ᐅ Looking for feedback on a floor plan with 195 sqm of living space
Created on: 17 Feb 2017 18:02
H
Hofhaus
Hello dear forum members,
We are still at a very early stage of planning and want to build a replacement house in a rural area on my grandmother’s farm. We have the basic approval from the building authority, so I kindly ask not to start discussions about building in rural areas here, but rather to provide critical feedback on the floor plan we have now received from our architect. I will try to answer the requested questions in an organized way. Unfortunately, I am quite inexperienced with construction. Please be patient with me.
Development plan / Restrictions
Plot size – several hectares, the farmstead area about 5000 sqm (54000 sq ft) (?)
Slope –
Site coverage ratio –
Floor area ratio –
Building envelope, building line and boundary –
Edge development –
Number of parking spaces –
Number of floors: 1–2
Roof type –
Architectural style –
Orientation –
Maximum heights/limits –
Other requirements – “Suitable for a rural setting”
Client requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type – Nordic, typical single-family house with “captain’s gable” at front and rear, brick facade
Basement, floors – 1.5 floors, no basement because a large outbuilding is available
Number of occupants, ages – Currently 2 (29, 34), house should be planned for 2–3 potential children
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor – Living room with adjoining kitchen, small study, utility room, guest bathroom (with shower)
Office: family use or home office? – Strictly family use; possibly space for paperwork if 3 children eventually come; should fit a sofa bed if needed
Overnight guests per year – irregular, hard to estimate
Open or closed architecture – ?
Conservative or modern construction – Probably conservative with some modern elements or similar
Open kitchen, cooktop island – Would be nice, but we would prefer a sliding door to be able to close off the mess sometimes
Number of dining seats – One dining area in the living room; a counter in the kitchen would be nice
Fireplace – preferably masonry, possibly initially “only” a wood stove
Music / stereo wall –
Balcony, roof terrace –
Garage, carport – We likely will not get planning permission for these; a barn/farmyard space exists and will suffice
Kitchen garden, greenhouse – no
House design
Who designed the plan: Architect based on our ideas from the internet and prefab house exhibitions
What do you particularly like? Why? – I like the open living area / corner glazing as we have green meadow and a stream behind it, nice hallway with storage under the stairs and a cloakroom, number of rooms meets our requirements, large master bedroom, “rotated” staircase
What do you not like? Why? – Tends to be a somewhat too large master bedroom, somewhat small children’s rooms, not necessarily needing a children’s bathroom, too large guest toilet, too small kitchen (no room for kitchen island or counter…)
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: –
Personal price limit for house including equipment: 500,000 EUR including demolition and site preparation of about 60,000 EUR
Preferred heating technology: Unsure... geothermal with solar possible
If you have to waive something, on which details/expansions
– can you do without:
– cannot do without:
I look forward to some input on what you find good or not so good, where a layperson might not immediately think at the start of such a project. Of course, we will pass all our critical remarks back to our architect for revisions, but I think it can’t hurt to get some feedback here as well. Unfortunately, the floor plans do not show the cardinal direction. The living room faces roughly south/west for orientation. We will receive the exterior views today and will share them here immediately.
Thank you in advance.
We are still at a very early stage of planning and want to build a replacement house in a rural area on my grandmother’s farm. We have the basic approval from the building authority, so I kindly ask not to start discussions about building in rural areas here, but rather to provide critical feedback on the floor plan we have now received from our architect. I will try to answer the requested questions in an organized way. Unfortunately, I am quite inexperienced with construction. Please be patient with me.
Development plan / Restrictions
Plot size – several hectares, the farmstead area about 5000 sqm (54000 sq ft) (?)
Slope –
Site coverage ratio –
Floor area ratio –
Building envelope, building line and boundary –
Edge development –
Number of parking spaces –
Number of floors: 1–2
Roof type –
Architectural style –
Orientation –
Maximum heights/limits –
Other requirements – “Suitable for a rural setting”
Client requirements
Architectural style, roof type, building type – Nordic, typical single-family house with “captain’s gable” at front and rear, brick facade
Basement, floors – 1.5 floors, no basement because a large outbuilding is available
Number of occupants, ages – Currently 2 (29, 34), house should be planned for 2–3 potential children
Space requirements on ground floor and upper floor – Living room with adjoining kitchen, small study, utility room, guest bathroom (with shower)
Office: family use or home office? – Strictly family use; possibly space for paperwork if 3 children eventually come; should fit a sofa bed if needed
Overnight guests per year – irregular, hard to estimate
Open or closed architecture – ?
Conservative or modern construction – Probably conservative with some modern elements or similar
Open kitchen, cooktop island – Would be nice, but we would prefer a sliding door to be able to close off the mess sometimes
Number of dining seats – One dining area in the living room; a counter in the kitchen would be nice
Fireplace – preferably masonry, possibly initially “only” a wood stove
Music / stereo wall –
Balcony, roof terrace –
Garage, carport – We likely will not get planning permission for these; a barn/farmyard space exists and will suffice
Kitchen garden, greenhouse – no
House design
Who designed the plan: Architect based on our ideas from the internet and prefab house exhibitions
What do you particularly like? Why? – I like the open living area / corner glazing as we have green meadow and a stream behind it, nice hallway with storage under the stairs and a cloakroom, number of rooms meets our requirements, large master bedroom, “rotated” staircase
What do you not like? Why? – Tends to be a somewhat too large master bedroom, somewhat small children’s rooms, not necessarily needing a children’s bathroom, too large guest toilet, too small kitchen (no room for kitchen island or counter…)
Cost estimate according to architect/planner: –
Personal price limit for house including equipment: 500,000 EUR including demolition and site preparation of about 60,000 EUR
Preferred heating technology: Unsure... geothermal with solar possible
If you have to waive something, on which details/expansions
– can you do without:
– cannot do without:
I look forward to some input on what you find good or not so good, where a layperson might not immediately think at the start of such a project. Of course, we will pass all our critical remarks back to our architect for revisions, but I think it can’t hurt to get some feedback here as well. Unfortunately, the floor plans do not show the cardinal direction. The living room faces roughly south/west for orientation. We will receive the exterior views today and will share them here immediately.
Thank you in advance.
11ant schrieb:
I understood that much, but not the idea of using only half of the space under the stairs as storage and bricking up a lost-off section of it. If there’s supposed to be a secret safe in there, I wouldn’t post it on the Internet There are people who don’t like hidden or hard-to-reach corners, so they choose to brick those off. Whether this makes sense or not – everyone (including architects) has their own style and preferences.
Regards, Yvonne
Hofhaus schrieb:
.... it wouldn’t necessarily need a children’s bathroom,I’m wondering how your architect planned the drainage for the children’s bathroom?I would never do without the kids' bathroom, especially not with three children! When our kids were little, there were no problems with the bathroom at all, but that completely changed during their teenage years. That’s why we are now especially looking forward to having our own bathroom.
Best regards
Sabine
Best regards
Sabine
Hello!
Thank you very much for your constructive feedback. I especially liked Yvonne’s idea of adding a second utility/laundry room upstairs, so we played around with the floor plan in Paint (I know, very professional) and made some changes. We will definitely discuss this again thoroughly with our architect at the next appointment. For example, the bathroom fittings are still completely undecided, and of course, I can’t judge how feasible everything is. I will gladly leave that to our architect, whom we already trust a lot.
Our walk-in closet is now a bit smaller, but not everything needs to fit in there anymore since there is more space in the utility room. The children’s bathroom has been removed, which I actually wanted from the start, since we have a shower room downstairs. I really don’t want to set up and clean three bathrooms. But I guess it’s a matter of personal preference. I shared a bathroom with two sisters and our parents. It wasn’t perfect, but honestly, it rarely bothered me much.
Additionally, we swapped the sides. First, we now have a nicer view... and the children’s rooms have become larger as a result.
I will have another look shortly at adjusting the walls downstairs to see what else is possible. The advantage now is that the utility room downstairs no longer needs space for a washing machine and dryer, so it’s free for more kitchen supplies and also some shoes and jackets.
I’m curious to hear what you think. I find it much more organized this way. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fit a separate WC with a sink, which I also really liked the idea of. I will definitely bring this up with our architect again.
Thank you very much for your constructive feedback. I especially liked Yvonne’s idea of adding a second utility/laundry room upstairs, so we played around with the floor plan in Paint (I know, very professional) and made some changes. We will definitely discuss this again thoroughly with our architect at the next appointment. For example, the bathroom fittings are still completely undecided, and of course, I can’t judge how feasible everything is. I will gladly leave that to our architect, whom we already trust a lot.
Our walk-in closet is now a bit smaller, but not everything needs to fit in there anymore since there is more space in the utility room. The children’s bathroom has been removed, which I actually wanted from the start, since we have a shower room downstairs. I really don’t want to set up and clean three bathrooms. But I guess it’s a matter of personal preference. I shared a bathroom with two sisters and our parents. It wasn’t perfect, but honestly, it rarely bothered me much.
Additionally, we swapped the sides. First, we now have a nicer view... and the children’s rooms have become larger as a result.
I will have another look shortly at adjusting the walls downstairs to see what else is possible. The advantage now is that the utility room downstairs no longer needs space for a washing machine and dryer, so it’s free for more kitchen supplies and also some shoes and jackets.
I’m curious to hear what you think. I find it much more organized this way. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to fit a separate WC with a sink, which I also really liked the idea of. I will definitely bring this up with our architect again.
I thought you would like the idea of the utility room and might want to include it.
However, the change upstairs isn't ideal: you lose valuable square meters that now lie unused in the hallway.
I have an idea to convert the area in the original plan at the bottom right (the section with the bathtub) into a utility room, place the separate toilet (drainpipe) in front of it, and keep the remaining part of the children's bathroom and the area in front of the stairs as a bathroom. But I haven’t had time yet to roughly sketch it out (I prefer to do it with pencil and so on) to see if another layout might work better.
Regards, Yvonne
P.S. There should be 120cm (47 inches) of space between the wardrobes in the dressing room!
However, the change upstairs isn't ideal: you lose valuable square meters that now lie unused in the hallway.
I have an idea to convert the area in the original plan at the bottom right (the section with the bathtub) into a utility room, place the separate toilet (drainpipe) in front of it, and keep the remaining part of the children's bathroom and the area in front of the stairs as a bathroom. But I haven’t had time yet to roughly sketch it out (I prefer to do it with pencil and so on) to see if another layout might work better.
Regards, Yvonne
P.S. There should be 120cm (47 inches) of space between the wardrobes in the dressing room!
Hofhaus schrieb:
and so we played around a bit in Paint (I know, very professional)Homebuilders are allowed to do that. At this stage of planning discussions, being professional usually means staying at the level of rough hand-drawn sketches.
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