ᐅ Floor plan for a 150 sqm single-family house with a double garage

Hello everyone,

We would be very grateful if you could review our floor plan. What works well, and what doesn’t? Is something missing or could something be improved or made more practical?

As you can read below, we are not satisfied with the placement of the garage in front of the house. What options do you see, and how could it be done better?

Development Plan / Restrictions
Plot size:
1218 sqm (13,106 sq ft)

Slope:
Less steep to the north, drops 3 m (10 ft) towards the south

Site coverage ratio: 0.3

Floor area ratio: 0.6

Building window, building line, and boundary:
3 m (10 ft)

Boundary construction:
Garage / carport may be built on the boundary line

Number of parking spaces:
2 in the garage

Number of floors:
2 full stories

Roof type:
Gable roof, approx. 20° pitch

Style:

Orientation:
South

Maximum heights / limits
Further requirements

Homeowners’ requirements
Style, roof shape, building type

Basement, floors:
No basement

Number of occupants, ages:
2 people (28 and 31), planning for 1 child

Room requirements on
Ground floor: kitchen, pantry, dining-living area, utility/technical room, guest toilet
Upper floor: bedroom, walk-in closet, bathroom, children’s room, office

Office: family use or home office?

Guests per year:
Occasional

Open or closed architecture:
Open

Conservative or modern style:
Modern

Open kitchen, kitchen island:
Kitchen island, pantry

Number of dining seats:
6

Fireplace:
No

Music/speaker wall:
No

Balcony, roof terrace:
No

Garage, carport:
Garage with workshop and storage space

Utility garden, greenhouse:
No

Other requests / special features / daily routine:
Since we have an unobstructed view to the south and west, we want to bring as much nature and light into the house as possible. An open kitchen-dining area with a subtle separation to the living room is important to us. On the upper floor, you should be able to enter the walk-in closet and bathroom directly from the bedroom.

House design
Who designed the plan:
Mainly ideas and rough drafts come from us, inspired by model homes and the internet. Final planning by the real estate developer’s architect.

What do you particularly like? Why?

What do you dislike? Why?
The placement/use of windows on the south side (terrace) is not optimal yet.
The biggest issue is the garage placement in front of the house. Due to the slope, the house should be positioned as far north as possible on the south side of the plot. However, we don’t really like the idea or plan to position the garage directly in front of the house/entrance.
We have thought about placing the garage beside the house on the west side. However, this creates a very long driveway and, since we don’t want to move too far south because of the plot’s situation, the space for maneuvering a car becomes quite tight.
We would be very grateful for any innovative ideas on how to best position the garage in relation to the house.

Price estimate according to architect/planner: 350,000
Personal price limit for the house, including fixtures: 400,000
Preferred heating technology:

If you have to make compromises, which details/upgrades
- can you do without:
- cannot do without:

Why did the design become what it is now? E.g.
The design was created from freehand sketches on paper and our own work on the PC, based on our wishes and requirements. The architect adopted most of this and optimized a few rooms/walls.

What is the most important/fundamental question about the floor plan summarized in 130 characters?
How can we elegantly fit the desired double garage on the plot considering the terrain, without it standing out too much in front of the house/entrance?

Thank you very much for your help, feedback, and suggestions.

Often seen, never understood: Why is the bedroom located on the south side?
Personally, I find the storage space clearly too limited and the distance between the front door and the kitchen too short. Straight stairs always take up space; with 150m² (1,615 sq ft), you could otherwise gain some additional room. A matter of taste.

There, you might also pick up a few details. I especially think the entrance area and the cloakroom are better designed by Baufritz.

Upper floor:
I don’t understand why the child’s room upstairs has a storage closet. Also, I find the two doors in the bathroom really impractical. It’s only about two steps along the hallway. And surely you wouldn’t be so embarrassed in front of your child that you can’t be seen naked? So I would remove one door—most likely the one through the dressing room.

Garage driveway 3m (10 feet), often a depth of 5m (16 feet) is required. What does the building plan / zoning plan say about this?

Thank you for your feedback.

@Obstlerbaum
We want to bring nature and the beautiful view into the bedroom, which is why we chose the south-facing orientation. We are aware of the consequences this entails.
We still need to work out some details regarding the storage areas.
The straight staircase, located quite centrally in the house, is a very important feature for us.

@kaho674
The floor plans are really very similar; we hadn’t seen them before. Thank you for pointing that out, and the wardrobe solution does indeed look very practical.
Regarding the room layout on the upper floor—child’s room / office—we are still undecided. We may switch the two rooms so that the storage room is adjacent to the office. The second door in the bathroom is actually more for convenience than for privacy.

@hanse987
The development plan states that the distance from garages to adjacent public areas must be at least 5 meters (16 feet) when there is direct access. This does not apply to garages with automatic door openers.

We are especially uncertain about the garage—it might be too prominent in front of the entrance and the house. We are still looking for an elegant solution or a great idea for this.

marcn schrieb:
@Obstlerbaum
We would like to bring nature and the beautiful view into the bedroom, which is why we chose a south-facing orientation. We are aware of the consequences this entails.

So I assume the architect simply named the room according to standard practice and you actually don’t have a child, correct?