ᐅ Single-Family House Design – Future Conversion to a Duplex Possible

Again: how do you imagine separating the stairwell if the house is used as a two-family home? Why don’t you move the stairs at least 1 meter (3 feet) down the plan into a bay window? That would make it much easier to divide the space.

Also, I don’t understand why you are still planning two full dining areas. The kitchen will be cramped, both for cooking and for seating around the table, and the living/dining room will also become very tight.

Why don’t you plan either a kitchen with two snack seats, OR a large eat-in kitchen with the living room separate and quiet?

The second option is better.

In the utility room, there won’t be much space left for laundry purposes. I would give up the guest room upstairs and instead set up your laundry room there – that’s where most of the laundry is generated.

The upper apartment will also be very tight for a young family with small children.

Looking again (I mentioned earlier that it works), I still have to say that this is not a good design.

The room in the northwest corner is awkwardly accessed from the hallway on both floors. This can definitely be improved.
There is plenty of hallway space, but considering this is a large house, there could be a more efficient layout.
There are two dining areas next to each other, and the need for separate guest and office rooms is also questionable.
Why must both bathrooms each have a bathtub? Why do they have to be exactly the same when the space requirements on the ground floor and upper floor differ?
Why is the bedroom located on the south side, while the living area, which could benefit from southern exposure, is on the west side where it receives hardly any winter sunlight?
I would start over from scratch and also involve an architect with experience in dividing residential units.

Edit: And why is the conservatory, which today is considered full living space, not included in the planning?

Best regards

I would still be bothered by having to go from the bedroom through the hallway (which is used with outdoor shoes and therefore dirty) to the bathroom at night. That would be too dirty and too public for my taste. I consider this a highly suboptimal layout.

If the floor plan absolutely must remain as it is, I would use the guest/living area upstairs as the sleeping area. Although I still don’t understand the separation between guest and office.

Having two full dining areas doesn’t make sense. Decide where you want to eat as a family—either in the kitchen or the living room—and if it’s the living room, then only have a small snack area in the kitchen.

The bathrooms still don’t make sense in this design.

I find the entire draft quite in need of improvement. I dare say: you won’t really be happy with it as it is.

Build a house that meets your needs TODAY, meaning a house for a family with three children. For me, a children’s bathroom, for example, would be important. I would never want my sleeping area to be as public as it is in this part of the plan.

If you want to divide the house into two living units later, you can still add an external staircase to the house if necessary. A good architect keeps such an option in mind and plans accordingly.

But right now, you should build a house for your CURRENT situation, not for a distant future that no one really knows what it will look like.

I completely agree with Climbee (except for one or two points).

I have seen and discussed several floor plans where the privacy of the shower room and guest/bedroom on the ground floor was ensured, the hallway was kept as compact as possible, and there was a separate kitchen with practical furnishing.
I recall @BeJaElJa’s design... though without a recessed staircase.
Ultimately, it doesn’t matter how the rooms are named as long as you pay attention to closet space for both now and the future.

If you upload the site plan, we can illustrate with sketches to show how the suggestions are intended and can be implemented.

Best regards

Thank you for the food for thought. As a family, we will sit down and discuss your points of criticism, and then I will return to the topic.

We have made a few changes; new images including a simple site plan are attached. We likely won’t need a garage, but definitely a finished garden shed for bicycles and gardening tools. The exact location for this is not yet decided.

- Regarding the bedroom: We agreed at home to have the bedroom upstairs. However, due to recurring health issues, the bedroom may need to be moved downstairs in the medium term. The room currently labeled as "office" is quite large and could serve this purpose, and the second bathtub downstairs, which is not yet installed but has its space reserved, supports this plan.

- The children like to have breakfast in the kitchen before school in the mornings. The dining area in the kitchen is indeed a bit smaller. We have slightly enlarged it on the floor plan to allow for more flexibility—if needed—with the living room.

- The conservatory will be heated but likely not a fully insulated all-season living conservatory.

- The guest room is intended for grandma or aunt and uncle, who visit us for 2–3 months per year.