I love your diagram and your explanations. Why don't you place the entire shower along north wall? I have a corner shower and even though spacious once in, there is an ackward quality to it. Also, if at some point you needed to make disable accessible, it would be much easier to modify that if placed in the corner .

Could do a little bit of fancy tiling on the wall that could be seen as you enter room. Other than that, looks fine to me.

I agree to place the shower along the entire north wall. The linen cabinet behind the door is a great idea -- it'll be very handy.

$10k is way low. Tile, shower glass, mirrors, and the vanity cabinetry will total more than that for medium quality materials. You'll also have counter top material (I presume granite or quartz), plumbing fixtures, lighting fixtures, sinks, and the toilet.

I just had a 5x10 guest bath redone, basically a gut job. I kept an eye on my budget and didn't spend a lot on my tile, but it cost $15K. I really couldn't have shaved much more off that. I wanted to spend $10K, but that was totally unrealistic, even for a modest remodel.

I agree with the others to run your shower the complete length of the north wall. It should be nice and roomy, even for two. :)

Why do you have that space between the door and vanity?

It seems very cramped to me. If you make a new shower across the end, isn't there any way to put the vanity and the toilet on the same side, instead of across from one another? It would seem so much more roomy.

I agree with littlebug5. It seems kinda weird to have the toilet so close to and facing one of the vanity sinks. Why can't you move the vanity down all the way down to the south wall and move the toilet between the shower and vanity?

The average mid grade bathroom remodel is 15K. A more upscale tiled one with granite and better quality cabinets is 40K. Your budget is too low, and the proportions of the bath are off. A 42'' shower is far from roomy. For the optimum layout put the toilet at the far end, with the linen storage across from it. The shower wall will hide the toilet, and the vanity can go across from it. To really work though, the bath needs some more width, and less length.

Thank you all for your constructive criticisms. First, regarding the budget, I always thought that $10,000 was too little, but that's what my better half suggested. I would point out that that's for materials only.
Regarding the layout, I have a few constraints due to the fact that the house is a timber frame construction; one of the supporting posts is in the NE corner, so that makes putting a shower across the entire north wall difficult. I could build a custom shower with tiled walls, and tile the post, but I think that would be much more costly.
Linelle, the reason for the location of the vanity is due to the location of the windows. I originally had the vanity moved to behind the door, but that would put the sinks under two of the windows, which would making placing mirrors difficult. I could raise the windows so that the sill is, say, 7' above the floor, and put the mirrors under it, but the designer at the plumbing supply house didn't like that. I also could leave the sinks where they are, but extend the counter to the south wall, with some storage under it.
The overall shape of the room is somewhat constrained by the house structure. The N-S width of the house is 28', with the ridge beam running down the center, so if the bathroom was shortened a little, the space in the adjacent bedroom wouldn't be very useful.
I am attaching another image, this is the original design supplied by our architect for the private end of the house, with the master bedroom, master bath, laundry, and closet. The bath layout is what he created, and is what I'm trying to change. I would like to shrink the closet and laundry, in order to enlarge the bath, but my wife doesn't like that idea. I also could move the laundry to the basement, but again, she is trying to make all the living area on one floor. The numbers in hexagons are the windows, #64 being a 24" square awning window, and #75 being a 30 x 60 casement. Since none of the walls have been built yet, the doors (89 and 90) could be moved.

Another way of looking at this is that I have a 14-foot square space in which to put a master bath, a walk-in closet, and a laundry. What is the best way to subdivide this space.

Funny, I was just starting to look at it that way. I'll give it some thought, as I'm sure others will.

I'm not sure I understand your comments about the vanity/mirrors/windows issue. Are you saying you tried putting the vanity along the west (inside) wall? I don't see why that wouldn't work. I would think having them on that side would make the windows a non-issue. You could change the swing of the door, and even move the door toward the east wall a foot or so, if you needed to.

It just seems to me that the vanity and the toilet need to both be on the same wall. Otherwise, it looks too crowded to wind your way through.

Not sure about your living situation but you do really want anyone who has to do laundry traipsing through your bedroom and then your closet to get there? If it's just the two of you I guess it's OK but even if you have house guests it might get awkward and if you have kids and want them to help, then this might be extremely awkward.

OK, on review of all your comments, and discovering a mistake, here is my solution, with some questions. The mistake is, although bathroom size was listed as 6'4" x 14'4", it actually is 6'3" x 13"3". So, we have decided to put linen cabinets or shelves along the east wall, under the windows, and line the west wall with the fixtures. We would reverse the door. If we have an 81" double-sink vanity (30"+21"+30" cabinets), then a 48" wide shower, that would leave 30" for a toilet alcove. The shower could be 48 x 48, a 48" Neo angle, or a 48" wide by 36" deep, or something similar. Any thoughts as to the relative amount of space to be allocated to these three items?
In answer to Lucas, to the west of the laundry is a powder room, and a door could be added between these rooms.

I just had a bathroom remodel done. The wall space allowable for my toilet was 36", but my contractor said code was 38". He went ahead and put mine in the space, and I think it's fine.

30" would be kind of tight. Test it. Sit on your existing toilet and measure to see how much room you comfortably need side-to-side. My DH is a big man and I don't think 30" would work for him.

" I always thought that $10,000 was too little, but that's what my better half suggested. I would point out that that's for materials only."

Yes, I understood that the $10k was for material only when I replied (above). If your better half needs convincing that it's far, far too low, have her start shopping to see what materials she could buy for that budget.

"I could build a custom shower with tiled walls, and tile the post, but I think that would be much more costly."

Yes, but well worth it.

The main problems I see are that you will have a long, skinny bathroom with a too-small shower, and a sink and vanity plunked down haphazardly. You could have a much more interesting and well-proportioned bathroom if you reconfigured that whole space. You have adequate room for a laundry, a walk in closet, and a bathroom...but right now it's a badly configured set of rectangles. Please think outside the box, or get a little advice from a designer. You have a great opportunity to build something really nice, or you can end up with something that is ordinary and uninteresting. I am not trying to be condescending, but you seem like you're stuck, and a little outside help might be just what you need. For instance, there is no reason you have to stick with all rectangles; you could make the bathroom L-shape, and change the number and location of the windows so they quit restricting your interior design options.

The windows on the exterior wall certainly do limit what you can do. This is far from perfect, but it's a quick and dirty to get the ideas rolling.

mongo-
That's definitely an improvement over the awkwardly long and narrow bathroom. Door "90" could also become a pocket door sliding to the left so that the door wouldn't be in the way of the toilet when it was open, and you could also turn the toilet 90 degrees then.

The worse tha a remodel ''compromise'' bath is a symptom of a larger design problem with the entire structure. You can't always have it all in new constuction, but if you can't get enough room to wash your tookus without bruising your elbows, there is something really wrong with the overall plan. It's being designed from the outside in, instead of both together, in harmony.

My wife, who is out of town right now, doesn't like putting the toilet beyond the shower. Also, as Littlebug said, it is a little cramped (by the way, what does DH mean? Dear Husband?). So, taking these two criticisms into account, I decided on a 48" square or angled shower, moved to the NW corner, 38" space for the toilet, and a 72" vanity. The vanity could be two 36" cabinets, a 30-12-30 combo, or a three 24" cabinets. I think the 30-12-30 would be best, with the 12" one a 3-drawer unit. Remember, I'm planning to have shallow cabinets/shelves across the room, under the windows. This totals 13'2", one inch less than the total space. Attached is this revised design.
Kudzu, I actually having the toilet behind the door in Mongo's design, but overall, Mongo's design loses too much space in the closet. I think I should go back to my architect, who came up with the original design, and ask him to think more carefully about it.

This a big improvement on your original plan. I think you should remove the window in the top right corner and run your shower over to the right hand post and just wall in the post.
Move the two remaining bathroom windows so that they are more centered in the bathroom.
Having another entrance to the laundry also makes more sense. If you were able to place the washer and dryer on the wall with the window, you could do a counter to the right for folding and a rod above for hanging and store laundry baskets under the counter.

Ah, I just reread the entire post. I missed a few things the first time around. I thought YOU wanted to get rid of the long and narrow. If you're willing to keep your long and narrow, your last version is a definite improvement. I also saw you're doing a super-insulated in a cold climate. So bringing all of the plumbing off of the exterior wall and putting it on the interior bathroom/closet wall is a definite advantage.

Might want to consider having that wet wall framed with 2x6. It helps with fitting the plumbing, the toilet vent stack, the washer plumbing valves and drain, and the dryer vent.

The sinks as shown in your drawing might be a bit awkward to use. Might consider reversing them. ; )

MTVhike-
A little better, but the space to the right of the shower is not very useful or attractive. As suggested above, get rid of window 64 and run the shower the whole width. The shower will then be an adequate size and the room's proportion will be better. If you are intent on that sink placement, at least change to a pocket door to prevent hitting people who are using the sink next to the door. We have three bathrooms and a powder room and each has a sliding door...and they aren't a problem to use as long as they are mounted on quality tracks.

Having said all that, I still encourage you to rethink this whole layout. It would be good to talk with an architect, but the one you have hasn't demonstrated much ability. Tell him you are looking for something more inspired. I'm not trying to be snarky; it just looks like you haven't been well-served so far. Good luck.

Is there a reason you need to have 3 windows in the bathroom instead of 2? Or 1? I'd mess with those before I'd give up functionality in the bathroom.

I'd take your last drawing and do a shower that goes all the way across the back of the room. You don't have to tile the beam. You could just fur out the back wall (or the side wall, for that matter, making kind of a "side soffit") so that your shower was rectangular.

Yes, typically DH means Dear Husband. Sometimes the D can stand for something else. :)