Steve, that's the chance you take with detours, but if you pass them up, you will never find the interesting ones I like the Einstein quote, one can find small miracles almost every day,

My kids missed the new math and my granddaughter was back in the old math, no great-grands yet. Seems it has been an ongoing battle for some time. The Mitchener quote hit the nail on the head yesterday (Thursday). Went early in the morning with husband to rehab, they decided to keep him overnight and for the second time I had to sleep halfway sitting up. Then on the way home this morning I found out that the city starts picking up leaves on Tuesday so there go my plans for the next few days.

Dry wit, a bit of cynicism, like those quotes very much. Hard to pick a favorite

Your laundry/mud/bath is a similar layout to what I have, except I have a tub/shower in that bath. A laundry setup like that doesn't leave you much storage, or room for ironing, folding, or hanging, so keep that in mind. I have to do my ironing in my bedroom. I also don't have a utility sink, to make room for extra cabinets. While a utility sink would be great, I do have a kitchen and bathroom sink close enough that it's not a big deal. And the way the rest of that floor is played out, it puts that bath really far from your guest entrance, office, living room and dining room. You mentioned a downside being that guests will walk through the mudroom, but remember that they will also have to go through your kitchen to get to the bathroom. I'm not sure I'd like that. BTW, you might as well forget about the door between the kitchen a mud room, as it will almost always be open. We changed ours to a cased opening instead of an actual door. I'd have preferred to go with a pocket door, just in case we wanted to be able to close it off for some odd reason, but we didn't want to have to tear into the wall to do it.