Hi,
I am currently in the process of building a house and I have an L-shaped open plan which leads on to the garden. In the narrow part of the L-shape, I will be going down three stairs (to separate the living area). The normal ceiling height in my house in ground level is that of 3520mm (roughly 11ft). Now, I have two options:

- Either leave it at 3520mm in the first part of the open plan and then around 3970mm in the living room when you go down the stairs, or else

- Increase the height of the first part of the living room to around 3950mm and then around 4300mm in the living room

I like high ceilings, but as a result of the additional ceiling height in option 2, above the plan plan there are the bedrooms for which I have to do an additional 3 stairs to get to the bedrooms as the additional height downstairs will create a split level.

What are your opinions? I am not sure whether I like the split-level upstairs or not.