ᐅ Single-family Home – Captain’s House Style – 150 m² – New Construction – Requesting Advice

Hello everyone,

we have purchased a plot in Lower Saxony and have already had the first planning meeting with the architect from our building company, so the initial preliminary design is done. We have three options to choose from. We received a 3D file, which allowed us to virtually “walk through” the house beforehand. However, not everything convinced us, so I hope to get some good tips here for improvements.

Development Plan/Restrictions
Plot size: 595 m² (approximately 6400 sq ft)
Slope: rising along the north side from the driveway to the northeast corner, highest point about 1.30–1.50 m (approximately 4.3–4.9 ft) (retaining wall planned along boundary)
Building type: single-family house
Floor space index: 0.25
Number of floors: 1 full storey
Building setback: North 5 m (16 ft), South/West 3 m (10 ft)
Number of parking spaces: 2 as per development plan (1 carport, 1 parking space in front)
Orientation: south
Maximum heights/limits: ridge height above finished floor level (FFL) 9 m (30 ft), eaves height above FFL 4.5 m (15 ft)

Homeowner Requirements
Style, roof type, building form: solid captain’s house with gable facing south, pitched roof 45°
Basement, floors: 1 full storey, no basement
Number of people, age: 2 adults (30, 34), 2 children planned
Room requirements in basement, ground floor, upper floor:
Ground floor: guest toilet, utility room, kitchen, living/dining room
Upper floor: bathroom, master bedroom, 2 children’s rooms, storage room (washing machine/dryer raised)
Open kitchen, kitchen island: island solution (possibly without cooktop and maybe with seating) has not found a place yet; topic open: see below
Number of dining seats: 4 in kitchen, 6–8 in living/dining area
Fireplace: no
Music/stereo wall: no
Balcony: no
Terrace: yes, in front of kitchen and living/dining area
Cistern: yes
Heating/electricity: ground source heat pump and photovoltaic system with battery storage
Garage, carport: carport

Additional wishes/particulars, including reasons why certain options are preferred or not:
- Kitchen: We want to be able to eat with four people in the kitchen, mainly for weekday breakfasts or hot meals where the pot can remain on the stove. With children and high chairs, I don’t think a breakfast bar or counter makes sense!?
- Upper floor bathroom: Other homeowners recommended not locating the shower (and possibly the toilet too) on the wall adjacent to the bedroom due to noise.
- Window sizes still variable

House Design
Who designed it: by us in coordination with the architect of the building company

What do we particularly like, and why?
- Size of the kitchen, access to the terrace
- Door from kitchen to utility room
- Utility room with space for our 2 shelves (1.67 m (5.5 ft) wall) for food and household items, and recycling bag just around the corner (next to ventilation)
- Radiator valve concealed in utility room, upstairs also hidden in thicker wall
- Storage room on upper floor with space for washing machine and dryer on a platform, plus room for drying rack (room is ventilated)
- Large children’s rooms

What would we change in the current plan for the second draft:
- Change the kitchen-utility room door to open toward the kitchen to avoid collisions? (no sliding door solution)
- Possibly a light strip window in the guest toilet, so you don’t look in directly when entering the house and to improve light on the mirror, instead of only having light behind you (north side is generally darker) > move current bathroom window to the hallway
- Windows in the living/dining area should be shifted leftwards from the inside perspective, currently too close to the wall
- Possibly roof windows in the stairwell as the upper floor hallway is otherwise too dark
- Shower shelf without seat, only a half wall as a shelf for shower items; use the dead space behind the shower from the storage room side as a niche
- Children’s rooms are designed for 1.40 m (55 inch) beds, but 90 cm (35 inch) beds would also fit of course

What don’t we like and why?
- Ground floor hallway is too narrow
- Door to living/dining area is “under” the stairs (that is, the right doorway from the hallway), otherwise you can’t get to the kitchen
- Closed stair treads that I would have preferred are not feasible in this floor plan
- Double-sided stair railing in upper hallway (visually), although the hallway seems more open and less narrow this way
- Utility room has “excessively much space” in the middle of the room
- Upper bathroom: overall layout, bathroom feels small and outdated

Why is the design the way it is now?
- Kitchen: Since during the week I don’t want to carry everything to the big dining table for breakfast, having a dining area in the kitchen is important to me. Visually, having a kitchen seating area “next to” a large dining table seemed odd, so we currently planned a half-height wall to separate the two, behind which the kitchen table could be placed, so it still feels somewhat open. I’m not sure whether the wall length is sufficient, though.
- At first, we liked a straight staircase, but it protrudes quite far through the house both downstairs and upstairs.

[U]What is the most important/basic question about the floor plan, summarized in 130 characters?[/U]
How can the hallway be designed to feel less narrow? We’re open to other stair styles. There needs to be space for a wardrobe niche that isn’t too visible, ideally in front of the guest toilet. Maybe a new design will also improve the upstairs bathroom situation?

I look forward to your comments and ideas!

Best regards, Erisa

Erisa2010 schrieb:

It’s mainly about having breakfast during the week or warm meals where the cooking pot can stay on the stove.

That would even be a reason for me to consider a kitchen island.

Erisa2010 schrieb:

Visually, the kitchen seating area "next to" the large dining table seating area looked odd to me, so we are currently planning a half-height wall as a divider,

That doesn’t make it look any less odd, but at least it’s more practical with many guests. Personally, I would probably skip the divider altogether.

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https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Question: The house is quite compact. Is it really necessary to have two dining areas? How often do you use the larger one? Probably only when you have guests, right? The kitchen is open-plan anyway, so you can see and smell everything directly. This seems like unnecessary duplication that just wastes space. If you want a combined kitchen and dining area, then plan one—and plan it properly!

A common layout is a large kitchen/dining space and a separate living room. This also leaves room for the hallway, stairs, and other necessities. And if guests don’t like your kitchen, you can keep them in the living room.

kaho674 schrieb:

Is it really necessary to have two dining areas? [...] That’s a pointless redundancy that wastes space.

What makes the bay window particularly odd is that it doesn’t accommodate either of the dining areas. In the attic, the bay window only serves as a secluded desk area for one of the children’s rooms, located in front of the straight staircase. Another staircase design would have handled this better. In my opinion, a true Dutch gable should be placed on the street side, above the main entrance door.

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https://www.instagram.com/11antgmxde/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/bauen-jetzt/

Hello and thank you in advance for your opinions.

Maybe we really need to reconsider the kitchen/dining area layout. We will evaluate that this evening.

For now, I have changed the hallway. I hope it fits well with the staircase and the door. Visually, it definitely looks much more appealing! I still need to find a solution for the corners in the kitchen, possibly in connection with other potential kitchen modifications.

11ant schrieb:

In my opinion, a true captain’s gable should be on the street side, above the front door.

I agree with that and would have liked it that way, too, but our front door is on the north side, which is relatively narrow and faces the neighbor, so the gable wouldn’t really stand out there. The south side, however, faces the street, so in our case, the gable makes more sense there.

Erisa2010 schrieb:

A kitchen island solution (possibly without a cooktop and maybe with seating) has not found a place so far; this topic is still open: see below

Erisa2010 schrieb:

- Kitchen: We want to be able to eat as a group of four in the kitchen, mainly for weekday breakfasts or hot meals where the pot can stay on the stove.

Erisa2010 schrieb:

- Kitchen: Since I don’t want to carry everything to the main dining table for breakfast during the week, having a dining area within the kitchen is important to me. Visually, having a kitchen seating area directly “next to” the main dining table seating felt odd, so we have currently planned a half-height wall as a divider.

Honestly, I’m not sure what you want in the kitchen now: an island, a breakfast bar, a dining table...? I would start by distinguishing a) what you WANT and b) what is POSSIBLE, then have the design planned accordingly.

Erisa2010 schrieb:

We had a 3D model sent to us so we could virtually “walk through” the house beforehand. However, not everything appealed to us,

What exactly didn’t you like? 3D models always distort certain aspects... It’s just a program converting 2D into 3D from a fixed perspective.

I really don’t like the living room: at 32sqm (344 square feet) it’s compact, but approximately the first 10sqm (108 square feet) aren’t being used. The furniture layouts can be misleading. Try drawing your furniture to scale, and you will see where space gets tight.

With a 1-meter (39-inch) thick sand-lime brick wall, sitting on the bed on a Sunday morning won’t be comfortable...