I think you'd better take the time to re-draw the relevant areas rather than gesturing with a highlighter. Clearly the closet, as it is now, is not big enough to put a bathroom in, even without a shower. Having the door open into the office seems like a bad idea -- won't having people tromping through to get to the bathroom defeat the purpose of having a private office? You could shift the office door up, expand the closet to a powder room-sized space, and move the PR door to the breakfast room wall, next to the end of the bar, though the breakfast table might then impede access to the office. Get out some paper (preferably graph paper) and play around.

What's bothering you about the original plan?

Thanks, Jon1270.
What bothered me about the original plan was the door from the powder room opening right into the central part of our dining room. I sat at the table and pictured someone coming into a dinner party and it felt awkward.

So the design/build firm we are using adjusted the powder room door to where the hall closet is drawn and moved the hall closet to the foyer, cutting into our dining room. It's a long dining room and didn't interfere with the table but I have been struggling with how it would look to have a section of the dining room boxed in. It would also change the openness of the front entry way.

If we moved the powder room to the office area, I pictured the door toward the bar end of the breakfast room. Our upstairs bathroom plumbing is right about that area so I'm hoping it's not a big move from that perspective - wondering if it makes sense from a space and aethestics of opening into the breakfast room?
I will get out the graph paper and play around. Thank you.

I understand not wanting the clear sight-line from the dining room into the bathroom, but it seems like there must be easier ways to deal with that than moving the bathroom. What if you were to move the hutch somewhere else, and slide the opening to the living/dining room up closer to the kitchen so that it didn't line up with the powder room? Besides providing the visual block you're looking for, it would improve traffic flow between the kitchen and dining area. Considering that guests tend to gravitate towards the kitchen, the hallway by the hutch looks pretty tight to me.

I am torn on this one. We had a bathroom as part of our dining room -- small house and no other room for it -- and it was a little awkward, so I like the bathroom in the office area. It would need to be bigger, though. But, what I don't like is that guest have to go all the way to the back of house to get there. I would vote for keeping it near the dining room, but changing the door configuration somehow.

I'd consider flipping powder room and closet, so that powder room door is off the mudroom. This would also make the powder room more accessible to the backyard. The drawback might be that your largest coat closet would be near front foyer rather than back foyer.

I would do the following: Keep the powder room as is, and move the cased opening to the dining portion of the living/dining space all the way to the corner, where the hutch now creates a choke point for traffic to the kitchen, closet and powder room. The relocation of the opening also further opens the floor plan, for better or worse, although this could potentially be addressed by making this a set of french doors. As everyone else has already proffered, the powder rm in the office is a trap that yields a smaller 1/2 bath, sacrifices a quiet office, and perhaps shrinks the room considerably if the bath is grown to a 3/4.
How does a 24" deep message center function with only 12" wide door? Just something else I noticed; don't mind me.
Casey

I also like the idea of opening up wall where hutch sits, and lengthening the wall opposite fireplace. A longer wall opposite fireplace would allow more variation for furniture arrangement.

Now that I think about it, that space is labeled living/dining. How will furniture be arranged? Seems like dining room nearer kitchen, and living near front. But then fireplace in between?

Thanks for all of the input. The Dining Room shouldn't have been labeled living/dining. It's only a dining room. There are built ins (not shown on the plan - sorry) on either side of the french doors so we could open up that wall where the hutch is a bit, but not all the way. The built-ins are about 21" along that wall. I'll try to post some other drawings later today.

Well, we exhausted many ways of trying to get a bathroom back by the office and it seemed to have too much impact either on the size of that room or the garage. Walking into the office to get to the PR also didn't seem like a good idea.

SO - to get back to my original concern of walking out of the Powder Room into the Dining Room, and still have a hall closet - we've closed part of the dining room wall and made the hutch smaller. Here's the latest plan.

Any thoughts? Are we ready to rock and roll?

PS - I am having a hard time letting go of the benefits of having a bathroom (with shower?) back by the office - kids running in from the backyard, maybe a parent who can't go up stairs sleeping in that room, resale value...so I am still wondering if we should bump out further into the backyard and make an additional bathroom? Not to mention the $$$(contractor says about $20-30k) we already have all of our permits so it's a big deal. Advice?????????
{{gwi:1401658}}

So many currently popular house designs have so many spaces that serve the same use that it is virtually impossible to know how to fit in the necessities like bathrooms. When it is time to eat do you use the 6 seat dining room, the 6 seat breakfast room or the four seat kitchen counter? IMHO the only justification for so many eating spaces is if you entertain a lot. Multi-use spaces have now become multi-space uses.

Hi Mightyanvil, Thanks for your insight. We do entertain quite a bit. I'm hoping we will do even more when this is done (might be pizza and byob after all of this investment though!)