ᐅ Single-family home floor plan. Your suggestions are welcome.

The utility/technical room will house the washing machine, possibly a dryer (which we haven’t needed so far), a drying rack, the technical equipment (I expect it will be about the same amount as what you have), and shelves for various items since there is no basement. There should be enough space to store most things so that we don’t have to keep items at our parents’ place. It could also happen (though I hope not) that the house might no longer be part of the farm, so it needs to be usable on its own.

Do you have an additional basement? If not, do you have other extra storage space? Are you able to store everything comfortably?

The laptop issue hasn’t been too urgent so far because there are only two of us, and we just pushed it to the other side of the table. But eventually, the table will be fully occupied. However, knowing my partner and myself, neither of us would go to a separate room with a laptop if the living room is warm and cozy. Especially since we mostly browse rather than work. Maybe the living room table should be a bit bigger and have a sort of “second level” where devices can be stored.

Somersualt schrieb:
...Utility room... It should simply have enough space to store most things so you don’t have to keep stuff at your parents’ place.

Okay, for laundry we still have a small separate room of 5m² (54 ft²). We don’t actually have that much extra stuff. Vacuum cleaner, brooms, and so on still fit in the utility room. The rest is just odds and ends for the garden – we’ll put those in the garage or an additional shed. Well, things like winter blankets, tents, and ice skates will go up to the attic.

Somersualt schrieb:
Do you have an extra basement? .. Are you able to store everything well?

We don’t have a basement either because of the groundwater. We manage to fit everything in, but as I said, we don’t have tons of stuff. I like to throw things away sometimes, much to my husband’s dismay. 😉

Somersualt schrieb:
...Nobody sits in a separate room with their laptop when the living room is warm and cozy.

That’s why it’s best to plan a small spot for that in the living room. I included that as well. We don’t need it yet. For now, there’s just a cabinet there. But if we need it later, we’ll put in a small desk or one of those library cabinets with a fold-down writing surface – done.

Unfortunately, the dimensions are not provided.
If the pantry is one meter deep (3.3 feet), it is almost unusable. The kitchen cabinets seem insufficient to me. The side cabinet does not appear to have the working depth required for appliances. It might be worth double-checking the measurements. The window sizes also seem too small for the spacious rooms. Why is the prime side of the house (west/southwest) so neglected? It seems like a good opportunity to place the terrace there, in my opinion.
The house size absorbs a large part of the budget without adding any special comfort features.
Personally, the rooms feel too large and therefore too "boring" and not cozy.

Why are you planning so (over)large?

Have you ever thought about the costs? If you are planning a single-family house with over 200 sqm (over 2,150 sq ft), the price will probably be around 350,000 euros for the house including additional construction costs, but excluding the land. Depending on the location, banks sometimes have difficulties with such large homes if the location isn’t suitable. Sorry, this isn’t the direct answer to your question, but even the best floor plan won’t help if the costs are too high.

Everything is very spacious, but as mentioned, that also comes with a correspondingly high cost.
You’ll need to change the north elevation with the arrow-slit style windows, as they don’t look good. I also find the window areas on the east side too small. Given the house size, you have significant room depth, so with windows that are too small it will quickly get dark inside.

The path from the carport to the kitchen/pantry carrying groceries is quite long.
As already mentioned, a home office should definitely be planned for a house of this size. The children (once they arrive) will grow up and are less likely to accept a working parent at the living room table. Having a dedicated office makes acceptance from the kids much easier.
The bathroom upstairs is very spacious. I had planned something similar in our house, but ultimately decided to split one large bathroom into a large master bathroom and a smaller children’s bathroom next to it. Today, I can say that was the right decision. With four people, two of them now teenagers, otherwise quite long waiting times can occur. 🙂

Hello everyone,

First of all, many thanks for the numerous constructive suggestions.

Regarding #8:

We are planning a suspended ceiling for the upper floor. It might also be possible to design it with an attic space for storage. However, I’m not sure if this is worthwhile since we have a relatively low roof pitch, and a well-insulated access also isn’t inexpensive. On the other hand, it could be useful as maintenance access in case the roof is ever damaged, for example.

Regarding #9:

The pantry is 1.23 m (4 feet) deep. The kitchen layout is not finalized yet; cabinets and their arrangement still need to be decided. It’s still a puzzle to accommodate all my kitchen wishes. Especially the elevated dishwasher I want doesn’t quite fit the current concept yet.
The terrace planning is also not fixed. I would like to extend the terrace on both the west and east sides. Since we won’t build it until later anyway, we can first try out where we feel most comfortable. For shading, we are considering a pergola on the south side, possibly with shading from an awning or a sun sail.
And of course, our hammock chair needs a good spot. We have also thought about extending the roof of the utility room to cover the entire west side of the house, which would provide a sheltered outdoor space. The downside is that less light would then enter the house through the west-facing window.

Regarding #9 and #10:

We will reduce the house dimensions; the rooms are actually larger than necessary. You get caught up in so many small details and lose sight of the essentials... 🙄 We want to avoid feeling cramped but also want it to be cozy and, naturally, affordable.

Regarding #11:

The north elevation is challenging. The windows are in the bathroom (I don’t want windows with a 90 cm (35 inch) sill height next to the toilet) and in the bedroom (here we now plan to place the bed under the window).
Since no one works from home, we don’t put much emphasis on a study room. And if someone wants to do taxes quietly or guests are over while the kids are playing in the living room, we have planned for a two-part sliding door between the living room and the dining/kitchen area.
Instead of an extra children’s bathroom on the upper floor, we have planned a secondary/guest bathroom on the ground floor. We prefer this because we definitely want a guest toilet on the ground floor. The shower is a nice addition and reduces waiting times, as you mentioned. 🙂

Regarding #12:

I agree about the front door; we will probably choose one with an additional glazed side panel, and the doors to the living room and kitchen will have glass or plastic inserts. We will also change the opening directions. The small cabinets are placeholders and got pushed under the stairs in the latest floor plan version. I want to have coat hooks here for jackets and a bench. Next to that, there will be space for a dirt-tray or something similar for shoes. However, this is not finalized yet.
I haven’t looked closely at the door dimensions yet and just used standard doors for now. I need to review that again.
I will try your suggestion for the pantry to see if it fits better with the rest of the furnishings.
We don’t know yet if we might want a corner bench or a bench pushed against the wall. In that case, a floor-to-ceiling window would be less ideal.
We prefer to reduce circulation areas in favor of living space, especially since the house dimensions will be reduced (see #9 and #10). However, the hallway on the upper floor is quite dark, and we still need to figure out how to improve that.

I will incorporate your suggestions into the plan over the next few days and then post an updated version online.

Thank you all very much.

Best regards

Somersualt