I was just talking with a realtor about this - in my area the enormous master suites (I've had smaller apartments than some of these suites!) with sitting areas and walk-in closets or dressing rooms, multiple bedrooms with private attached baths, and suchlike are pretty much confined to the high end of the spectrum, in either new construction or major renos. In ordinary middle-class houses (like mine), if there's one bedroom with a bath accessed only through that bedroom, even if it's not the largest bedroom, that's a master suite, and you're pretty dang lucky to get one. You might see a modest master suite and a Jack & Jill or hall-accessed second bath in a newer, nicer 3/2, maybe a powder room if you're lucky. Our house has a first floor master suite (I nicknamed it the suite-lette as it totals only about 225sf) and 3 upstairs bedrooms (two of which are almost 1/3 larger than the master bedroom, the third is the smallest of all and well suited to an office or playroom) sharing a bath accessed from the hallway, and a 1/2 bath in the laundry room to boot, and that's very nice for its market "niche". In working-class houses here (which is what we'll be shopping for), the master suite notion is almost nonexistent, and having even 1.5 baths is quite the luxury. "Master bedroom" by itself here means NO attached bath and is not necessarily the largest bedroom - it really means the "best bedroom". It might have the best view, better closets, access to a patio or deck, or a location in the house that gives more privacy.

The time has come when we REALLY need to make up our mind. Plumber is going to get to the master bath in a couple of days. Electrician wants to know where to put lights. Here are 4 layouts we are considering. Each layout shows 2 bed positions. We think Position 1 provides for the best interior decorating options and looks best in the room (opposite the sliding glass doors), and Position 2 provides for better views and generally better traffic flow, especially in Plan A. Note: The ceiling is slightly vaulted (1/12 slope) with peak in dressing room. Plan A: what is currently framed. POSITIVES: it's currently framed, you enter right into the bedroom, and the dressing room area is nice and symmetric, a nice room into itself. The door is clearly visible. NEGATIVES: upon entering the bedroom, with bed in Position 2, you are right at the head of the bed. With bed in Position 1, you have to walk around it to go to the dressing / bath area. It may be a positive or negative (depending on how you look at it) that you enter the bathroom and can go straight into the toilet, though there is a door there. On the other hand, upon entering the bathroom, when you turn to the right, you'll see a very cool angular freestanding tub (LACAVA) which will look better from a few feet away at the top of the bathroom. Plan B: entering the bedroom up just a bit from what we currently have framed. POSITIVES: upon entering upstairs, you could easily go to the bedroom or bathroom. I kind of like entering the master bath in this position, straight to sink and no way will toilet be in view. We could even consider removing the door to the toilet. I also like this entry better in terms of stepping in and not entering right at the head of the bed in Position 2. Could put low linen closet opposite toilet entry. NEGATIVES: there is a door to the suite that can be closed off to make the whole suite private, but you can't see the door from either bed position. Dressing area closets aren't quite balanced, though this could be OK. Per earlier comment, when you walk into the bathroom and turn to the right the tub will be RIGHT there. We could of course use this Plan B but keep our existing bathroom entry. (this became Plan D) Plan C: straight shot up to the top and then take a left to the bedroom. POSITIVES: Maximizes headboard width for the bed in Position 1. Best layout for someone with a king size bed (which is not us). Clean traffic flow. Upon entering bedroom, bed in position 2 is right in view. Preferred bathroom entry NEGATIVES: no structure to hold up the 6' high headboard wall, so an "L" is added which could hold light switches but is not optimal aesthetically. Could either put a post there or give up the short wall idea and go straight to the ceiling. Plan D: Like Plan B, but with bathroom entry and closets adjusted to be like A. POSITIVES: It's already framed. Best view of bathroom when you walk in because tub and shower will be at some distance. Room will feel bigger I think than in B. Closets are more symmetric than B. NEGATIVES: Same ones as B. Can't see door from bed. Comments anyone? Is anything jumping out to anyone that I'm missing? Thanks in advance!!!!

@ladygibbs: It sounds like you want it all, but... everything in life is a trade-off! I believe that a luxurious bathroom is your #1 requirement, with a huge tub and shower, and maximizing the western views from the tub and bedroom. I've given you that, and I've added a water closet for the toilet! To do that, I had to make the clothes closet narrower than what is typically recommended. And I used a lot of 30" pocket doors (again, narrower than recommended). The bedroom is on the narrow side too, but I feel its length makes up for it. You indicated that you don't need a huge closet. While the closet I've given you is tight, there is still almost 10' of wall-space for hanging clothes, and there is a window for natural light, and there is plenty of room in the bedroom for dressers. My thinking is that you can use part of the closet for linen storage. Personally, I like how I've given you access to the clothes closet from both the bedroom and the bathroom. I gave you two south facing windows for natural light. I know you want privacy from the street on that side, so I would use light-emitting shades to give you both natural light and privacy. I can't imagine not wanting those windows there. And I like the line-of-sight to each of those south-facing windows as you enter the closet and bathroom from the bedroom. Final note: if my dimensions are off by even six inches, then that changes everything! The closet may no longer work and/or you'd have to compromise on the shower and vanity sizes to make this plan work. The one dimension shows 18' 6" from the existing house, but that includes the thickness of the existing house wall (6"). From your drawing in the original post, it looks like you're going a full 18' beyond that existing wall. Here you go: P.S. If your budget (and any other considerations) allowed you to come an extra foot off the existing house, the doors could increase from 30" to 32" and your aisles would all be much better. If you can't increase that dimension, I would recommend decreasing the shower and vanity size from 6' to 5' so that I could do the same thing: increase doors and aisles. But again, everything in life is a trade-off.

Thank you, all, so much for the feedback. I really appreciate it. Bpathome: phenomenal ideas about reworking that right side of the main floor. I love your idea of the friends/family entrance and adjusting some of those spaces to make it more kid-friendly. Your comment about your boys getting distracted while walking in to get a water bottle totally cracked me up! Been there myself a thousand times and would never have thought of adjusting that space to make it more user-friendly for them, but ultimately, me! :-) Thank you for the ideas! Let me answer a couple questions that you all had. 1. The whole house actually has been designed together, not piecemeal. The reason I didn't include the lower level, bonus space over the garage, and the outside elevations is because those are currently being reworked by the architect and he's making so many changes that it seemed pointless to even show those at this time. 2. I should've clarified that the views are beautiful out both the back and the front of the house, but the front is especially gorgeous, with the added bonus of being a spot where my boys will likely be playing and riding bikes, so I like the idea of placing the kitchen with those views so I can keep an eye on them most of the time. But the back yard views are lovely, too. 3. We will have neighbors behind us, but probably won't see their house much because we have a deep back yard and a buffer of woods between us. 4. The office is small because we will have an office in the basement if anyone ever needs to work from home, which neither my husband nor I, do. (Yet I know it's important for resale, so we will have one). What we really need on the main floor is a "home management center" instead...a place to have a couple of filing cabinets, a printer, charging center for phones, and a place to drop and deal with mail. We don't have a desk top computer (both my husband and I use laptops). Thus the small size of the main floor "office". 5. The garage is angled because the contour of the land on the right side of the house is very low. It's going to require a lot of fill to get it to a manageable slope and to bring a driveway in over there would be difficult. So that pretty much eliminates a side entry garage. And other than a front facing garage, we're basically left with the angled option. As for the master closet/bathroom area, it occurred to me to square off that area, too, but even in doing that, I'm not actually gaining a ton of usable shelf/hanging space. I gain a little, I suppose, but moving around in it is still tight because of its narrow nature. I suspect that entire closet/bathroom area needs to be reworked (i.e., remove the walls as they're drawn in those two rooms and start from scratch with the existing footprint to reallocate space). My brain just doesn't work this way and I'm TERRIBLE to "seeing" the potential on paper, which is why I was hoping that someone here would have some ideas about how to fix it.