ᐅ Preliminary Design of a Single-Family House for Discussion

Apart from the fact that I’m not really a townhouse type, the ground floor looks successful to me. Nice large living and dining areas. I don’t understand how anyone can find the cramped layout of typical S-shaped houses appealing. Of course, living space is expensive, but you are building for yourselves. The upper floor—well, it lacks structure. What works well downstairs is completely missing upstairs. There definitely needs to be a proper hallway where you don’t feel like you’re stuck in a box. Straighten the walls and make the rooms a bit smaller as a result. I think there’s still potential to improve the design. But you’re still at an early stage. Don’t get too fixated on one version. Good luck.

Hello,
the upper floor is honestly quite unsettling. 😕 I don’t really want to say anything more about it.

Regarding the ground floor:

• What is the purpose of the short wall section in the living area?
• The kitchen offers very little cabinet space.
• Where will the technical equipment (e.g., HVAC, electrical panels) be located?
• Do you really want your terrace tucked in the corner behind the garage? And always have to go through the utility room to get there?
• You have two sliding doors and two regular doors (utility room and storage) to access the back of the house. I would suggest eliminating at least one door.
• The bay window could be a bit wider.
• Is that a floor-to-ceiling window from the garage onto the terrace?
• I generally like the idea of having the utility room as a buffer zone between the garage and the house. We have the same setup. But having it open directly into the kitchen doesn’t seem very practical. Also, for laundry, you have to carry it from the upper floor through the living room and the kitchen into the utility room. Not very convenient with a pile of laundry.

I hope this helps you a bit 🙂

As a complete beginner, I’d also like to share my thoughts 😉

1. Floor plans are always somewhat a matter of personal taste. What appeals to others may not appeal to you, and vice versa. So it definitely makes sense to look at the suggested improvements and consider them, but don’t feel overwhelmed by the number of suggestions 😉

2. What helped me personally was looking at pictures of furnished living rooms and bathrooms (especially bathrooms!) on Pinterest and noting how I want my interior design/windows, etc. to look and be positioned. However, I do have a certain, almost fanatical, passion for interior design 😉 For me, the architecture had to be based on the quite detailed interior layout.

3. Now a few thoughts about the floor plan (some of which have already been mentioned):

- You placed the terrace by the garage because of the wind protection? Personally, I would extend it lengthwise so that I can access the terrace at least through the kitchen. That would be important for me so I don’t have to go through the utility room when we want to eat outside (I like to cook a lot) and especially so guests don’t have to go through my utility room.

- In the guest toilet, you see the toilet directly when you open the door. I don’t like that. I would prefer the view to be directed toward a nice washbasin =)

- I like the pantry being easily accessible. I don’t see anything wrong with the rest of the ground floor either; it corresponds to the current standard of construction. And not that many people can be completely wrong 😉 The circulation space is also not too large anymore. Everything else is individual and a matter of personal taste.

- It’s questionable whether the utility room is big enough for the technical equipment — you should probably furnish it completely once?!

- About the floor plan on the upper floor, unfortunately, I have to agree — it wouldn’t work for me. As a fan of clear structures, I have no problem with one or two indentations or projections, but this is too much. I’m not sure what your priorities are, but

1. The bathroom is too small for me! There’s no wellness factor, especially since there is no additional shower in the guest toilet, so it will probably result in the four of you sharing the bathroom.

2. The office, on the other hand, is way too big for me (especially since there is already another one).

3. It’s also important to me that both children’s rooms are approximately the same size.

4. The hallway will be completely dark. But I guess with five rooms on the upper floor, it will be difficult to find wall space with a window there.

So much criticism, but no solutions 😉 Maybe you could try planning the upper floor yourself with a planning tool? I know that’s normally the planner’s job, but well... there are competent and less competent professionals everywhere 😉

Hello,

first of all, thank you all very much for the numerous suggestions for improvement. If I didn’t want any feedback on the floor plan, I wouldn’t have posted it here in the first place ;-)

So, let me briefly explain a few things:

Ground Floor:

- The passage from the garage to the covered seating area is a separate roll-up door to allow access with the vehicle to the backyard area.
- The covered seating area itself is not a traditional patio; the actual patio extends along the entire rear part of the house to the right. This covered seating area was my idea to have a place to sit outside occasionally during bad weather and to store garden furniture dry.
- We don’t yet know exactly how the kitchen area will be laid out... this is just a sample design from our architect. We will soon visit a kitchen showroom to get suggestions. If we don’t like any of those, we may have to make further changes.
- The utility connections for electricity, gas, and water will be located on the ground floor, while the ventilation and heating equipment will be placed in the insulated attic.
- The “short wall” on the ground floor is, I think, just for symmetry... nothing else... ;-)

Upper Floor:

- We completely agree with you regarding the mixing and straightening of the walls. This will be changed at the next meeting with the architect.
- My wife and I are definitely not fans of large corridors. It was intentional to keep them as small as possible both downstairs and upstairs. To still bring light into the upstairs hallway, a light well was incorporated.
- Whether the bathroom is actually too small... I don’t know...
- Personally, I don’t mind the walk-in closet at all, since it’s basically just a large wardrobe to store clothes... for all I care, it could even be circular, as long as there’s enough space for all the clothes :-D
- The rooms for Child 1, Child 2, and the office can still be freely swapped around... we haven’t made a firm decision on that yet.

We will receive a 3D interior view from our architect, so we will be able to look at the rooms virtually... probably we’ll notice a few more things then.

That’s all I can think of for now. Thanks again for the suggestions so far... if there are any more, please keep them coming. 🙂