They do it that way in Sweden, often. Sometimes the washing machine was in the bath too so there would have been space for a toilet without the machine, but they kept clean separate from waste. Even there, it's an old-fashioned, country thing, but I like it. With four children like I have, I think it would be an efficient use of the space.

Would the Scandinavian style work for you?

it is good to have the handrinse aftertoilet sink be a separate sink from the toothbrush station. Separated by a big distance or a wall.

I think the Scandinavian style sounds great :)

Part of why I like it is that if someone is taking awhile in the toilet room, they aren't blocking access to anyone's makeup, razor, toothbrush. So it should make mornings go quicker (when everyone needs to be in the bathroom at once).

I'm not a total germaphobe, I garden without gloves & walk barefoot in the yard all summer ... but I do like the idea of keeping the toilet/handwash sink away from the tootbrushes.

I guess when (if!) we ever have to sell & move we can list the house as 2 full baths & let people figure it out when they get here. The powder room & bathing/sink room upstairs will be next door to eachother, so no one should say, "OMG - they forgot to put the toilet in here? This isn't a full bath!!" Or, if they do say that, they'll open the next door & realize that isn't the case at all.

Thanks!
-Pam

If the two rooms are next door to each other, can you put a door in between them? I've seen bathrooms where the sink is in one area and the toilet and shower/tub are in another. I personally find that very functional. I am certainly not a realestate expert, but I suspect some buyers will find what you've described odd. That's not to say that other buyers won't realize that it's the most functional layout possible for the house.

Would you consider posting a layout of the spaces? The GW members are great at helping with layouts and might be able to suggest some alternatives for you.

I'd love to have a door between them. Unfortunately, the wall they share is the wall with the plumbing for the sinks & toilet.

This is a quick sketch. I have a measured drawing in Visio, but it's on my work laptop and I don't want to open that on the weekend (I'll feel compelled to do "just a little" work and spend 4 hours on email).

I'm trying to keep all new plumbing near existing plumbing because those walls are already extra-wide. The first floor is pretty open, so there aren't many places to route plumbing.

One last thing - it says we are converting a bedroom to do this, but we aren't losing a bedroom. We'll still have 3 BR upstairs and 1 BR downstairs. The bedroom we're converting is teeny by today's standards (9.5' x 11') & the bedroom we're adding will be a much more normal size.

We had almost exactly that set-up in the house I grew up in. I have a lot of sisters and it worked very well to have the toilet and sink available when someone was showering. The room without a toilet had just one big sink with a taller faucet and a sprayer, so it was good for bathing babies, hair washing, etc.

I don't know....I have often had to use the loo while getting ready in the morning or upon stepping out of the shower. I wouldn't like to go down the hall around the corner to use the johnny with having to put a robe on or wrap in a towel, might be awkward if company were there then go back to the other area. But sometimes we do what we have to do. Wishing you the best! Is there someway to close up the hallway beside the powder room and get everything you want?

Thanks, gr8day. No, the hallway leads to bedrooms. No way to close it up, unfortunately.

Would you prefer just a regular full bath instead of this layout? I mean - put the toilet where one of the double sinks are, and kill the half-bath?

Those are the only 2 options I see, I don't think we can run 2 toilet waste stacks in that wall (and I don't know if 2 toilets on the same level can share 1 waste stack).

Thanks,
-Pam

I recently stayed in a house in London with almost the same setup you have, except there was only one sink in the bathroom. It worked fine. I see no disadvantages to your proposed layout

I think it would be good to consult a professional space planner who might be able to work it out to serve you best. I just hate that you are struggling with this. It looks like adequate space but just needs the right tweaking to make it work perfectly. Good luck and post what happens in the end!

If you have vanity cabinets all the way to the floor can you cap/plug the toilet drain in a way that meets code? It would be very easy for someone who wanted the second toilet rather than the sink to do the replacement, especially if you continued whatever tiling you're doing behind and under the vanity.

What if you leave the toilet where it is now and run a full 2 sink vanity across the outside wall (where you have the toilet and the space in front of the toilet in the drawing of the new bathroom). Then you could put a door where the original sink was. Like gr8day, I prefer to have the toilet and shower in the same room. This would give you a shower / toilet room and then a separate room for your vanity. Or you could eliminate the doors and just make it one bathroom.

Alternatively, can you show more of the surrounding rooms so we can understand the relation of the hallways? Just looking at the drawing, there appears to be a lot of spaced used for hallways. You might be able to annex more of the bedroom and include the linen closet in the new bathroom and end up with a full bathroom like you have now, plus a 3/4 bathroom.