ᐅ Floor Plan of a Single-Family Home with a Secondary Suite

Hello everyone,

We are in the process of building a house and, after much deliberation, have decided on the floor plans. I’d like to share the plans with you and look forward to your objective opinions.
Please do not comment on the kitchen layout. We are currently in the middle of kitchen planning, and the kitchen as shown on the plan will almost certainly not be implemented as is.

The plot has a steep slope from north to south (there is an 8-meter (26 feet) difference between the street and the lower boundary of the property) and a slight slope from east to west (this is the street side, with a 2-meter (6.5 feet) difference). Only the tenant of the basement apartment has access to the garden. Since the house turned out quite large, we decided to include a basement apartment to rent out. It has a separate entrance.

It was important for us to separate the living room from the kitchen and dining area because we have three cats, and I want to buy a nice sofa without worrying about destructive cat claws. Upstairs, we wanted a large hallway as a second living room. I’m not a fan of having TVs or computers in the children’s rooms.

There is no building permit/planning permission for the site. The garage will be built directly on the property boundary.

Building plan/restrictions
Plot size: 630 sqm (6,780 sq ft); plot width: 18 m (59 feet)
Slope: yes, steep south-facing slope
Building envelope, building line, and boundary:
Number of floors: basement/souterrain, two full floors, attic
Floor height: 2.80 m (9.2 feet)
Roof type: 25-degree hip roof
Architectural style: Swedish house (timber frame construction)
Orientation: south

Number of occupants, age: 2 adults and two children (not yet born)
Office: home office
Open or closed architecture: modern, but rather closed architecture
Open kitchen, kitchen island: large open kitchen with island; living room separate
Fireplace: planned
Balcony, roof terrace: large balcony with garden access and a small balcony on the bedroom
Garage: double garage

I hope I’ve covered all the important points upfront.

Best regards from the galaxy!

Hello, in this case, cross-sections would be very helpful and: where exactly is north? At the bottom of the plan?

Best regards in brief

Hello, yes, the bottom is north. All balconies face south.

Should the coatroom on the ground floor be located on the wall facing the garage?
Upstairs, I find the children's bathroom too small.

Am I correct in understanding that the main owner has a large balcony while the tenant of the basement apartment has the garden? If that is the case, I would definitely recommend swapping the basement and the upper floor. That way, the children have direct garden access from their room, and the tenant on the upper floor gets a balcony.

Regarding the plans:

Basement:

- The main living area of the basement apartment is very difficult to furnish, and the bathroom is disproportionately large compared to the rest of the apartment.

- Why is there an additional toilet in "Basement2"?

Ground Floor:

- You’re already working on the kitchen layout, but the room should have good potential.

- Is the living room really going to be furnished like that? With a room width of approximately 3.40 m (11 ft), only about 2.50 m (8 ft) remain for the sofa after accounting for the door. Our sofa is 3.30 m (11 ft) wide. Just a thought – it’s best to draw the furniture to scale with actual measurements.

- How wide is the balcony? As I see it, only the section with the "bay window" allows space for a garden table, but that would block the access to the house. Since this is supposed to be the main terrace, I find this very unfortunate.

Upper Floor:

- Having the master bedroom as a passage room is very inconvenient.

- I would make the bathroom a bit smaller and push the guest room further toward the top of the plan to maintain access. This would also make the narrow children’s bathroom larger and easier to furnish.

I’d be very interested in a cost estimate…

Hello,

What stands out to me is having four toilets—isn’t that quite a lot? The basement apartment has a nice access to the garden, yet you only make use of the balcony?

Is the garage integrated into the house? Why not convert it into living space? That might be more cost-effective than insulating the building envelope above, below, and on the sides.

The layout of the bathrooms and the utility room in the house concerns me a bit. A lot of space might be lost to plumbing runs.

The master bathroom is very large, while the children’s bathroom seems too small. Overall, I find the upper floor and basement layout somewhat complicated.

I think the basement apartment has a very good floor plan.