Please critique my floor plan!

12 years ago

Hi everyone

I posted a couple of days ago asking for advice about putting the toilet in front of the window. Today I've included a rough floor plan. Four kids use this bathroom. We want one to be able to be in the shower while another is at the vanity (2 boys, 2 girls). We want low maintenance so we're thinking good quality acrylic shower stall with frosted glass. We thought about a tiled walk in shower but are thinking that the tile would be high maintenance and expensive for a shower that no one will really see. In addition to this bathroom, we have a four piece ensuite in the master bedroom upstairs, and a two piece powder room on the first floor.

The wall behind the toilet will be 6 feet high then open to the ceiling (9 feet). For the next 3-4 years when the traffic is high, we're planning to put a tension rod with a nice shower curtain in the opening to the shower area. Then when 2-3 kids leave the nest, we'll get rid of it.

Issues: Is toilet okay where it is? I'm thinking that we'll put a half shutter on the window.

Is two feet enough clearance to get through to shower area?

Any other thoughts or opinions? Thanks for any input!

dfsf

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Comments (8)

palimpsest
12 years ago
With your current schematic if you went with a 5-foot vanity you would have more room to access the shower.

Which way do the joists run? Is there a possibility of moving the toilet? Is that the stack in the back corner?
deedles
12 years ago
That's a clever plan to accomplish what you want. Plus, with a 6 foot wall behind the toilet, there is plenty of room to throw a glass of cold water onto the person in the shower, always good for a laugh from my memory... unless of course you are the one IN the shower. Then, not so much.

I'm gonna echo palimpset and suggest a shorter vanity if possible. Looks a little tight getting through there as it is and you said 2 feet? Kinda squeezy to my mind.

Love your big window molding and the deep sill!
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You have a nice MB, walk in closets and MB. Not sure how the lower right corner is going to work whrilpool/vanities). If it were my bath I will solve it a bit different. Again they have a nice proportion. I like that your MB is almost an square. I hate those MBs where you have to go around and have weird shapes. I love your great room, kitchen/mud/laundry/garage Since you unified Dining Room/Breakfast nook into a Eating area, I think you need to trim the island because right now the eating area is officially 12' but at the island is not. The island looks skinny. If you have some inches make it a bit wider, will look nicer and you will love the counter space I think you did a great job. Even if you do not fix some of our commente, it is still a good floor plan. Basemet, I mean, lower level: That is another story. I see some issues there and I am sorry to say that you did not think it out as the main level :)
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Garage/home walls have to be fire rated. It would function better if the garage was set apart from the main house with either a courtyard or breezeway between the two so that you could get more natural light into the house and still be able to utilize the visual connection between the two. A garage that needs to house two cars stacked on a lift will need to be taller than you are planning to account for not smashing the lighting on the ceiling. You might want to house something beyond lower height sports cars. Our 4 post lift in our garage won't allow a tall vehicle like a SUV on it and then raise to full height, and we vaulted our already 11' tall ceiling to 15' in the lift bay. Even with Corvette stacked on top of Corvette, it's really tight with the lighting when the lift is up enough to get that second vehicle under it. Only Formula cars without the wings would really work to have the double stack be comfortable at that height, and they have issues with the ramps, needing longer ones to get the ground clearance for the chassis. We also climate controlled our garage area, as that keeps the vehicles in much better shape, and it's a much more pleasant working environment. While you plan on having guests here, this isn't a very guest friendly house. There isn't enough room allotted for them, either in the public or private spaces. I might suggest the separate garage have a second floor guest suite(s) and make the main house more about your groundfloor space on one side, and the public space on the other, linking to the garage space visually through the breezeway. Double height space is very difficult to heat and cool, so I would suggest having hydronic radiant floor heating for winter comfort so that the people in the rooms are closer to the heating source.(We did that in our garage, so if you happen to need to be on a creeper under something, you don't have a giant cold mass of concrete sucking the warmth out of your body.) For summer, if you rarely get temperatures above 85, then I probably wouldn't do AC at all since you are in a low humidity climate. I would focus on doing some type of cupola with operable vent windows that will allow the hot air that rises to be vented externally. That's an old fashioned technique, but very effective in climates that don't heat and humidity to need full time AC. Overall, you really need a good architect to take these ideas and make them more functional and designed specifically for the site, to take advantage of it's positives. You will need that anyway for permitting, and in CA there are plenty of creative people who would love to be a part of an interesting build. Take a look at some back issues of Architectural Digest and see if you come across any designs that you like, Then contact a couple of those folks. This needs a large amount of technical expertise to wade through the red tape of building and permitting. So, you need someone local as a builder, well as an architect whose work you admire to work as a team to accomplish this build. Hire good people, and then listen to them. A good design is an interactive experience that makes the work better. Good design is "invisible" You don't even notice that things are where they need to be and work the way they "should". Bad design is obvious, especially if you live with it. It makes life harder. Don't make your life harder!
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I understand the need for saving money on what you build. However keep in mind that a rectangular foundation and walls will be cheaper to build than a bump-out for stairs. That bump out will end up costing you more than adding as part of the normal rectangle. More expensive foundation wise, the tie in to the roof, more material to build u-turn steps etc. The plan posted by bungeii is a really good workable plan. As solie suggested you could remove the master closet use space from bedroom 2 for the master closet. Bedroom 3 will be pushed into bedroom 2. That would take off around 112 sq ft and make it close to 1300 sq ft. You would also be able to get a larger closet for the office/bedroom and it would be a good size to squeeze guests in too in addition to office space. Another thing to cut down on costs is to keep bathrooms, kitchen, and laundry close to each other as the plumbing is shorter to route. For the bath size - as you age it will be better to have space to be able to move around easily or if you'd need help with anything.
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funkycamper, thank you so much for the feedback! I did actually consider putting the refrigerator where the beverage center will be, and there were a couple of reasons I decided against it... The first is that the space is only 69" long, so there isn't enough space for the 48" built in refrigerator plus the pantries, so I'd still have to have some of the pantry space be over where we have it shown. One of the reasons we are getting rid of the pantry that is there now is that it's pretty annoying having the pantry space split across the kitchen like that, I frequently find myself running back and forth from one to the other. Plus, if there is something I need from the other pantry I would have to go over to that side anyway, so it would seem to be more convenient to have the pantries and fridge together so I only have to go to one area to get the food. The second reason is that currently we have a regular depth refrigerator in that space and the opening to the dining room is 2 ft 5 in. We are widening the doorway to 4 ft and putting in a built-in (therefore counter depth) refrigerator, so I figured that would keep the refrigerator doors from blocking the doorway when they are open. Although I do love the idea of getting as big windows into the space as we can, the reason we have the upper making that turn is that we are going to have an appliance garage under it to put my food processor, blender, and stand mixer. I didn't want them to be too far from the range since I will likely be using them either right before or right after things come off the stove/out of the oven.
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imagreenthumb
Original Author
12 years ago
Yes, that's the stack in the corner.....we're thinking that we'll build a false wall and lose 5 inches, moving the shower over.

Good thoughts on the vanity.....we're trying to keep it as big as possible to accommodate multiple kids prepping, but maybe we should shrink it a bit.

The joists run parallel to the door wall. Thanks for your input! Deedles, my childhood memory is flushing the toilet and waiting for the scream!
lisa_a
12 years ago
I should preface this post by saying that kitchen lay-out is my stronger suit but I had an idea for your bathroom.

This plan assumes that you can move the waste line and plumbing lines for the toilet.

The areas that would need privacy in a house of 2 boys and 2 girls are the shower/toilet area, IMO, so it made more sense to put these in a room together, not the toilet and vanity. This way one of your daughters could be at the sink while a son is in the shower. My brother and I had a bathroom like this growing up and it worked for us.

Oh, and putting the toilet in the same room as the shower means less chance of siblings playing pranks on the one in the shower. ;-)

If you install transom windows above the shower, door and vanity area, you'll get natural light into the shower/toilet area. You could also check into a frosted glass door for even more light into the shower area without giving up any privacy.

I added a window seat below the window to give you more storage and to give that area a purpose. Besides, window seats are cute. ;-)

If clearances will allow it, you might be able to lengthen the vanity up to 1', which would mean your vanity would be long enough for 2 sinks, making it even easier for your bathroom to serve 4 kids.
Fori
12 years ago
I like Lisa's layout, especially from the multiple-kid perspective. And if anyone ever needed two sinks, I think it could be you.

Would it be ridiculous to make the door swing out instead of in? Or, LOSE the door entirely (only works with the potty locked up with the shower of course)? (Or a pocket door so it can be closed when there's company?) Go crazy with plumbing and put a second vanity where the linen closet is? Maybe that's going overboard...but if instead of a closet, you go with a tall cabinet (4 foot maybe), hang a mirror over it, and have another work station.

The false wall to hide the plumbing thing gives you a nice opportunity to have builtin nooks in the shower wall to hold all the shampoos.
terezosa / terriks
12 years ago
I like lisa's plan a lot. That's what I would do in a shared bath situation. The thing I most disliked about the first posted floor plan is that the toilet is the first thing one sees when the door is opened.
imagreenthumb
Original Author
12 years ago
Lisa, thank you for taking the time to rework my plan. The reason we kept the toilet out of the shower area was because we have a powder room just down the hall so if someone is at the sink and another needs the toilet, they just go down to the other bathroom. This would also leave more space in the shower area for changing etc. I'll have to measure it out to see what the clearances would be with your plan.

I like the transom and window seat suggestions. I was planning to go with one sink to leave room for a hair/makeup area, and a cupboard area above the vanity.

Fori, having the door swing out is a possibility, thanks for suggesting it. Great idea for the built in nooks!
lisa_a
12 years ago
You're welcome. But I'm a little confused about how your bathroom will accommodate 2 boys and 2 girls without a door separating the areas that need privacy (shower & toilet). I have two boys and they refused to share the bathroom once they hit puberty. One is quite shy, the other just wanted his privacy. Maybe that won't be true for your kids but I wanted to mention this in case your kids aren't at that stage yet.

As for changing space in the shower area, I believe you'll have enough room even with a toilet sharing the space. Unless you're intending for more than one kid to use it at the same time, that is. You have 4'5" feet between wall and shower. If you place the toilet 18" on center from the wall, you'd have about 28" between shower and toilet. You could place the toilet 15" on center from the wall - this is the minimum, I believe - and gain 3" between toilet and shower. You could also shrink the shower from 3'5" to 3' wide, gaining 6" more. You also have the space in front of the toilet.

But this is your bathroom, not mine. Now's the time to think all of these things through. Paper dreaming is cheap. ;-)

Please critique my floor plan!

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palimpsest

deedles

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