Need some feed back on my new house.

[Ragnar]

^Hello,

^{I am in the process of building a new house for myself and need some help. I have drawn the house and my wife is happy with it but I feel that something is ... ehe 🤷‍♂️ I don't know. Exterior is fine in my opinion but the interior. The proportions is off. Any feed back is appreciated.}

^{The idea is to move to something smaller. We are currently living in a one bedroom, 230 m² house also serving as a kennel. The new house will be 100 m² living area and 100 m² for storage, dogs, utilities, etc. The two will be connected via a green house that also serves as main entrance. We are located in Sweden having temperatures -25 to +30. Hopefully we will afford sedum roof for looks and temperatur.} 

 

^{Thank you so much!}

 

 

Drawings.pdf

[Piiiiii]

Hi,It's a very good house,but the passageway beside the dining table seems too narrow.

[Ragnar]

3 hours ago, Piiiiii said:

Hi,It's a very good house,but the passageway beside the dining table seems too narrow.

 

Thank you so much!! The dining table is a symbol only. In reality there will be a wall-built bench in both walls. (a place to take a naap 😉 )

[Gadzooks]

On 6/3/2024 at 8:00 AM, Ragnar said:

I have drawn the house and my wife is happy with it..

 

Answer 1 = Have a ✅ and leave well alone 🤣

 

Answer 2 = Regarding the layout - I feel you are using (valuable) areas of the layout for circulation. Hallways can be impressive if large but balance the space used with the practicalities of cost/m2.

 

If that's what the 'client' is happy with leave it, but it might be worth adjusting the long route to the Bedroom and the route through a large cloaks area to reach a small wc. 

 

In a single bedroomed house you might be better considering the larger shower/wc area is central enough to use for the two of you and also for visitors? You can then increase floor area in kitchen/Living room??

 

I'm not privy to your design reasoning nor any local codes that influence the layout, so I hope you find useful, but not upset if you have other views.😀

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2024 by Gadzooks
Spelling!!

[Ragnar]

5 hours ago, Gadzooks said:

Answer 2 = Regarding the layout - I feel you are using (valuable) areas of the layout for circulation. Hallways can be impressive if large but balance the space used with the practicalities of cost/m2.

 

If that's what the 'client' is happy with leave it, but it might be worth adjusting the long route to the Bedroom and the route through a large cloaks area to reach a small wc. 

 

In a single bedroomed house you might be better considering the larger shower/wc area is central enough to use for the two of you and also for visitors? You can then increase floor area in kitchen/Living room??

 

I'm not privy to your design reasoning nor any local codes that influence the layout, so I hope you find useful, but not upset if you have other views.😀

 

Thank you!! (I am not really an architect. I tried hiring one but, she wanted to draw a house she liked, not considering us)

I will reconsider the two bathrooms. The hallway to the bedroom will aslo function as a small office, hence the width. 
The cloak area is a sad spot that got left over.🫣

I am very thankful that you took your time to look at the drawing 🙏🏼

 

[Jeff Prince]

4 hours ago, Ragnar said:

 

Thank you!! (I am not really an architect. I tried hiring one but, she wanted to draw a house she liked, not considering us)

I will reconsider the two bathrooms. The hallway to the bedroom will aslo function as a small office, hence the width. 
The cloak area is a sad spot that got left over.🫣

I am very thankful that you took your time to look at the drawing 🙏🏼

 

 

Hire a different architect in your area and show them what you have created thus far.

They can tune it up from there to meet your needs and the building code.

 

The layout doesn't seem to be the most efficient in terms space created vs perimeter, which means higher energy costs, but perhaps that doesn't matter for you.

[E|FA]

1 hour ago, Jeff Prince said:

Hire a different architect in your area and show them what you have created thus far.

 

When you interview potential architects before hiring one, ask to talk to their past clients and ask the clients how well the architect listened to them and incorporated their thoughts into the design.  You want the architect to provide their creativity and expertise, but that should be done in service of your goals.

[line-weight]

It's a bit hard for anyone to comment meaningfully without understanding the context. The context of the site & location, but also what do you plan to do with the drawings?

 

Pass them to an architect, or pass them to a contractor, or are you planning to do the building work yourself? What experience/knowledge do you have as far as technical or building code related issues are concerned? If there's stuff you don't know...do you know that you don't know it?

Edited June 5, 2024 by line-weight

[Tom W.]

I agree with Jeff: lots of unnecessary heat loss with all the external walls.

 

Plus: how many dogs do you have?! Does the kennel need to be part of the same building i.e. to the same construction spec as the storage/plant room + laundry?

[Jeff Prince]

7 hours ago, line-weight said:

It's a bit hard for anyone to comment meaningfully without understanding the context.

so true.  Without knowing the site, desired functions, and goals of a project you can only get the most basic of comments.

 

When I looked at the floor plan it appeared to be made by someone without any architectural training (no harsh intent meant here, just an observation). There are many basic flaws with the building’s plan and elevations, regardless of the client’s appreciation of it.  Architecture is one of those businesses where the client should be respected, but is oftentimes not “right”.  The architect’s role is to interpret the client and deliver something that achieves the goals of many vested parties.

[line-weight]

Sometimes friends or relatives ask if I can scribble out some basic ideas for their house or extension or whatever. We'll pay you for your time! they say. But they usually have a totally unrealistic idea of how much time I'd have to spend looking at, understanding and thinking about the thing, in order to give them anything that's actually useful. Except for the most basic of things, a couple of hours or half a day isn't going to do it.

 

Sometimes I say that I'd kind of rather give them no advice at all, than some hasty initial thoughts that might turn out not to make any sense once things were looked at more closely. Even with lots of architectural training, first thoughts often turn out this way. In fact experience teaches you that this is often the way!

 

It's a little bit the same with the drawings presented in the OP - the amount of time that someone would need to spend looking at it to give useful input is probably much greater than most people would be willing to donate to a stranger on the internet.

[Jeff Prince]

As they say….

Free advice, you get what you pay for.

[domer1322]

Since you already have a small toilet area for guests, I'd change the access to the other bath such that it serves only the bedroom.  In other words, access the bedroom right off the living room and move the bath and closet down.  That eliminates the hallway, so you can either have a larger bedroom, or reduce the overall total area.   I would also add some space between counters in the kitchen ... looks very tight to me.

 

However ... Gadzooks gave the best advice ... if your spouse is already happy with it, don't change anything.  Spouses are usually the most difficult clients ... after ourselves.   I'm living in the home addition I designed and I made the simplest mistake in locating the light switch.  Now it bothers me every time I enter the master bathroom.

 

PS:  through the marvels of modern technology, I can find your site on Google Maps.  Looks like a great setting.