ᐅ Floor plan of a detached single-family house approximately 200 m² with two separate living units

When it comes to planning for future separability, keeping a dead-end staircase never even occurred to me, so I didn’t understand that at all. For me, that would be more of a last resort because the separability simply wasn’t planned at all... If I were planning ahead, I would put the staircase in a separate room or at least design it so it could be easily separated into its own room. It obviously doesn’t fit into the current plan, so you’d be back to square one (which might not be a bad thing...). In Flair, you could either move the kitchen door or leave it as is for now and just close it off when you want to separate the spaces. The kitchen is still accessible through the living room anyway.

ThomasMagmar schrieb:

What advantage other than aesthetics (feeling less cramped) would there be if the hallway becomes larger and the kitchen smaller?

Well, for example, you could move the door from the hallway into the large room a bit upward. That way, you could place an office in the lower left corner and either have the option to add a second door from the hallway or make the office door accessible from the living room, but without the little stub wall. Otherwise, I still don’t like the kitchen layout at all. That means I don’t like either the hallway or the kitchen at this point. I’d probably even prefer the kitchen if it simply extended straight without wrapping around the utility room (basically a rectangle, maybe extending slightly over the utility room but not as far as now) and then had a door on the short side. That way you could at least completely equip the right-hand wall with cabinets. Alternatively, you could keep it wrapping around the utility room but then I would still move the door and place a cabinet or something where the door currently is. Either way, the combination of a “too narrow hallway,” “kitchen with a strange shape AND a passage running parallel to the hallway right next to it” just feels wrong to me. There has to be a better way 😉 Also, in the part that is 120cm (rough construction measurement) wide, you currently have a cabinet drawn in. That will probably not just look narrow but also be impractical in use.

In my opinion, the upper area would also benefit from a larger hallway. Make the dressing room significantly smaller and remove two of the four doors. The bathroom could be slightly longer and then accessed directly from the hallway. Move other doors out of the corners if possible. Or something like that. You probably need one less office; that space could be used for a second small bathroom instead. (Either accessible from the dressing room as a master bathroom or from the hallway as a second bathroom for whoever.) It would be adjacent to the other bathroom, and both are roughly above the utility room, which is convenient for plumbing and pipelines. Or you could reshuffle the rooms completely—I have no idea 🙂 But as I said, I’m not a floor plan expert; I’m just shifting walls from your base plan, with all the limitations that comes with. Someone who can do this properly would take your room program and probably come up with a completely different layout.

ThomasMagmar schrieb:

I’m not fixated on my version; I just want to share my thought process on why I made those preliminary decisions.

That just came across to the other side as “No, this is all totally great, I’ve thought it through completely.” Then some detailed explanations followed about why things are the way they are, which sometimes seemed a bit far-fetched. (The bedroom story, for example... no offense intended, but a sliding door at mattress height pulled over the bed to divide it in two really seems a bit unrealistic...) The forum can be a bit harsh, but ultimately most people’s point was that the plan is not a good basis. Along with that came the impression that you thought the plan was totally perfect and didn’t want a completely new layout from scratch.

kbt09 schrieb:

Sorry, you really don’t understand anything at all. A partition wall is, of course, only installed when the house is divided. Your strange sliding door with the staircase in the middle of apartment 1 is not a serious attempt at separating the apartments. Who would even rent that?

It’s really pointless here, you have completely accepted your design and show no willingness to learn. Enjoy.

Have you ever considered that the house could initially be divided and rented out separately, and only later become a single house when the two children (or just one) arrive? The idea is to keep different scenarios in mind. I strongly doubt there would be no interested tenants at all. And even if that were truly the case, I wouldn’t lose anything compared to planning without the possibility of separation. Aside from the floor plan, the location and the site of the property are even more crucial to how desirable such an apartment would be, as well as, of course, the rent price.

And you labeled the design a failure from the start—partly because it was likely not drafted with DIY tools or something similar (see eye sore)—and look for faults everywhere.

mayglow schrieb:

When it comes to planning separability in advance, keeping a dead staircase never occurred to me, so I didn’t understand it at all. To me, that would be more of an emergency solution because separability was NOT planned from the start. If I plan ahead, I would either put the staircase in its own room or at least make it easily separable into its own room. Obviously, that doesn’t fit with the current plan at all, so we’d basically be starting from scratch (which might not be a bad thing…). In the Flair layout, this could be done by relocating the kitchen door or just leaving it as is for now and closing it when you want to separate. The kitchen is still accessible from the living room.

Yes, the staircase would basically be unused, but it would only be about 5m² (54 sq ft) and maybe you could store some things there. Someone here (or was it even you?) suggested "Haas sustainable adaptation options" as a reference, where the stairwell is directly adjacent to the apartment door and separated—but I don’t like that if you then have to make a huge detour through the living room to get to the bedroom.
In Flair you can build a wall with an entrance door just behind the front door, and also one at the top of the stairs. Once that’s in place, it would probably be permanent, and moving furniture would become difficult.

mayglow schrieb:

Well, for example, you could shift the hallway door into the large room slightly upwards. That way, you could put an office in the bottom left corner and either have a second door from the hallway or have the office door open into the living room, but without the little stub.

I haven’t fully understood it 100%, but roughly. I already marked a possible bedroom in the living room, which in your case would be the office but without the corner piece. To get into the living room, the load-bearing wall would then also have to be shifted upwards, which would eliminate the entire kitchen wall and, upstairs, the wall axis runs directly above the load-bearing wall. If this were shifted up, both doors wouldn’t fit side by side in the hallway anymore. I’m only guessing about the structural aspect here; a structural engineer would have to review everything first anyway.

mayglow schrieb:

Otherwise, I still don’t like the kitchen layout at all. At that spot, neither the hallway nor the kitchen appeal to me. I’d probably prefer the kitchen if it just extended straight instead of wrapping around the utility room (so just a rectangle; maybe slightly extending over the utility room but not as far as straight). Then you could put a door on the short side. That way you could fill the right wall entirely with cabinets. Or keep it wrapping around the utility room, but then I’d still move the door and maybe put a cabinet where the door currently is. Either way, the combination of “hallway too narrow” and “kitchen with strange shape AND passage parallel to hallway right next to it” just feels wrong to me. It has to be better 😉 Also, you even drew a cabinet in the 120cm (47 inches) hallway section. That won’t just look narrow but will be impractical, too.

In my previous draft, I extended the utility room down to the same height as the kitchen wall, but then I felt that space was wasted since it was just a passageway (the garage door was lower down). So I thought that when entering the house, you wouldn’t immediately be in a narrow corridor, and I could place the wardrobe right next to the door, and also the kitchen cabinet on the lower wall could be wider, plus the door opens nicely into the kitchen. I do understand the criticism—most people feel most comfortable with as much open, non-compartmentalized space as possible, which is why open kitchens are now very popular. I also basically like that, which is why I chose such a large open living-dining area. But I see the hallway just as a purely functional space—a place to go from point A to point B. For the kitchen, I debated for a long time whether it makes sense to make it wider or have an open kitchen with an island. Here it’s partly about aesthetics as well as function.
The “cabinet” in the 1.2m (47 inch) hallway is just a very narrow deep chest of drawers that’s not fixed there; I only sketched it in as a possibility. In a refined design, I would also mark heights in the floor plan. I visualize the whole house as 3D models, so I forgot to indicate that stuff on the floor plan.

mayglow schrieb:

In my opinion, the upstairs area would benefit from a larger hallway, a much smaller walk-in closet, and cutting two of the four doors. The bathroom could be a bit longer and directly accessible from the hallway. Doors could be moved out of the corners if possible. Or something like that. You’d need one less office; that space could be used for a second small bathroom instead (either accessible from the walk-in closet as a master bath or from the hallway as a second bath for whoever). That would be next to the other bathroom, both roughly above the utility room, which helps with plumbing. Or you could completely rearrange the rooms again—I don’t know 🙂 But like I said, I’m not a floor plan person. I just move walls around using your base with all the limitations that entails. Someone who can design floor plans properly would take your room program and maybe come up with a totally different layout.

When I planned the floor plan, I tried to minimize hallways and stairs because I don’t see much value in them. I’m probably a bit biased because I grew up in a house where the hallway ran continuously from the front to the back door with widenings, and rooms were arranged on either side. The hallway swallowed a lot of space without serving as a place to spend any real time.
I don’t see a second full bathroom right next to the other as necessary, especially since there is another bathroom right below the stairs. If anything, I’d rather try to make the children’s rooms slightly larger.

mayglow schrieb:

That was just perceived differently on the other side—as "no, it’s all totally great, I already thought it through thoroughly." Then there were long, detailed explanations about why things were the way they are, which sometimes seemed a little far-fetched (the bedroom story, for example... no offense, but a sliding door that you pull over the bed mattress height to divide it in two sounds a bit unrealistic...). The forum can be a bit rough, but ultimately most people felt that the plan is not a good foundation. On top of that was the impression that you already thought the plan was perfect and wouldn’t want a new design from scratch.

I have thought about many things in detail, and as I said, this is version 12 of my thought experiments. I’m aware that small changes can have a domino effect. Therefore, I weigh how sensible changes are. In some cases, I would have liked to see arguments, not just "this and that is bad." For me, it’s especially important to see what makes architectural sense and what doesn’t. People have different preferences, one might want a bathroom of 15m² (160 sq ft), another is fine with half that. In matters like those, I don’t see a right or wrong. I’m open to the Flair proposal, but lots of changes would still be needed, and I would have to study how feasible those would be.
I don’t really understand how someone can get stuck on something I called a “playful idea,” especially since it has absolutely no impact on the rest of the floor plan. I definitely mean this for the dividing door, but many of the things previously dismissed as unrealistic were actually innovative. As I said before, if someone had posted a plan with an open kitchen here on the forum, they probably would have been torn apart by all the planners. It’s not necessary to like all such experiments, but you don’t have to label the person “stupid” or “childish.”

I redrew my floor plan using a different architectural design program and made a few changes.