I've realized that a great deal of WHY we want to build a house is that we want the functional parts of the house to be tailor-made to OUR NEEDS, and I care more about the "working parts" of the house than the living room (which is simple, in comparison). Please look over this sketch and give any feedback you may have.

Important to note: We're preparing to build our retirement house. It'll just be the two of us most of the time. We'll have two bedrooms /one bath upstairs for guests and grandchildren. The house will be a 1.5 story farmhouse /Cape Cod /Southern house. Casual, set on 40 acres.

My thoughts:

Pros:
- Simple footprint for the bathroom, yet it provides space necessary for a walker, if needed in the future. Wheelchair? Uncertain.
- The plan covers hubby's two requirements: 1) huge no-door shower with a seat. 2) TV viewable from the tub -- will mount on the wall between the shower and the toilet room.
- I'm generally anti-toilet-in-a-closet, but I like the idea of this room serving as our toilet AND a half-bath accessible to the main house and the pool area. We have NO PROBLEM with guests using "our" toilet, and skipping a true half-bath is a huge money saver.
- This gives us a LARGE half-bath /master toilet area instead of two skimpy small toilet areas . . . pool guests would find the half-bath large enough for changing clothes comfortably.
- Pool guests have easy access to half bath . . . without coming into living room /onto hardwood floors. The whole bath /laundry area will be tile.
- Pool guests can drop off towels as they come through the laundry room.
- Half bath is also easily accessible from the house, yet it's not visible from any of the rooms.
- Plenty of storage in the laundry room for pool towels /space for guests to leave clothes while swimming. Might do baskests or hooks for guest clothes.
- Ample closet space for the two of us and linens (didn't include a linen closet in the bathroom.
- Washer /dryer convenient to master bedroom closet.
- The bed is oriented correctly; that is, a person walking into the bedroom approaches the foot of the bed. Thus, no one has to walk around the bed to get to his side, no one has to walk around the bed to get to the bathroom.

Cons:
- Prime corner space is given to the closet, but it makes the closet convenient to both the bath and the laundry room . . . and we'll have a big window over the tub, perhaps a transom window over the vanity in the bath. No problem with windows in the laundry room. This leaves only the half-bath windowless. I don't like that, but it may be the only way. We could use an opaque glass door, which would allow in light but block view.
- THREE entrances to the master bath. That sounds horrible, but I think it'll flow well and give us flexibility.
- Excessive doorways?