, greenhouse
Further wishes/special features/daily routine, including reasons why certain aspects should or should not be included

House design
Who created the plan:
- Planner from a building company
What do you particularly like? Why?
What do you dislike? Why?
Estimated price according to architect/planner: €260,000
Personal budget for the house, including fittings: €280,000
Preferred heating system: gas condensing boiler

If you have to omit certain details or expansions:
- What can you do without:
- What is essential for you: daylight

Sorry, I accidentally created the topic too early and can no longer edit it. Therefore, here are some additional details:

The plot still needs to be subdivided (the red line will mark the future property boundary), and our house number is 3. The existing building is currently being demolished.
Our new house is planned to be positioned as far to the northeast of the plot as possible to make good use of the sun’s path.

What do you particularly like? Why?: Basically, the orientation of the rooms.

What do you not like? Why?:
From our perspective, the kitchen, dining, and living rooms are too small. This is mainly because we need space for a home office. Otherwise, the living room could extend along the entire west side. The biggest challenge is the layout of the ground floor. I am already close to relocating the office/guest room to the attic, which could be converted at some point.

The bedroom and bathroom should be moved to the south (swapping with the children’s rooms).
The window configuration still needs adjustment, especially the double floor-to-ceiling windows on the upper floor.

I appreciate any comments or suggestions for improvement.

Best regards

Professional floor plan. My two cents. The lower floor is functional; nothing is too small. The office doesn’t need a door leading outside. A larger living room isn’t necessary.

Upstairs, remove the walk-in closet and instead make the bedroom slightly bigger, as it is currently cut off by the wall angle. The walk-in closet becomes a storage room. Without a basement, you definitely need this for travel bags, vacuum cleaner, winter clothes, laundry, and so on. The small planned storage room can be removed entirely. Instead, install a built-in wardrobe in the niche.

I see the following potential savings: only one washbasin—why have two? Why roller shutters upstairs? You will need to save money. With a construction cost of 260,000 and a budget of 280,000, you still need to reduce by 20,000.

Hello Markus, why do you want to place your bedroom on the south side if you will only use it for sleeping? And the children’s rooms on the north side, probably with only north-facing windows? In my opinion, that’s not a good idea. The children should be able to spend time in their rooms during the day without having to sit in a dark space.

The current dimensions of the master bedroom seem almost too tight to me. With a bed width of 2 m (6 ft 7 in), there is only about 60 cm (24 inches) left on each side (although the plaster will reduce this a bit). I also find the walk-in closet, in addition to the wardrobe space in the bedroom, inconvenient; you will still have to pass by the person who sleeps longer. If the walk-in closet is meant to allow you to get up independently, I (personally) get up, go to the bathroom first, and then return to the wardrobe to choose my clothes when I’m somewhat awake. If you have similar habits, you would have to sneak past the sleeper at least twice. So reconsider what exactly you want the walk-in closet for and whether it would make more sense to access it from the hallway or even use it just as a storage room.

On the ground floor, I find the guest bathroom quite problematic; there is hardly any space to keep clothes dry while showering. Access to the shower is very tight, passing right by the toilet, and a glass door that swings outward is likely to be blocked by the toilet. You will probably need a solution where the door swings inward or possibly is a sliding door.

The layout of the cooking/dining/living area is generally okay, but the distance between the sofa and TV at 3.5 m (11 ft 6 in) might be on the lower end.

Regarding the kitchen: if you want a proper island, rather than the peninsula shown, you should have a kitchen planned now. The current floor plan might be a bit too tight for that.

I also find the floor plan quite functional, and the living area well designed and zoned, not too small either.

However, I would strongly recommend planning the kitchen carefully, as I find the position of the terrace door impractical, and overall there is too little window area on the south side of this open plan space.

For the bedroom, I would simply extend the wall with the bedroom door straight across to avoid that corner in the walk-in closet. Wardrobes with a depth of 250mm (10 inches) can also be easily assembled from Ikea Pax units.

I would keep the children’s rooms exactly where they are now. Why assign them north-facing windows?

And as it stands now, all the wet rooms are located on the north side. This makes construction more cost-effective, including water supply and wastewater systems...