ᐅ Single-Family House Floor Plan 147 m² – Opinions, Feedback, and Suggestions for Improvement?

Hello fellow home builders,

We have been working on the planning of our single-family home for a while now and believe we have found a solution that suits us quite well. The structural engineer/architect from our general contractor has implemented everything strictly according to our wishes and ideas, offering little to no suggestions or improvements from their side. As laypersons, it is difficult for us to assess whether we have really made the best choices. Therefore, we would like to benefit from your experience and expertise and are looking forward to your honest opinions and possible improvement suggestions.

Development plan/restrictions
Plot size: 327 m2
Slope: no
Floor area ratio: none (§34 based on neighboring buildings)
Building window, building line, and boundary: The current design fully occupies the building window (except for the terrace area) at 10.15m*8.9 m (33.3 ft * 29.2 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 1
Number of floors: 1.5 (knee wall height 1.5m (5 ft)) + basement
Roof type: gable roof 40-45° (currently planned at 40°), a hipped roof would have been nice but is probably not possible due to the nature of the neighboring buildings
Style: no specific preference. Should be visually appealing. Rather modern.
Orientation: Terrace faces west
Maximum height/limits: Eaves height 4.85 m (15.9 ft), ridge height 8.57 m (28.1 ft) (these are the data from a preliminary building permit. The current design is 14 cm (5.5 inches) and 18 cm (7 inches) taller respectively)
Additional requirements: Heat pump + possibly central ventilation system

Homeowners’ requirements
Style: somewhat modern/appealing
Roof type: gable roof (hipped roof apparently not possible. We could submit the building application with a hipped roof on a whim, but it seems too risky. It would likely cause significant delays)
Building type: single-family house

Basement: yes
Floors: 3 or effectively 2.5
Number of occupants, ages: 2 small children + 2 adults
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor: normal – 2 children’s rooms + master bedroom + office
Office: family use or home office? Office is absolutely necessary (two people working from home a lot)
Overnight guests per year: few and rare (can be accommodated in the office if needed)
Open or closed architecture: open living/dining area with kitchen. Kitchen should ideally not be too visible.
Conservative or modern construction: as long as it is functional, both are fine
Open kitchen, kitchen island: yes to both
Number of dining seats: mostly 4, with option to expand to 8–10 people
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: possibly a feature wall planned
Balcony, roof terrace: no
Garage, carport: carport + bicycle/tool shed at the back planned, but placement is not yet final. Open to ideas here.
Other wishes/particulars/daily routine, including reasons for preferences or rejections:

House design
Planning by:
-architect/structural engineer of our general contractor.
Heating technology: heat pump and possibly a central ventilation system (still undecided. What is your opinion on this?), conduit installed for future photovoltaic system installation
What do you particularly like? Why?

• Good layout and room distribution. Easy to furnish.

What do you not like? Why?

• Exterior dimensions of the house are unfortunately not flexible because spacing rules must be followed. It might only be possible to make it longer, which would reduce garden space.
• Kitchen and dining area could be a bit larger. However, this would likely come at the expense of the cloakroom and guest WC. The guest WC could probably be made about 25cm (10 inches) narrower if the positions of the toilet and washbasin were swapped.
• No natural light in the stairwell or hallway. Possibly install a window here?
• Would a different staircase design create more space? Probably, but it would also cause major changes to the floor plan.
• Cloakroom may be very small. We also have difficulty imagining how this will feel later. The planned pipe routing for wastewater and ventilation in the cloakroom currently takes up quite a lot of space. Maybe swapping cloakroom and guest WC could help?
• The architect has included some very large windows. For example, the office has a 1.76m (5.8 ft) wide window. We wonder if this is necessary, especially given the view is just the driveway and neighbor’s house. What do you think about window sizes?
• The shower has two solid side walls, which may make it quite dark. Currently, daylight only comes from the front. How do you handle shower width? What did you choose?
• The carport location is not ideal. We would have to reverse along a 15m (49 ft) long driveway. Perhaps better to place it on the south side and keep the bike shed in the current position?
• Room layout and window positioning in the basement. Would you keep it this way?

What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
We are interested in your opinion on the floor plan. What is good? What is not so good and should be changed? What worked well for you?

We appreciate any hint or suggestion, no matter how small.
Thanks in advance and best regards!

I think the bedroom and bathroom upstairs waste too much space, and I would prefer to create a small laundry/utility room instead. However, I would also reconsider the bathroom layout, as the shower is poorly positioned there. But others will have to take a look at that...

Oh dear, this looks rather neglected. A tiny kitchen squeezed into a small corner is hardly ideal. The dark hallway on the upper floor is also quite bleak. I would just toss this aside and file it under “discard.”

Unfortunately, I don’t understand the garage layout. From the elevations, it appears to be on the north side, if I’m reading that correctly. But on the site plan, the parking space is shown on the south side. I’m going to assume you have a choice and opt for the north side. Accordingly, here’s a quick sketch with a standard design for approximately 9x10 meters (30x33 feet) plus basement (east is at the bottom of the plan):

You’ll have to imagine dormer windows for the kids.

One more thing I wanted to mention—the wall thicknesses seem odd to me. 32cm (13 inches) exterior walls—what kind are those? Timber frame? Do they comply with the energy-saving regulations? I’ve just accepted them for now, but nowadays the standard is usually 50cm (20 inches) walls. Of course, that depends on the material used.

Great idea to widen the staircase. And overall, a good suggestion!

This was already hinted at: You won’t be happy with this kitchen! The number of utensils that need to be stored simply doesn’t match the available space. Overall, the hours of use are not reflected in the area allocated. In my opinion, the kitchen is the central hub—not just technically. It’s where cooking is done, school lunches are prepared, relaxing teas are made, birthdays are organized... This should NOT be limited to just 7 square meters (75 square feet). And the hallway is simply a very dark space that constantly requires artificial lighting.

HoisleBauer22 schrieb:

Great idea to widen the staircase. And overall, a good suggestion!

You have the Like button to choose from 😉

HausiKlausi schrieb:

This was already mentioned here: You won’t be happy with this kitchen! The amount of utensils that need to be stored doesn’t match the available space. In general, the number of hours it will be used isn’t reflected in the allocated area. In my opinion, the kitchen is the central point. Not just technically. It’s where cooking happens, school lunches are prepared, relaxing teas are made, birthdays are organized... This SHOULD NOT be only 7 sq m (75 sq ft). And the hallway is simply a very dark structure that constantly requires artificial lighting.

The kitchen is larger than the one in the parallel thread by @KED1234 😎