ᐅ Floor plan of a semi-detached house with a single-sloped roof and balcony terrace – Feedback

Hello,

so... good things come to those who wait? We have chosen a prefab house supplier, and soon we have the planning appointment with the architect. I must admit, due to many negative experiences, I don’t expect much from showing our floor plan sketches, but who knows, maybe someone will come up with a good idea. We’ll see. I’m mentally prepared for a “brutally honest” critique 😀 But go ahead... it all just rolls off me 😀 So... fire away!

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size: 230 sqm (2,474 sq ft)
Slope: none
Site coverage ratio ??
Floor area ratio ??
Building window, building line, and boundary according to the development plan
Edge development: a green strip with a sidewalk, otherwise only paved roads and public parking spaces
Number of parking spaces: 2 (garage located west of the house)
Number of floors: basement, ground floor, upper floor, attic
Roof style: shed roof
Architectural style: modern, classic
Orientation of deep gutter: slope to north-northeast, 12° pitch
Maximum heights/limits: low side 8.50 m (28 ft), high side 10.30 m (34 ft)
Additional requirements: extension on the south side as a balcony, with full living space underneath; must have a visual separation (color and slight offset)

Homeowners' Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type: classic, modern; roof and type fixed by development plan; semi-detached house
Basement, floors: fully basement according to development plan
Number of people, ages: currently 3 (second child planned), man + woman + toddler: approx. 40, approx. 35, under 5 years
Space requirements on ground and upper floors: as much as possible
Office: for family use or home office? both, primarily as office
Guest bedrooms per year: less than 1
Open or closed architecture, semi-open?
Conservative or modern construction? ???
Open kitchen, island? closed kitchen with two kitchen workwalls
Number of dining seats: 6–8
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony, roof terrace: yes, not too large, 6.7 m x 2.5 m (22 ft x 8 ft); possibly the south wall upper floor will be offset 1 m (3 ft) into the balcony, then the balcony would still be 6.7 x 1.5 m (22 x 5 ft)
Garage, carport: yes + one parking space
Utility garden, greenhouse: enough space for a grill and a towel, that’s about it; also a terrace with garden furniture
Additional wishes/special features/daily routine, including reasons for or against certain features:
Definitely a straight staircase (due to space requirements the spiral staircase is out), therefore a landing staircase 1 m (3 ft) wide. South and west-facing windows should have awnings in addition to electric roller blinds on all windows (shading!). An aquarium should fit on the ground floor (approx. 120 x 40 x 50 cm (47 x 16 x 20 in)). Photovoltaic system with battery, air-to-water heat pump.

House Design
Origin of the design: from my wife and me
-Planner from a construction company
-Architect
-Do-it-yourself
What do you like most? Why? Everything we wanted is included; on the upper floor there is a playroom in the northwest for me with space for a racing cockpit and TV; office, bedroom, children’s room, kitchen, living room, and bathrooms are well accommodated; hopefully enough light but not too much.
What don’t you like? Why? Unfortunately not a detached house, almost no vegetation around, just fields, new grass, and freshly planted saplings. Just a new development area.
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: 480,000 + 30,000 own work + 90,000 (basement + excavation + 24,000 photovoltaic + battery + 70,000 additional costs) = 694,000
Personal maximum budget for house, including fittings: 700,000
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump with underfloor heating and ventilation with cooling function: Tecalor

If You Have to Give Up on which details/extensions
-can you give up: a silly green roof on the flat roof of the garage (and trash area), possibly replaced by solar panels there; a floor-level shower with glass door; glass sliding door on the ground floor to the terrace; some windows without electric blinds; the aquarium??; light bulbs instead of lamps :/ hardly anything else can be reduced.
-can’t you give up: the bed 😀 there is no expensive nonsense, landing staircase, basement, photovoltaic system because of the heating.

Why is the design the way it is now? For example:
Standard design from the planner? No, from us
Which requests were implemented by the architect? We will see when the time comes
A mix of many examples from various magazines...?
What makes it particularly good or bad in your opinion? It makes the most of the available space; no spot goes unused. The bathroom in the attic is currently a bit awkward because it can only be accessed through the office. The reason is that we plan to have a second child with a side bed, but that won’t last forever, and then we might have to reposition the parents’ bed. We are not really happy with this layout yet.

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan in 130 characters?

Originally, we set the wall thicknesses much too thin in Roomsketcher (the program used to create the sketches). After adjustment, we had to redesign everything, including the stairwell location. We have not yet planned the basement for the new design since the architect appointment is soon anyway.

Also, the bathroom door’s layout and position are not ideal; we might still swap the office and the master bedroom. The idea was to avoid the home office getting too much afternoon sun and overheating. The same applies to the bedroom; you don’t want to go to sleep in a heat trap in the evening.

The basement will no longer be built as planned; the external stairs have already been scrapped. Only the general layout will remain roughly the same.