ᐅ Floor Plan Optimization for Urban Villa + Considerations for Land Elevation

I actually want all showers to be positioned against a wall for splash protection because I don’t want to use glass doors. He did it wrong in the kids’ bathroom.

I would skip the children's bathroom. Instead, plan for a spacious bathroom that is enjoyable to use every time you enter. A second shower can then be for guests and as an alternative on the ground floor. The money can be better spent elsewhere, and you also have to clean everything. This way, you might even have an extra small room upstairs for storage or something similar.

haydee schrieb:

The shower bathroom downstairs is not suitable for seniors with limited mobility (and if you can no longer manage the stairs, then that applies to you). How do you plan to separate the living room?

I think three bathrooms are too many. Especially since, apart from the children's rooms, there is a lack of space everywhere.
Make sure to add a window on the other exterior wall in the children's rooms. Especially in summer, if one window is shaded, the other can be opened to let in light.

Why is the shower bathroom not suitable for seniors with limited mobility?
Simply put up a wall to the left in the living room when you enter.

Okay, the point about windows in summer makes sense. I still don’t know how large to make all the windows.
Someone once wrote here that we should make all windows 1 meter wide (about 3 feet). Isn’t that too large for the utility room, the bathroom downstairs, and the walk-in closet?

Shiny86 schrieb:


The living room door swings to the left because we don’t want any wall on the right side (see post #1), so the door can’t hit anything on that side. He just took that wall section from your design. What’s the advantage of having that wall section? Or is it just a matter of taste?

That section is exactly for the door stop; it also provides a small visual barrier from the kitchen and allows for a kitchen shelf to fit nicely into the corner (for example, for cookbooks or spices).

Shiny86 schrieb:

3. The shower is correct. This is so we can still live here when we’re older.

If there’s no bedroom or guest room downstairs, I think that’s unnecessary. But if it’s that important to you, that’s fine. I would prioritize the space for the coat rack. You won’t use the shower for 40 years. By the time you need it, the bathroom will have to be renovated anyway. Then you can move the wall and add the shower later more easily. Unless, of course, you have a large dog moving in who needs to be washed there regularly.

Shiny86 schrieb:

Wall in front of the stairs: Oh my God, does it go all the way up to the ceiling???
I’m picturing a half-height masonry railing about 1 meter (3.3 feet) high, or whatever the standard height is. Isn’t that supposed to be a half wall? How high should it be?

That’s not clear from the drawing. Usually, a half-height wall is shown with a different color, dashed lines, or is labeled directly. If the wall is meant to be half-height, then it should be fine.

I'll double-check about the half-height wall.

The other two points make me think. Thank you! Especially that the shower can be easily retrofitted. Is it always possible to retrofit, or do we need to plan the connections in advance to ensure it can be added later? I’m not familiar with this.

Shiny86 schrieb:

So that we can still live there in old age.

There are stairlifts, too!
I never understand why many home builders plan to live only on the ground floor when they get older, especially since it often has to be renovated for that purpose. When the time comes that I absolutely cannot manage the stairs anymore, what use is the house to me then? At least, that’s how I see it...