And here's the exterior elevation:

{{gwi:1427509}}

I like your elevations...so I won't suggest my first thought.

I think you should move your guest bedroom door entrance to the other side of the bathroom, and make that bath available to anyone on the floor. Then, you can move your toilet to where you have your folding table in the laundry room, and have the sink in your L. (I don't think that is too weird, but I think having visitors use your mudroom is weird... if your guest room is occupied, it makes it weird for your visitors to use that nicer bath.)

Actually, I will suggest my first thought. It might be okay, since I am not sure the purpose of the porch wrap around (it will look nice).

I might extend the exterior just a bit at the corner where you have the folding counter and put in a 5x5 square 1/2 bath to the left side of the windows. (ie, you'll lose your wrap around portion of the porch in favor of your l-shape laundry).

@kirkhall- thanks for the suggestions! I'm short on time- will reply more tomorrow.

Fishing for more responses.......anyone????

This is a tough one bc of the front windows...the only way to put the powder room is really where you have it. Kirkhall has a good suggestion, but not sure if you want to lose the wrap around.

I will say we tried to do an L shaped laundry room, and it never really fit in with the things I wanted to have in the room. The corner kept messing everything up. So, we went with the set up you have - w/d/s/ on one side and folding area/hanging area on the opposite wall. I actually prefer that so there's more folding space, etc.

You could do a full size stackable w/d and change the powder room to 5x5 also?

How often do you use your guest room? Could you swap the bathroom and laundry areas? This would give you a nice bathroom, accessible from the entry or mudroom. Or, you could create a small powder room off the mudroom and guest bath off the entry.

On the other side of the entry, you'd have room for a larger laundry (like your pictures) with much easier access to the stairs, not walking through the dining room and kitchen...to get to the washer/dryer.

If you don't use the guest room a lot, maybe add more windows and use it for an office, sunroom, playroom, etc. with a murphy bed or sofa/sleeper, for guests. It's a nice room, with easy access to the screened porch, so I'd want to make it a flexible space that could be used every day...especially with four small children :)

Also, after looking at your mudroom a bit more closely...can you add an extra foot or two to that space...maybe even to the garage area? It would give you more storage in the garage (on the window wall) but more importantly...it would give you a larger walkway, through the mudroom.

Right now, it looks like you have about 3'6" which is tight and wouldn't give you much room for kids to sit down and take off shoes, without blocking the walkway...not to mention having space for a chair or stool, at the desk area. It might also be nice, to put a door, where you have the window, now...so that you could access the porch, from the mudroom, without having to go through the garage to get outside. Rather than coming in the front door, when the kids are muddy, they'd have their own access to the mudroom, without walking by the cars. Just an idea :)

I was surprised when I saw the S.F. totals here. At first glance, this had the appearance of a smaller home, but this is not at all.

Your guest bedroom and bath are huge. The hall to the guest bedroom is wasted square footage.

The half bath location is not ideal in that guests will have to go into the laundry room to get to it. I would rather just eliminate the half bath, move the door to the guest bedroom as suggested above, and use the guest bath as the powder room.

Or you could move the half bath so that it backs up to the guest bath You would have to reduce the guest bath to do so, but you've got plenty of room to do so.

I do think it's a bit odd to have a toilet closet without a sink, unless it's already within a bathroom.

Thanks for the responses everyone! Let's see if I can address them all:

There's a lot of focus on my guest bedroom area. My intent for that space is really to "flex" with us as our family ages, like you said, @lavender_lass. For now, I see it being used as an extra room- play room, or whatever with a bed or pull out couch for the infrequent times we do have adult over night guests. It can also be used as a BR if someone breaks their leg or has surgery or something. Then, as we age, it will become our Master bedroom.

The Guest bath is large because we needed one that is wheelchair accessible. We have 3 friends and family members in w/c now, so it was drawn with them in mind. (And any future handicaps in ourselves.) So currently, it will be used as the bathroom that every guest uses when they visit. I didn't want it to open right on to the family room, cuz I think that's a little tacky! :)

I don't like the door being where it is to the "guest suite" or flex space or whatever you want to call it. I was thinking about moving the door down, like you suggested, @kirkhall. Since you mentioned it, I'm thinking that's probably a really good idea!

@fotomatt- just curious what you meant about the small look/sq footage? Didn't know if you meant that I haven't used the space well, or if I did use it well! Does the exterior elevation look wrong? I was actually worried that I have too much sqft. Just wondering- I won't bite, I promise! :)

@andi_k- good point! And actually, after looking at those pics again, they don't seem to have alot of usable counter space, either. I might have to rethink my vision for that room.

Adding a little footage to the mudroom might be on the agenda. I need to check and see if it will jive with the upstairs.

So....what do you think about my front windows, then? Should I cut them down to 2 casements w/ transoms? That would give me a little more room to play with in the mudroom, but would that ruin my exterior look?

So many good things to think about! I appreciate them all!

I thought about changing the windows to fit the interior space better, but I like your windows so didn't go down that path. But, it would definitely help. You could put the powder room where the w/d is or where the shelves are and get the L shape laundry.

just fyi...here's my laundry space (after thousands of L shaped renditions!)

Anybody else want to take a stab before I call my drafter tomorrow?

What I meant about the plan looking smaller was just my general impression. It doesn't mean anything good or bad - but I think the plan could definitely be scaled down some and not affect it's function. But I didn't know about wanting an accessible bathroom and multifunction bedroom. And of course, doing so would affect the upstairs layout of which we don't see here.