Not sure why an empty-nester would add another story to a house, but...you've already started!

I prefer the entry via the bedroom and guess any buyer would too. Neutral on W/D up there. I'd also prefer not to walk *around* the bed. (Yes, yes, I see the balcony and view...all the same, the walk-about would irk me.)

I'm neutral on the laundry, but I would definitely prefer to enter through the bedroom. Why would you want to enter a big spacious, bright bedroom from the dressing area? You want to open a door and see the money view, not see the nice room after going through a closet.

I wouldn't mind walking around the bed, but that is just me.

Thanks for the comments-- I think I prefer bedroom entry as well.

I think we're going to put in rough plumbing for a compact (24" wide, 28" deep including vent for dryer) stacking washer/dryer but use the space now for storage. At least if we're here 10 years from now and are tired of going down 2 floors to do the laundry we won't have to rip up ceilings etc. to do the plumbing. And this plan won't require us to do a ridiculously deep closet.

FWIW, reasons for adding on at this stage--more room for entertaining, having out-of-town guests stay over, gain a 2 car garage (rather than attached 1 car up a steep driveway), bigger kitchen, gaining roof space for solar... we'll be here a while. Love the town and looked around for 3 years couldn't find anything. We've been in design / planning for about 3 years--yes there's no turning back now! We've never had a real dining room (more like dining nook between kitchen and family room) and now we'll have a big combo living / dining area big enough to put on small house concerts. ;)

One could position the headboard of the bed against 2 of the other walls. All the windows are in now but no interior walls so we can mock it up this weekend and have a walk-through. Good to consider these options before laying out the lighting.

As someone who moved laundry from basement to second floor addition off the master bedroom, let me say that it is really convenient to have the laundry by your closet and bathroom. We look at it as an added age-in-place strategy as well. You don't have the fall risk of carrying things up and down 2 flights of stairs. So as long as your can get yourself upstairs, you can remain in the home. (and we are only in our 40s)

I do recommend having a decent bathroom exhaust fan in the laundry area to keep the bedroom from smelling like the laundry room, and to exhaust the heat. Not clear if you plan to build the w/d into a closed cabinet. If you would have a way to "close off" the closet/laundry space in the closet and put the fan in the closet ceiling, that would be preferred. I do think that any enclosure of a particular size might be required by codes to have clearances and to be ventilated.

If you can do a conventionally vented dryer instead of a condensing dryer you will also want to get any vent in place while you are under construction.

Not sure if yours will be gas or electric. Ours is gas dryer (we were running gas line to adjacent wall for fireplace). So our dryer is conventional and vented. But at the time of construction we did add the circuitry to switch to an electric dryer in the future if that would be something we would want to do.

Thanks-- since it's 2nd floor in sunny southern cal, we are thinking of putting a whole house fan up there. So if we do the laundry then we could pull in fresh air pretty quickly. Hadn't thought of putting it above the laundry closet, but that's a very good idea. We're somewhat constrained with venting (pending final solar panel layout from solar city).

I think we'll go ahead and put rough-in for the plumbing and venting, and an electric circuit. This way in the meantime we could use the circuit for something else.

We'll probably go with the bedroom entry to give us 16' of closet space-- about 2.5 of which would be reserved for a future laundry.

We're in our 40's as well... barely. ;)

I would vote for the entry from bedroom and the stacked laundry facing the bathroom. That would be really convenient especially if you plan for a couple of laundry baskets close by to sort whites, delicates etc. If I were a prospective buyer, I would note that as a plus. I also think there is potential for more optimization in your closet. You will want to make sure that dampness and the noise from the bathroom does not enter the closet and the bedroom

I also vote for entry thru the beadroom. A second floor laundry would not be my choice especially if you have front loaders, they can be reallly noisy especially in the spin cycle. Ours are on the first floor on concrete, so no problem. We too are empty nesters, as we don't live in our bedroom we are in the lower level most of the time, so just carrying the laundry up and down once a week is no big deal. If you are really set on second floor laundry make sure you put a catch pan under the washer, and a set of supply faucets that will shut automaticly in the event of a hose break.

Is a laundry chute or dumb waiter an option?

You *could* position the bed towards the center of the room, possibly with a half-wall at the head to provide a sense of security -- and to hold sconces. I'd make anything like that long enough for a king bed + end tables or shelving. When you have a dressing room/closet, there's usually not much other than the bed in a MBR.

Unfortunately a laundry chute / dumb waiter won't fit.

From a practical point of view the only real reason to have the entry through the closet is that our guests could use that bathroom without going through our bedroom. But we have 2 other bathrooms on the first floor so this isn't really a compelling reason.

Our architect suggested building the wall out to be a bit thicker at the head of the bed so that we could use a sliding door and still have electric-- then we would make a niche in the build-out for a shelf / lighting at the head of the bed.

FWIW even with the entry into the bedroom a king size bed will fit and allow for about 10" on each side for a small end table.

Good point about the racket from front load washer / dryers on a 2nd floor. One of the reasons we've moved our 1st floor laundry to 0th floor garage is to get the noise away from living areas.

Leaning towards doing the minimal rough-in plumbing and electric now, and moving this towards the bottom of the length of closets, so that we can optimize the closet space towards the entry with a built-in organizer.

We decided that direct entry into the bedroom made the most sense, and because the headboard / wall behind the bed is about 6', the entry door their needs to be a swinging door. This has been framed in.

We've also decided not to put a laundry up there. The reason we moved the laundry in the first place was to get the noise of it away from the living areas.

Now I'm thinking about having the best of both worlds (I think) and putting in a second door, possibly as a pocket door, directly into the area with our closet storage. Idea is that this storage will be finished out nicely, rather than a walk-in closet. More of a dressing room.

If we do this, we will be able to come straight upstairs to the bedroom and balcony, or bypass the bedroom and go through dressing room and into bathroom. This would be helpful if we go to bed or get up at different times, which we do at least a couple times / week. So a lot of flexibility with traffic flow.

Downside -- we lose about 3' of closet space, and it may look odd to have 2 doors at the top of a landing.

Thoughts?

I don't like this idea. It would look odd, and anyone in bed would hear the pocket door open and close.

How about accessing the dressing area and bath along the interior stairwall instead of along the exterior wall (top of plan).

I can see that you have room for a king bed (or two!). I thought that IF you created a walk-through BEHIND the headboard, you'd want a 'security wall' for the headboard; that should be long enough to accomodate a king + side tables. I was trying to save walking AROUND the bed.

For resale, laundry in the garage would be an issue and the more kids I had the bigger the issue would be. Walking around the bed or thru a dressing room to get to the bath would not be a deal breaker, I would not like it and would rather change the layout of the bath so you could have a door on bedroom entry side also.

Thanks for the comments.

We would like to keep the bed oriented the way it is so that when we are in bed we can see out the porch to the foothills. Any other orientation in the room just doesn't make it for one reason or another. I tried pushing the bed to the left (towards the porch (3') so we could walk behind it, but that didn't work so well.

We are pretty set in terms of shower stall area and toilet. However we could re-arrange things a bit like below.

If we did this we would build a niche into the headboard so an end table wouldn't be necessary.

This maximizes the closet / dressing room storage area as well.

Hmm...

Just met with contractor and plumber. Plumber had the best idea I think so far, which was to move the bed to the bottom wall. There would be room for a queen size bed and 24" nightstands on either side, or king with slightly narrower stands.

The views are actually 100% better as well. So from a functionality point of view, this would work way better, and you wouldn't need to walk around the bed from the entry to get to the dressing / bath area.

Plus as of now there needs to be an AC duct that would preclude having a second entry as I suggested earlier.

I'll try to post some actual photos of the room with windows to show what I mean.

We could even fit a couch opposite the bed now, or a couple chirs with a small table.

Ah, MUCH better 'walk about'. Will you *sit* on that balcony, or could it be less deep, giving the headboard wall more length?

Thanks, yes, we'll sit on the porch (and it is built) ;)

One thing I've learned from this exercise is to consider various options for the bed positioning before specifying lighting locations to the electrician ;)

From an "interior design" point of view the previous bed locationcould look really nice (despite hiking around it), so we should have some lights on a separate dimmer for that area. We could put a small desk / writing table there, or a dresser, as well.

I was up until 2 a.m. this morning working on a couple other options that I'll post in a bit.

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!!!!

I'm back to your (almost) original plan, voting for "A" with the 'walk around' bed.

You might get more ideas if you posted this on the "Building a House" forum. We are a bunch of nit-pickers over there! lol Seriously, there are some wonderful people willing -- and ABLE -- to help.

Thanks, I might try posting there.

As of the moment, we're thinking the same thing; plan A. We met with the electrician and discussed putting a pair of recessed lights over each of the 2 bed locations. From a room composition point of view, we like having the bed in position 1, but from a "flow" point of view position 2.

"C''s appeal was that it provides more obvious opportunities for a small desk location (laptop table really) but plan A allows for that at either end of the dressing area.

I hate the recessed lights over our bed. We never use them; they are too high to cast light for reading. In fact, the only ceiling fixture in the MBR that gets any use is the fan. It also has a light that I use when cleaning the room. If you don't want table lamps beside the bed, consider wall sconces. Do you have security lighting? Want a switch beside your bed?

I deeply regret being talked into cans all over our house. Only the hallway cans have been useful. You mentioned a vaulted ceiling -- you might consider 'washing' that from the low side with concealed lighting.

Our architect suggested lights built into a niche into the headboard, and an interior designer friend who helped a bit suggested pendant lights over the head of the bed. Those are both good ideas, more practical than ceiling cans, but pretty much define the bed location, and I like the idea of having a more flexible room layout than one fixed to a particular bed locations. I'll have to think more about sconces... hmm...

STOP overthinking! My advice, go for plan A with the bed at position 2. Trying to create a zig zag path through your closet will prove to be a bad idea the first time you have to rush to the bathroom. Not to mention the low appeal it will have to potential buyers. I for one don't want to trip over clothes or stored items when headed toward the bathroom.

We are framed in, plan A. Regarding lighting, we decided to just use cans for general overhead area light (6 in room) and then will light above bed from wall sconces.