ᐅ Single-family home floor plan, 230 sqm, with carport on a square corner lot

Created on: 15 Jun 2023 18:12

Hello House Building Forum,

After several months and iterations, we have a design for our single-family home and are quite satisfied. Now we are very eager to receive your constructive feedback! Thank you in advance.

Zoning Plan / Restrictions
Plot size | 540 sqm (5800 sq ft), fairly square
Corner plot, no slope
Number of parking spaces | 1
Roof style | all classic roof types possible
Maximum height / limits | not relevant, several multi-family houses in the neighborhood (neighboring development)

Homeowners’ Requirements
Style, roof shape, building type | gable roof, possibly triple gable (not shown)
Basement, floors | ground floor, converted attic, finished basement
Number of occupants, ages | target: 2 adults, 2 children (currently one-year-old)
Room needs on ground and upper floors | approx. 80-90 sqm (860-970 sq ft) each for ground and upper floors
Office | 1.5 offices required for home office
Guest sleeping per year | some family abroad, so relevant
Open or closed layout | rather open, but with adequate soundproofing for bedrooms (chamber music downstairs in the evening while children sleep upstairs)
Conservative or modern build | in between, should be a bit special
Open kitchen, cooking island | large open kitchen with breakfast bar
Number of dining seats | existing table 2x3 m (6.5x10 ft), extendable to 2x4 m (6.5x13 ft)
Fireplace | under discussion, probably no
Music / stereo wall | no
Balcony, roof terrace | no
Garage, carport | carport
Vegetable garden, greenhouse | garden with walnut, spruce, and ash trees present

House Design
Who designed it? | architect’s design, nth iteration with many personal ideas
What do you particularly like? Why? | staircase separated from living area (acoustics), large living room with window seat (party-friendly), terrace extending dining area (for warm summer evenings), parents’ area upstairs, no external heat pump (out of respect)
What do you not like? Why? | exterior not yet “attractive” from every angle – any ideas? All bedrooms next to each other
Price estimate according to architect/planner: base house costs from 0.8 million upward
Price limit for house including fittings: 1.2 million from demolition to kitchen/built-in furniture/garden landscaping
Preferred heating technology: air-to-water heat pump, possibly earth baskets (?)

If You Had to Cut Back, Which Details / Extensions
-could you give up? Much has already been rationalized away (fireplace, outdoor kitchen, attic)
-could you not give up? Priority on garden size

Why Has the Design Turned Out This Way?
A spacious family home with privacy, meaning large children’s rooms and a retreat space for parents, great importance on the garden with existing trees, an evening terrace in the northwest, otherwise focus on southeast garden. Inside, plenty of windows facing southeast. This will be enclosed by privacy hedges; the streets to the south/east have very little traffic, so this will be a nice, private, and quiet southeast garden.

What Is the Most Important / Fundamental Question About the Floor Plan Summarized in 130 Characters

Especially ideas for the exterior: We want to build a “beautiful house” from the outside, not just a functional one.
How best to calculate sun position/shadow cast from neighboring houses?
Do you see any major no-gos including reasons and suggestions?

2D floor plan of a house with kitchen, living area, carport, and garden

Floor plan: staircase, gallery, bathroom, shower, dressing room, bedroom, 2 children’s rooms.

Basement floor plan: hobby room 1, hobby room 2, cellar, sauna, shower, technical room / house systems, hallway.

Cross-section through a multi-story house with staircase, interior walls, and dimension lines.

South elevation of a modern two-story house with large windows and tree to the right.

Two-story house with gable roof, carport on the right, window fronts, and garden area.

Modern two-story house with terrace and garden; views southwest, southeast, northeast.

Best regards
fabreit

11ant17 Jun 2023 15:37

#25

11ant schrieb:

and I have – as loyal readers know, against my usual preference – joined this abstention.

P.S.: However, I would like to renew my invitation to @fabreit to please share not only the final draft but also the initial design.

https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

fabreit19 Jun 2023 12:20

#26

Allthewayup schrieb:

Have you already fully planned the outdoor areas as well? After finalizing the house design, we encountered a few points during the outdoor planning that we wish we had coordinated better. For example, where to install lighting on the house and the related motion sensors, the camera positions (if planned), preparations for the pool (we had to relocate a technical room for the pool to the basement later), and so on.

allstar83 schrieb:

I just noticed that there is nothing planned for sun or possibly wind protection on your terrace. Maybe your trees are already tall enough. If not, I would definitely consider adding that during construction. Portable sunshades can be really annoying, and no one wants to sit in direct sunlight. You might also need drilling, wiring, or foundations for that. You won’t want to deal with that later, especially given the costs involved. We have a recess and an awning — great for wind and sun.

Good points — we haven’t really thought through the outdoor situation properly yet, apart from a rough idea of a sail attached to the house wall. I’ve noted down the detailing of roofing, lighting, and motion sensors for our next architect meeting. Wind is less of an issue in our case due to the tree cover and the neighboring building. As mentioned, we dropped the idea of a framed outdoor kitchen because of cost, but the necessary connections will be planned.

K a t j a schrieb:

Solid plan. Just a few minor points, which are not mandatory:
- The kitchen door blocks or at least significantly narrows the walking path if the cabinets stay as planned. This bottleneck could become annoying over time.
- Many cabinets are custom-drawn by the architect with very different depths. Are these all custom-built? If not, finding matching standard furniture brands could be quite complicated. For example, the room divider in the living room needs a real back panel, which can look odd. I would check all these depths carefully to see if the furniture you want would fit.
- I would also soundproof or reinforce the wall between the bedroom and the children’s room. The route to the bed is uncomfortably long. I’d probably move the door forward (to the children’s room side). Also, it shouldn’t be a sliding door.
- Is the hobby room in the basement really planned as a guest bedroom? Has that been thought through? What kind of window will be installed there?
Otherwise, congratulations — I think it will be very nice. 🙂

Kitchen door: Good point, added to the list.
Cabinets: We are aware of that too. We’d like to temporarily use some existing furniture and possibly have some custom-made later, so that point is definitely valid.
Walls on the upper floor will still be revised. From my perspective, all upper floor walls should be soundproofed — we are a household with musicians! 🙂
The basement has not been fully thought out yet. Ideally, we want those angled light wells that really brighten the basement in the guest and hobby rooms. We might even combine those two rooms and install a wall bed. That way, the bathroom is closer to the guest bed, the whole space gets daylight, and without guests, it’s a larger hobby room.

ypg schrieb:

...also, I find the centrally positioned door to the open-plan room rather awkward and dull. Double doors can either loosen up a room or look traditional. Here I see the latter and would prefer a 1/3 to 2/3 door arrangement in the hallway that allows room for a sideboard or picture wall. Also, for the 9sqm (100sq ft) office, you should stick with one door — whichever best fits your lifestyle.
In the guest WC, I would swap the washbasin and toilet.

Thank you! The double door was actually added last; previously, there was a continuous wall there. I’ll upload an earlier draft as well. The hallway-to-closet-door situation still doesn’t feel right to me. Maybe we will have to enlarge the entrance area again, even though we had decided against it before.

Overall, I’m impressed with how deeply you are engaging with our floor plans. Many thanks for that — it’s enjoyable! And more suggestions are very welcome! 🙂

fabreit19 Jun 2023 12:25

#27

11ant schrieb:

P.S.: I would like to renew my invitation for @fabreit to share not only the final but also the initial design.

I’m finally getting around to responding to your invitations. Below is a draft version from March. At that stage, we still had an additional floor, so the house was larger (almost encroaching on the garden), and we still included the bay window on the north side, which made the hallway area somewhat more spacious.

The main points of criticism included:

We can’t afford this house
The garden will be too small
We don’t need that much space
There is no optional retreat area on the ground floor
The pantry in this form is useless

Floor plan of a single-family house: living area, kitchen/dining, hallway, terrace, garden, garage.

Modern two-story house with large windows, balconies, terrace, and garden.

2D floor plan of a single-family house with living room, bedroom, children’s room, and bathroom.

2D floor plan of a house with loggia, studio, hallway, WC, and shower.

hanghaus202319 Jun 2023 13:29

#28

The natural lighting in the entrance area was significantly better in the previous design (door and window on the ground floor and an open space above with large windows on the upper floor). Therefore, my suggestion includes an additional window in the cloakroom and a transom window in the carport. This doesn’t fully compensate, but it’s better than nothing.

Alternatively, at least a frosted glass door in the bathroom?

hanghaus202319 Jun 2023 13:37

#29

Is there a specific reason why the house is no longer being built parallel to the north/west property boundaries?

fabreit19 Jun 2023 13:54

#30

hanghaus2023 schrieb:

Is there a specific reason why the house is no longer being built parallel to the north / west property lines?

A few pros and cons, for example garden size on the southeast side and an "evening sun terrace" in the northwest corner, but it’s still flexible. Both options exist in the neighborhood, see below. What would you recommend?

As shown in the satellite image, the planned south-facing terrace will get little sun in the evening. What tools would you use to create an accurate simulation of sun positions throughout the year? The house’s position on the lot could strongly depend on this.

ᐅ Single-family home floor plan, 230 sqm, with carport on a square corner lot

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