ᐅ Floor Plan / Design of a Single-Family House with a Secondary Apartment on the Upper Floor

Hello everyone,
we are currently focusing more intensively on the topic of building a house.
Therefore, I would like to present our floor plan and thoughts and I am looking forward to your feedback!

Background:
My wife and I currently live with our daughter in my parents’ house. My father lives above us, and we want to continue living in this arrangement. That means we need an apartment for us and one for my father.
Since we will need a barrier-free apartment for ourselves in the short to medium term and an age-appropriate apartment for my father, we considered renovation/conversion.
However, we ruled out renovation and conversion because the current building condition is very poor. We also contacted a local architect about this.
After visiting the house, he (although he normally focuses exclusively on renovation/conversion) came to the same conclusion. In his opinion, renovation/conversion would probably be more expensive than demolition and building new.
So that’s what we did. After several discussions with different companies, we ended up with a local masonry builder. A small company in its second generation with employed masons, where we feel well taken care of.
We already had a desired floor plan in mind and, together with the builder, the attached floor plan was developed. Overall, we are very satisfied with it. Financially, it looks good, and we even have some room for small extras.

About the sketches:
We are currently waiting for the new drawings from the builder.
The ground floor (GF) will be as shown in my sketch below. The upper floor (UF) will be larger, but the room layout will remain the same.
The house will be positioned parallel to the street, with the front door facing the street.

Now I am cautiously looking forward to criticism, questions, and hopefully lots of input from you!

Development plan / restrictions
Plot size 23.5 x 40 m (77 x 131 ft)
Slope no

No development plan

Client requirements
Style, roof shape, building type no special requirements
Basement, floors no basement; upper floor with 1 m (3 ft) knee wall
Number of people, age 4 (31, 34, 2, 62)
Space requirements on GF, UF main apartment completely on GF
Office: family use or home office? family use + guest bed
Overnight guests a few times a year
Open or closed architecture unknown
Conservative or modern construction rather conservative
Open kitchen, kitchen island should be a closed room, preferably with a sliding door to keep the option open
Number of dining seats 6
Fireplace no
Music / stereo wall no
Balcony, roof terrace balcony if there is a secondary apartment on the upper floor
Garage, carport double garage
Utility garden, greenhouse no

House design
Who designed the plan? basic idea by us, drawn by the builder
What do you particularly like? Why? basically we are satisfied. We like the “attic space” that can be converted later as needed
What do you not like? Why? bedroom facing the street, we would prefer office/guest room, but we think this does not really fit with the room sizes
Offer from the builder: house 335,000 €; additional features 16,500 €; photovoltaic system 11,000 €; double garage 36,500 €
Walls and ceilings plastered to Q2 finish; tiles included, the rest additional
Personal price limit for the house, including features: 550,000 €
Preferred heating system: heat pump

Be sure to furnish the floor plan. On the upper floor, the kitchen is only usable for people of short stature.

For accessibility, search Google for zero barrier or no-barrier.

The guest bathroom/laundry room/kitchen area is quite awkward and results in a lot of unused space between the kitchen and the guest area. At least, I wouldn’t find it comfortable to sit at the dining table there. Have you looked at large bungalow floor plans? There are nice solutions with separate “private” zones.

haydee schrieb:

Make sure to furnish the floor plan. The kitchen on the upper floor is only suitable for small people.

For accessibility, Google "zero barrier"

Thanks for the tip, I’ve got some reading to do now.

I’ll try to add furniture to the floor plan this evening.
We reviewed the upper floor again last night; a slightly higher knee wall would indeed be nice.
Currently, the knee wall on the upper floor is 35cm (14 inches), and we thought increasing it to 1m (39 inches) would already be a significant improvement. Unfortunately, the 2D drawing is a bit misleading, and in reality, it will probably still be quite tight.

Elokine schrieb:

The guest area/bathroom/utility room/kitchen layout is very awkward and leaves a lot of unusable open space between the kitchen and guest area. At least I can’t really imagine sitting at the dining table there comfortably.
Have you looked at large bungalow floor plans? There are nice solutions with separated "private" areas.

That’s exactly where we had planned to put the dining table. We want the dining area, kitchen, and living room to be close together.
The guest room and office as well. I often work from home at my PC, which will be placed in that room. It will be close to the living areas but can also be closed off behind a door.

Also, we deliberately left the space there a bit more generous in case a wheelchair needs to be used at some point.

A bungalow was our first idea, and we looked at many floor plans. Either the granny flats were too small or the bungalow was too wide for the plot. Since the double garage is important to us, we lose a lot of width there.

We were also told that a bungalow of this size would probably be more expensive to build than a multi-story house.

A bungalow is more expensive, but you’re building now and will eventually need two barrier-free living units. Of course, your father can still walk upstairs at 80, but at 70 the stairs might become a problem. Bungalows can be custom designed.

The kitchen upstairs caught my attention because we have the same issue in our rental. The sink is under the skylight, and with my height of 1.70m (5 ft 7 in), I can barely wash dishes without hitting my head.

Maybe a bungalow with a finished attic would be an option for you, with the children living upstairs.

I only meant to use a bungalow floor plan as a model for the ground floor, not that you should actually build one. I suggested it as a model because you are not building a traditional single-family house.

You will probably need artificial lighting at the dining table at all times.