ᐅ Requesting Opinions on Floor Plans for a “House on a Slope”

Hello,

we have now spoken with many builders and also with two architects. An ideal floor plan with the available budget has not emerged, at best a compromise between cost and use. But please have a look for yourselves. I would appreciate any constructive tips.

The building will be solid construction through an architect with individual contracting.

General conditions:
Requirements for the floor plan:
Sloped site – so the basement is underground on the entrance side, and above ground on the opposite side.
Keep it simple, without much fuss.
Ridge and eaves height fixed as a maximum limit, as well as a gable roof; either we go for a high kneewall or dormers. We have decided on a high kneewall, otherwise it would not be approved according to the development plan.
Financially no more than 375,000 USD (approximate equivalence), which according to my architect corresponds to about 950 cubic meters (33,560 cubic feet) of enclosed space.
Upper floor as a separate living unit, initially for the children, later rentable.
Ground floor with open kitchen, dining and living area, bedroom (bed size 190cm x 230cm (75 in x 90 in)) and bathroom. Ideally a small storage room for vacuum cleaner etc.
Basement for technical equipment, separate entrance for one office, anteroom and WC, second office as well as a potential guest or hobby room accessible from the house side.
Fireplace possible in the living room.
Carport on the ground floor with basement underneath, open to the garden, uninsulated is sufficient.

When the children move out, a door will be installed on the ground floor between the stairway to the other apartment and the stairway down to the offices. This separation of staircases is very important to us. Accordingly, the stairs will be concrete.

Roger

P.S.: Please ignore any graphic errors in the program..

You can’t see anything anyway

UPS, got much smaller for some reason… they are about 1000 pixels for me. I’ll try it as a JPG.

Hi, somehow the main living area seems poorly planned to me. The dining area is too narrow and blocks access to the "terrace" doors. Is there actually no terrace now? Where do the living room doors lead to? A Juliet balcony? (Because of the slope, I’m having a hard time orienting myself.)

The stairwell is basically a common area if the property will be rented out later. So behind it is the actual entrance to the residential unit. But when you enter through the "main door," you first face a wall. What about a coat rack or something similar?
The walls to the stairwell are quite thick, but the bedroom is right next to it? I would have placed the bathroom there instead.

Is there no direct access from the garage?
Could you please share the exterior dimensions? Maybe the stairwell can be shifted a bit to improve the room layout.
Also, you probably need to know the plot better. Is there still a garden? Can you step outside from somewhere? If yes, from where – the offices?

Hello, thanks first of all for the feedback.

So, where do I start?

Yes, the dining area is tight, but since we can’t make the house wider, I don’t know where else to put it. Putting the table in front of the kitchen didn’t seem satisfactory to me either... By the way, the unit next to the table is a bookshelf, so it can be shifted a bit.

I had to look up "French balcony" first No, there is access from there to a 2.5 x 9.5-meter (8 x 31-foot) long terrace/balcony. That means to the northwest side, it opens onto the lawn, and from there you can go down the slope on the left into the garden. To the southeast side, due to the sloping site, it overhangs the garden and the lower floor, so there are railings there.

Bedroom: Originally, the bedroom was planned where the bathroom is now. But then the living room would have been even smaller, and I couldn’t come up with even a halfway decent layout. We actually sketched it out full scale on the street. That’s why we moved the bedroom upstairs, which is a bit of a downside since the street is there. But as I said, there was no other way.

Yes, the entrance area with the separating door isn’t large; we also considered an alternative with a large hallway/foyer—but then the rest of the space became too small. The maximum dimensions are set somewhere, and that’s why we wanted to save space where we rarely spend time—in the hallway. However, the hallway is not quite as small as required by local building standards (DIN); it’s a bit larger.

Current exterior dimensions (width) 10.6 x (depth) 9.6 meters (35 x 31.5 feet). It can’t be more than 40 cm (16 inches) wider because of the building setback line/planning window; it could be deeper—but not by much since it’s too expensive.

Wall after the entrance door: Yes, I’m still unsure whether that’s a good idea or not. I wanted to have it built and, if necessary, remove it during construction. I’m completely undecided about it…

There is still garden on the southwest and especially the southeast side of the house. You’re supposed to exit around the outside or via the ground floor balcony. We wanted to keep the children’s feet out downstairs—otherwise they always run under potential customers’ feet. I had thought about having a door to the outside in my office, but I prefer having space for plants, meaning a windowsill.

Another thing I considered is relocating the WC in the basement to the adjacent hobby/guest room, thus making the entrance usable for the garden as well, at least on weekends.

Roger

This is really a tricky situation. The problem is that the wall facing the garage can’t have any windows, which is a shame because the bathroom could have been placed nicely there.

Would it be possible for you to rotate the house? That might make the layout work better. I’ve made a sketch—just for the ground floor to help visualize it.