Our plan is somewhat similar this plan here...

Will you have so many visiting guests or others in the public areas of your house who may wish to use a bathroom at the same time, thus necessitating multiple bath rooms in the public areas of your house? Will these visiting guests or others also feel the need to take a bath or shower during their visit, and thus require the house to have an available tub and/or shower in the public areas of your house?

For many families, full bathrooms in relation and proximity to the number and location of the private spaces of the family bedrooms is the primary consideration, followed by a convenience powder room for guests on the first floor so that they don't have to go to one of the bedroom areas (assuming the size of the house and budget permit).

In many cases, this first floor powder room is often located in close promiximity to the utility room and garage, for convenience of the family working outdoors and not having to track garden mud into the master suite. Many visitors are well acustomeds to using a powder room in the vicinity of the laundry and utility area of the house.

Of course, everyone's milage may vary, so do whatever works for you, your family and the visitors to your house. After all, it's your budget to allocate for whatever uses you wish.

Good luck on your project.

Thanks for your input as I value your opinion.

We have a guest suite in the basement complete with full bathroom (also accessible to the rest of the basement). So I am not as worried about the first floor bathroom being used for bathing.

Likewise, our basement is a walkout and the bathroom there will again be accessible to those working outdoors, if needed.

We will occasionally be entertaining but I don't think it will be that frequently.

My wife thinks we might need another powder room closer to the hearth room and kitchen for convenience. I think that an extra quick walk to the single powder room on this floor is sufficient. To add another bath she would likely have to sacrifice some square footage from the pantry, mudroom and/or utility room which is also something she isn't crazy about doing.

Keep the thoughts coming.

So is the guest bedroom on the main floor going to be used as an office or a different space since you have a guest suite in the basement?

If it's your family that will be using that 'guest bedroom' I think I might be inclined to have the powder room located over near the kitchen/hearth/mudroom rather than by that spare room. I can see why your wife would suggest that but I'd try to still stick with one and nix that other one.

I might try to swap that bathroom with the laundry area if there is a way to access it other than through the foyer. Easy access from the master. Not sure if that is possible or not.

Should have clarified...

The guest bedroom in the plan I posted will actually be an office. The full bath as pictured will instead be a powder room (no bath or shower) as the guest bedroom is now downstairs as mentioned.

This post was edited by building_a_house on Sun, Dec 30, 12 at 19:39

I like the idea of swapping the powder room and laundry. Having the laundry closer to the master and the stairs, while getting the powder room closer to the daytime living space seems like a win-win.

Also I flipped the butler's pantry and pantry so the pantry is now next to the mud room. Its 10'1" x 3'8".

In our next home I would like a small powder room off the foyer for guests and another 3/4 bath off the mudroom for messy kids, coming in from yard work, etc. Not necessary for sure, but having a infrequently used (aka always clean) bathroom for guests will make my life easier.

I'd think, for resale purposes having a full bath rather than just a powder room would make sense. You're using that space as an office but without a useable second bath on that floor anyone looking to use it as a bedroom just won't buy that its functional as a bedroom. Depending on your full floorplan this is the difference between a 2 and 3 bedroom home? If its just 2 bedrooms plus that office, I'd say its worth it to be able to call the home 3 *functional* bedroom. We faced a similar choice on our floorplan. Tho rather than adding another bathroom to clean when it wasn't really needed we just made the powder bath a full bath.

Thanks for the added comments. We have a master bedroom on the main floor, the "office" as mentioned here, 3 additional bedrooms upstairs (1 with full bath, the other 2 sharing a Jack-and-Jill) and then the guest bath downstairs.

I had a walk through today with the builder and have decided that my wife was right. We need to have a small half bath (powder room) near the hearth room. My builder suggested that I use some of the space from the laundry room.

The laundry room was roughly 12' x 6' so we will be taking some of the space from there. What do you think about this plan? The remaining "short" wall in the laundry room would be about 8' as seen in this picture.

I'd suggest trying to steal some space from the hearth room to make sure you have a good usuable sized utility room if you go that route, but at this point that might not be an option. The hearth room seems an extraneous space to me with the great room so near, but lifestyles vary for sure!

Is another bathroom a need? No. Remember that it hasn't been all that many years ago that a second bathroom ANYWHERE in the whole house was considered a luxury item. When I was a kid in the 70s, MOST of my friends' houses had only one bathroom or 1.5 bathrooms (at that point, the .5 was in the master bedroom), and we were middle-class kids.

On the plus side, an extra half-bath would be slightly more convenient for your guests, and it might help with re-sale (I don't have any idea whether that matters to you). If you're in a neighborhood, you'd be wise to find out what the other houses have; you want to keep in sync with the neighborhood expectations when it comes to things like this.
On the negative side, even a half-bath adds to the cost of the house, and it requires cleaning.

I did not read all the replys. I would definately put in another bathroom...If you are the entertaining type and find a butlers pantry a absolute necessity that keep it. I would redesign the pantry and butlers space to include a bathroom. You will find it more useful than the butlers space. I did not put in a butlers pantry and have never regretted it.

Would something like this work? I think I have about 4.5' width and plenty of depth. The door would be a 28" or 30" door on the right sided wall in this drawing...

Also, what if I kept the pedestal sink where it is but put the toilet on the right sided wall and have it face the door?

Yes you could do what you suggest (turning the toilet 90*). Generally, though, I like to see a 5' dimension for the long axis of the toilet rather than the 4' above. Practically speaking, it will be really difficult to find a toilet short enough (front to back) to still get a 24" clearance in front of it which is the code minimum. 5' is more comfortable, and more practical.

If you do go with a "tiny" room, make sure you won't end up in trouble if someone has a medical emergency in the tiny room. Therefore, you'll either need to choose a pocket door or an outswing door. (the reason: inswing doors have the hinges on the inside and are not accessible to EMTS to remove the door. The EMTs can't just open the door because the person with the medical emergency has no place to fall in a tiny room except to the floor space (which is where the door needs to swing)--blocking the door closed. This is dangerous and wastes precious rescue time trying to access the person who needs the help. An outswing or pocket door (or barn door) solves this issue.)

I just joined and have already picked up so many tips! We are just starting to think about our first build, so much to learn!
I recognized your floor plan as Donald Gardener's Atherton. That is a favorite of mine. I too have thought that it would be nice to have another 1/2 bath on the main floor. I can't decide how to rearrange the mud room/laundry area to add one. I'm not sure I like how the mud room bench is right across from the hearth room door. That area is bound to get messy and don't really want to see it all the time. Do you have pictures of what you decided to do? I would love to see it!

We are considering the Atherton. Has anyone built it and have pictures to share?

Thanks.

This may sound silly but what is a butlers pantry? I think where that is would be a better area for a powder room. But some would argue they don't want it so close or in view of the kitchen. I think one bathroom accessible to guests is fine and if they have to walk to the foyer it's also fine. I like that it's more private.

I'd much rather have a larger laundry room than another powder room on the first floor. First of all, people who know there are two wc's will opt for the one further away from your public areas, for obvious privacy concerns. Having a powder room too close to the kitchen/hearth room may mean no guests would want to use it. Since you are using the front room as a study, I think that powder room is perfect--- it maintains privacy and will be especially convenient for the dining room (to wash hands before a meal) and whoever is using the study.

My first reaction upon seeing your floor plan is that your pantry is in a very odd place and I would change that immediately, if not sooner!

Year old post.

Be interesting to see the OP update though.

As a mother of 3 boys who played outside in the yard with friends, I would suggest you do anything you can to put a PR near the garage if you have children. The constant going back and forth thru the house to the front PR would have driven me nuts ....