How about a shower knee wall with glass on top for the towel bars. It can extend to the front insstead of the side in the pic.

[Traditional Spaces design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/traditional-home-design-ideas-phbr1-bp~s_2107)

or towel bars on the glass

[Contemporary Bathroom design[(https://www.houzz.com/photos/contemporary-bathroom-ideas-phbr1-bp~t_712~s_2103) by Portland Kitchen And Bath Linda Florio

Since there is no basement why not use the space under the stairs for cold storage? You could put a door in the family room. Even a hidden bookcase door.

Sorry meant to say dining room.

gaonmymind - Regarding putting the cold storage under the stairs. I have thought of that, but I don't think that would give us the space we need (I am giving up a 10x10 wine cellar in the basement)

Regarding towel bars on the glass or on a knee wall, that is what I was planning, but I am beginning to wonder if there is a better use of space overall in the bathroom.

Just remember if you want towel bars or hooks installed on the tempered glass of your shower it cannot be done after the fact.

Thanks for the reminder!

1) Swap the steam bath and toilet room then put a towel bar to serve the tub on the wall beside the toilet and a couple of wall hooks on the wall between shower and that area that I assume is a bench seat. Like this...

2) Since you no longer plan to have a basement, how about using the space under the staircase landing for your wine storage? Instead of steps going all the way down to a full basement, all you need is four or five steps going down to your wine room. If you have an 8x8 pit that is 4 ft deep under the staircase landing, it'll give you a perfect spot for your wine cellar.

Even if you're going to be on a slab foundation, it is not difficult to have them pour it so that there is a pit under where the stair landing will be. Foundation guys do it all the time for buildings that will have elevators that require a pit. And having the wine room at least partly underground should help with keeping the temp more constant. Just be sure that the stairs are built nice and sturdy so that vibrations from people going up and down stairs aren't transmitted to the wine.

3) I'm a bit confused as to whether you are or are not willing to expand the 2nd floor space. ANY expansion IS going to affect the front elevation somewhat. So before I start messing around with it, are you thinking (hoping) that there is a way to reconfigure the upstairs without enlarging it? Or, if you're willing to enlarge so long as the front elevation still looks nice, what size media room and what size playroom do you want? Also, have you considered the fact because of the "hollows" into which pocket doors fit when open, they don't do a very good job blocking sound transmission when closed. With pocket doors separating the two rooms, I rather doubt anyone would be terribly happy watching a movie or listening to music in the media room while others were playing in the play room. Would you be just as happy with two swinging doors?

BTW - I'm assuming you've made some changes to the floor plan that aren't yet reflected on the elevation drawings b/c, on the elevation drawings, I see a people-door just to the right of the one-car garage door and there is no such door on the floorplans. Haven't looked closely enough to see if there are any other discrepancies.

I was typing my post while you and goanmymind were going back and forth. Wasn't intending to pile on about using the space under the stairs.

Bevangel,

Thanks for your thoughtful response! Our house is actually going to be on a crawlspace, but maybe there is still a way to lower that portion? If I also remove one of the children's bathrooms I could use that additional space there as well....

Regarding the upstairs, i'm all for either reconfiguring the space, or adding to it. I meant that changes could be made, as long as those changes are made in a way that will look appropriate from the front elevation! :)

Your bathroom change could help, though I was wondering if something could be done that would push the shower back further to be more in line with the end of the bath tub and then add additional storage space in the bathroom. I can't quite picture this though...

For the upstairs, if I were to keep the layout the way it is does anyone have any suggestions for how to include:

- children's play/art area
- larger projector screen with seating for 4-5 to comfortably watch a movie
- bar/mini kitchen area

How about a trap-door wine cellar with a spiral staircase down into your crawlspace, and if need be, simply deepen the crawlspace pit another few feet, or 8 feet, to get the height you need to store 1,500 bottles. Alternatively widen the diameter of the staircase.

Expand the upstairs over the kitchen and use the extra space for the wine storage?

Alexhouse, love the idea, however it seems that this would be about $35,000 (for the system plus installation). Unless you know another place to get this type of cellar?

A wine cellar upstairs isn't a good idea due to installation, and that we won't have the surrounded space conditioned when not in use.

Sorry, I meant to say, insulation not installation! Damn autocorrect! :)

Oh, and there are a few discrepancies between the elevation drawings and floor plans, though they are all minor. The double garage was actually extended by 4' and the door shown on the front picture was moved to the side of the single car garage.

There are also a couple window and door changes, but nothing that really affects the needed changes! :)

I'd talk to your contractor about price rather than looking at a kit. Price out a spiral staircase. Talk to a cabinet maker and get a quote on the cabinetry you need. Dig and pour the foundation, run some lights.

ISTM that the big expense here is the curved cabinetry. Do you have existing cabinetry? If so, why not drop in the trap door, put in the staircase and then run your existing cabinetry in a small cellar room. It's not classed as livable space so the cost of construction should be lowered.

As I'm looking at that photo of the trapdoor cellar, it doesn't look too fancy-schmancy. Looks like rough cut plywood, including stairs.

Where did you get pricing for a kit?

From the distributor who has a picture of that very same image ($16,000ish plus shipping, plus installation). It is also designed to go completely into the ground, and it doesn't have a cooling unit, so it only works completly below grade. In theory it cound go beneath the garage slab, but anything that imvolves digging in our area is silly expensive, and we have extensive drainage issues to deal with.

I really wish it was an option, if I could do it for $10,000 to $15,000 all in I would completely jump at it! :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Spiral Cellars

Just thinking outside the box here. I hear you about drainage and digging. It can't hurt to float this idea by you. You're moving 1,500 bottles of wine from cold storage into the heated envelope of your home. You're giving up quality living space to store what was stored in a cold cellar.

How about picking up a precast concrete utility pipe of X length and Y diameter, dig a hole, drop this vertically into the hole, waterproof it, pour a floor, and then put up simple shelving and build a trap door over top. You have a lot invested in the wine so storing it in a room at ambient house temperate can't be too good. Secondly, there's probably a better use for your livable space than storing wine. Thirdly, maybe you can do this on the cheap (relatively speaking) by not going pretty.

Thanks Alex!

What I am being told by the builder is that it will cost less to add sq footage to the first floor. The room will be heavily insulated and have a cooling unit.

Anyone have any suggestions on how to arrange the upstairs, I'm okay with adding sq. footage over the kitchen.

Don't have any suggestions but I am curious as to how large the floor plan is.

I like the layout a lot!

Thanks! We have put a lot of thought into the setup and how we will live in it so it is great to have some positive feedback!

The main floor is 3330 sq ft, and the upstairs is currently an additional 807 sq ft.

I think I'd be tempted to make room somewhere near the garage end of things... Any way to simply expand a plane of the garage/mudroom areas to get the space you need?

Another option, depending on how you will use these spaces, would be to bring your master closet wall out even with the den, but turn your closet and use the new space between the den and closet for wine storage; accessible from the den, or hallway... You can borrow more space from the master Bath I think too, and/or square up that corner to get better space inexpensively.

Kirkhall, both of your ideas are excellent!

regarding the mudroom, do you mean run the wine cellar down the wall between the mudroom and garage, making it long and narrow there? That may just work actually... ;)

It would be great to keep it on that side of the house, and then it could be used for other cold storage (we plan to grow our own potatoes and a few other veggies that can keep for a long time in cold storage).

Kirkhall - I think you solved our problem, perfect place! :)

Our designer and builder both think it should be in a "statement" location, however I would rather have a heavy insulated door and not worry about how it looks in there ;)

Now, for the last issue, the upstairs! Kirkhall and Bevangal, any brilliant ideas?

Glad I could help!
Now, on the other thing... I am not fully understanding the space you have, the space you could have, and what you need/want.
Could you clarify that or start another thread?

Kirkhall, I went ahead and started a new thread! Thanks!

Summerfield,

If you happen to stumble across this (and have the time) I would love your help! Also, I am having trouble imagining how furniture fits into all of these rooms, and I'd love to see your layout ideas!

Thank-you, Thank-you, Thank-you!!!

After much debate we decided to without our wine cellar.... The idea of putting it bext to the mudrrom was a freat onw, but it affected the overall square footage too much, and our designer tried to put it between the dining room and staircase, but that affected our mudroom laundry area to greatly.

It is disappointing, but something had to give. We will likely find space for several wine fridges throughout the house!

Here is the updated upstairs portion, all of you really helped me steer things in the right direction. Thanks for all the help!

Also, all the recent talk about two story high great rooms on other threads lead me to bring down the ceiling height of the great room/dining room to 12' (from 15'). It will have 8' doors with transforms going up to 11' or so.

The last thing is that I still have this naging thought that the bathroom could be COMPLETELY rearranged to be more functional, but I'm just not seeing it.

Though, perhaps I've just been looking at this too long and it is fine as it is!

If you're talking about the bathroom off the Rumpus room, the only thing I think you really need to do is make it a tiny bit wider. I would bring the bathroom wall out even with the edge of the Rumpus Room's built-in cabinets so that there is a little more "standing room" in front of the toilet and the shower is a little bigger. Then, if window placement will allow you to do so, for the convenience of guests staying in the guest room, you might mirror image the whole bathroom vertically so that the sink (and door) are up close to the guest room and the shower is down by the built-in cabinets. That would save your guests a few steps to reach the toilet in the middle of the night.

Now stop obsessing! There ARE only so many ways to arrange a toilet, a shower, and a vanity. LOL!

The whole upstairs looks fantastic. Great theater room, nice large play room with plenty of room for a bar sink and fridge and storage of games/toys, a balcony that'll be big enough to actually sit out on to enjoy the view, AND easy access to the unfinished attic! I think you've done good!

Now how about having your architect revise the elevation drawings and post those just so we can see them?

I'm looking forward to watching you build.

Bevangel, I didn't think about that bathrooms arrangement, but that is a fantastic suggestion! As a side note, we are actually not finishing the second story right away, instead we plan on DIYing it ourselves overtime.

I was still going back to the master bath. It has everything I wanted in it, though something about it seems off... it is probably just planning fatigue!

Our first draft of this plan was back in Feb, and then I first posted it here in March (link below if you are curious) and then we THOUGHT we were about to sign off early last month but we ended up hitting a few stumbling blocks (had to find a new builder). So we are quite anxious to get moving forward! We meet with our designer tomorrow to sign off on floor plan, and then we will sign off on the updated elevation by the end of the week! I'll be sure to post it back to this thread!

That said, creating the construction drawings and completing the engineering will take 8 more weeks, and then the county will take 8-12 weeks to approve the plans, so we are still at about 5 months away from breaking ground.

Here is a link that might be useful: First try at our floor plan!

Your master bath is fine... just make sure you have a safe master toilet door (outswing or pocket--NOT inswing.)

Thanks kirkhall, that has been updated after you suggested that! :)

Oh, the master bath.... I remember now. Originally you were looking for a way to add some towel bars. I suggested swapping the shower and toilet room (on Aug 14, 12 at 16:45)

I don't know if you decided to do that, or if not, if you made some other changes to solve the towel bar dilemma. What exactly is the current situation vis-a-vis the master bath and can you suggest what it is about the design that bothers you?

It is more than just the towel bars. Something about the arrangment seems off. One example, it feels like it would be a better use of space if the shower pushed out to the end of the tub, but if that were to happen I don't know what I would do with everything else.

I'm probably just losing my mind from looking at it too long because it does have everything I asked for.

Oh, and the designer said no to swapping the toilet and shower due to the elevation and our huge shower being wider than the toilet. We will just have to put a towel bar on the glss, no problem I suppose!