Half bath off front entry or none? (layout help)

12 years ago

We're adding a small entryway addition to the front of our house by closing in the old concrete front steps.

The house has just one bathroom. It's in a back hallway that requires you to walk past two bedrooms to get to it. Fine for us, but it'd be nice for company to not have to enter the bedroom area. And, a second bathroom anywhere in the house would be wonderful!

My husband's calculations for the new entry were off. I thought I'd have a 4x6 area in which to put a half bath. He forgot to account for walls. (Gotta love being your own contractor sometimes.) It's framed, roofed, etc. - no changing it now. After seeing it and really measuring it out, I'm not sure we have the room - or the layout - to realistically add that half bath.

Here's the whole house overview:

{{!gwi}}From Craft & Building Projects

Here's the proposed half bath:

{{!gwi}}From Craft & Building Projects

I'd kill for another bathroom, but I'm also feeling like this might not make sense. You can see the bathroom from the living room. It's on the wall directly behind the dining room. Door would have to always remain shut or it interferes with the entry door.

So...add the half bath or live with what we have?

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Comments (8)

chisue
12 years ago
Can you reverse toilet and sink? (Insulate against sound.)Can you use a pocket door? You could even have an in-swing door, despite that not being *as* safe in case someone gets sick inside the bathroom.

Our powder room is in the back hall and shares a wall with our breakfast room. You can't hear a flush and barely hear the exhaust fan. Ours is 3' 4" wide; no problem.

I'd add the powder room! Can you change the window to the side, not the front?
kermit4777
Original Author
12 years ago
I could reverse them, but then is it strange to have the toilet RIGHT on the other side of the dining room? (And to have it across from the front entry door?) And, it'd mean no mirror above the sink.

I'm hesitant to do the pocket door for sound and privacy reasons. A swing in door absolutely won't work (no room to turn around to close it).

The window is a high window about 5 feet off the ground and only 2' x 2'. It'll have a decorative stained glass insert that you won't be able to see through. It's already all framed in - no changing it now!
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Yes that's what I mean. It's exasperating! They waltz right past the bathroom and wash their grubby hands and then flick the water all over. Gah. I have been working on that issue for years and they aren't clueing in. Yesterday dh backed me up when again there they were at the sink and I said THAT MEANS YOU TOO. His jaw dropped, lol. My sink, MY SINK for food prep people. Get outta my space with those dirty hands! I think your long counter is in a perfect spot. It's close enough to be useful but it's not IN the kitchen per se. Thumbs up to that! Mine is more in the back entry and it's not as convenient. You certainly can put a utility sink in the garage - but I don't know about winter time if there would be a span of weather that you couldn't use it - here that would be the case unless there is a way to insulate it. Definitely would want it on an inside wall at the least. I think you need to evaluate what exactly you plan to use that W/D for and if you will be doing a lot of soaking or if that stuff would go upstairs to the other W/D and how frequently you'll be using this one. I have a utility sink by my W/D - had to fight for it as our bath is near and hubby thought it wasteful but when you have someone sick in the night or stains that need extra soaking it's 100% worth it to me. That is my humble opinion. That one time one of them had the flu in my mind made it worth the extra cost. I don't want that soaking in my sink - and they aren't deep enough anyway.
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If you want an entry area, put up a wall and have one. We have a home now where someone knocked out the wall between the nice entry and the living room and we basically put the wall back with a shoe bench and shelf arrangement (freestanding because we didn’t want to do construction work) because it just flows better that way. We also just looked at another house which we decided not to go for after much deliberation in part because if we opened it up to get much needed space, we’d end up with a big box with the front door entering right into everything, like a small apartment layout. Houses, especially houses with kids and lots of visitors, need some way to control the flow of traffic and direct people to where they should take off coats and boots and what have you. If you have room for a mud room, great, but if not - entry area is a necessity, IMO. And people are going to be beyond bored with HGTV style everything probably sooner rather than later - next year or the year after it’ll be some other designer and they will be putting walls up because everyone is sick of open plan and always being on display while cooking. If this is your forever home then do what you like and what feels good to you, not what’s popular on HGTV. (If you were going to flip the house then I might be saying something different.) Personally, if my front door were that close to my kitchen, I’d really really really want some kind of wall for privacy. Who wants all your mid-meal cooking mess to be on display to anyone who comes to the door?
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kirkhall
12 years ago
This is totally doable. It might mean a shallower than normal sink base cabinet (like one of those 12" ones, with the sink out on top), or even a corner sink. But, you need to do it! And, the return for having that extra 1/2 bath alone will be worth a modification or 2.
Don't use an elongated toilet (use round bowl), and use a compact sink base.
Go for it!
kirkhall
12 years ago
The point about reversing their layout--you would also be able to reverse the bathroom door swing. This would be better for 2 reasons. If the door gets left too far open, opening the front door will simply close the bathroom one. Secondly, then, your view, if open too far, from the LR will be of the sink, and not the toilet. I agree that a pocket door would be optimal, but if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit (I wouldn't worry so much about sound in that instance. You can get a more solid pocket door).
kermit4777
Original Author
12 years ago
kirkhall, that's a good point. We had also talked about reversing the entry door swing with various layouts.

Given that we have a window on that side, what about a mirror above the vanity (I've never seen one without a mirror)? I wouldn't be able to put one in because it's right where the window is (no changing that window).
kirkhall
12 years ago
If you had a corner sink, you could put it on the other wall (the "side" wall).
kirkhall
12 years ago
The other thing I want to point out once more is, if the choice is no 1/2 bath or 1/2 bath; it is well worth it to move your framed 2x2 window to the side wall to get the 1/2 bath. The minor cost of moving the window compared to the value of an extra 1/2 bath in a 1 bath house is minimal.
A H
2 years ago
This sounds similar to what I want to do but I can’t see your pictures. How did the half bath turn out?

Half bath off front entry or none? (layout help)

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chisue

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Half bath off front entry or none? (layout help)

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chisue

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