I have been told by plumbers this is not a plumbing issue, but I am not convinced! Have noticed a strange odor around the entrance to my master bath, as I enter from my walk-in closet. I live in a condo that has neighbors on either side. My initial suspicion--because of the location and my Googling (disclaimer: I know NOTHING about home improvemnt or DIY or plumbing) was sewer gas. Plumber #1: reset loose toilet on the same seal. Would not check anything else. I went away for several days, came back and didn't notice smell til I started using the fixtures. Was particularly bad after 3 loads of laundry. Plumber #2: came midday and smell was not present-despite my best efforts to make it happen. He put the otilet on a new seal, said basement floor trap was OK, and visually inspected other things. Our condo maintenance guys did a quick check of roof vents-said all mine smelled OK, but one of the neighhors' smelled similar to the odor in my bathroom/closet--and these are the neighbors on the side where I notice the smell in my condo. They were going to ask the neighbors to pour water in their traps. Smell was back right away. I pushed, and .... Plumber #2 came back with a colleague to do a smoke test. They walked in bathroom-smell was present, and said "this isnt sewer gas." They had different ideas...chemical smell, woody smell, etc. Smoke test did not reveal any leaks, and smoke came out of my other roof vents and out of the neighbors' as they would have expected.. Their (large) bill says that this is not a plumbing or vent issue. Other details: The air with the smell drafts out around the pocket door that is between my bathroom and closet (which I never use). We know there is an unfinised area behind the closet that is a plumbing void. Also, the vent stack supposedly runs somewhere in the wall where this smell is located. There are times when the smell is a cooking smell--clearly drifting from neighbors. This is driving me nuts! If I had DIY skills I would make some holes in closet drywall to inspect unfinished area and to visually look at vent stack. Someone mentioned putting insulation around the pocket door,but I am hesitant to do this without knowing what the smell is. Any suggestions?

I would opt for bigger bath and one shared closet. Would overall be less cramped for space. If you do the closet with a wall closet system with various drawers and hangers there is more than ample space for you both. If not, then you have too many clothes. In my closet I have 3 drawers and a hanger above those in multiple areas, then I have hangers for long clothes, and we have corner shelving and shelves for storage on top. Lots of space. Shoe rack on the floor under the long clothes.

I like the placement of the walk-in. It's convenient from both the bedroom and the bathroom but it is in neither. That's really great. You can do much better than hanging rods all along the perimeter though. Maybe shelves on the top and bottom walls and hanging rods on left and right walls if you need to hang that much. Or shelves on the top, hanging on the left, a chair in the bottom right corner with a bachelor's chest with a lamp on it and a mirror hanging above it by the door for storage of underwear and socks. I also like the toilet room at the front of the bathroom so you don't have to walk through the whole room every time you need to go. You'll access that about five times as often as the shower so that's a good choice. I would put the door on the short wall across from the toilet though. It makes no sense to have it open right where someone might be standing at the sink. And some of the convenience is lost by having to make a 90 degree turn to access it. Have it open out just in case. If someone falls or is crouched down getting sick, you'll want access. Two vanities is nice. All told this is the nicest ensuite-WIC layout I've seen posted.

Hi all! My husband and I recently bought a house. We plan on staying in it for the next 4-5 years or so. it is a bi-level. There are 3 small bedrooms upstairs, and an extra living room and bedroom downstairs. There is one full bath upstairs and one full bath downstairs. The closets are super small. We were thinking of eventually taking one of the rooms upstairs and turning it into a walk-in closet and master bath. However, because we'd like to sell it eventually, I'm not sure if that would be beneficial or not for resale. When you are going to the downstairs level, there is a small hallway with a small bedroom to the left and a doorway to get to the extra living space on the right, so I'm guessing that extra living room area could potentially be used as a bedroom if a door was installed. Maybe even a master. We're just in the phase of discussing our options. What are your thoughts?