Cpate's tone may have been a bit snarky but his calculation of the available floor space does help me understand WHY I've been having fits trying to arrange OP's desired rooms into the available space and move the second bathroom next to the front bedroom. And why there didn't seem to be any space available for a decent sized closet for the front bedroom. I can't see the dimensions so was just trying to move things around using cut and paste in Paint and another 100 to 150 sq ft might have make all the difference. LOL! Okay, given that the mechanicals serve the upstairs living space and have to remain where they are; and given the actual square footage of the apartment, and that you've decided the apartment can share hot water from the boiler; here is the best redesign I've been able to come up with.... This moves the doorway to the second bath away from the kitchen and tucks the toilet down a hallway and around a corner so it isn't visible from the front door or from the living room area. Note that if the bathroom door were left standing open, guests would still be able to see the tub from a small portion of the living room are but a pretty shower curtain would make that not too objectionable. And not being able to see the toilet itself give the bathroom a much greater sense of privacy. Because of how narrow the little hallway will be, it might be best to simply use a pretty curtain to hide the washer/dryer. For now I've shown a regular door but honestly, I'm not sure it would be possible to move the washer and dryer into the closet and hook them up if there is a door. Would be a good idea to check with whoever has to install the washer/dryer before putting up a door. If you have room for a door on the W/D closet, that door would have to be kept closed except when someone was actually loading the washer or dryer to avoid blocking the bathroom. I know it is not ideal to have such door conflicts but... I also rearranged the back bath, the walk-in closet, and the door to the back bedroom in order to make the walk-in closet accessible from the hallway. I think having it there makes more sense if you want to be able to rent the apartment to room-mates. The reason is that the front bedroom's only closet is very very small. (in fact, while I can't quite read the dimensions, it may not even be drawn 24" deep inside and, if not, you need to make it a bit deeper. Clothing needs 24 inches - wall to wall.) Assuming that the closet IS actually deep enough, it still is only 4 ft wide. Meanwhile the back bedroom has a reach-in closet that is more than twice as wide, plus (as originally drawn) it would also have a second walk-in closet. In a room-mate rental situation, that would be pretty unfair and the room-mate with the back bedroom would probably HAVE to agree to share part of his/her closet space. But, with the walk-in closet accessible from the hallway, the room mate taking the front bedroom COULD be assigned part or all of the the walk-in closet to even out the storage space. This might not be ideal but it would be better than having one room-mate have almost no closet space at all while the other has tons of storage. And, if the apartment is rented to a couple who share the back bedroom and use the front room as an office, it would be not really be a problem for one of them to keep their clothes in the closet accessed from the hall. Or, they might decide to use the walk-in closet as a storage pantry. Notice also that I made the vanity in the back bathroom a bit smaller so that the walk-in closet could be bigger. Where space is tight, I would not use a vanity larger than 36 inches wide. That plus a storage cabinet over the toilet should give space enough for two people to store all their bath stuff. Swapping the bath and walk-in closet also means that, if you want to, you can put a window into the back bathroom which would be really nice. And if you move the door down as shown, there should still be room for a small (3 ft wide) chest-of-drawers on the wall between the bedroom door and the bathroom door without having to make one of the doors really narrow. I don't know about using frosted glass doors on the front bedroom/office. I think that might make it hard to sleep in the front bedroom if one's room-mate had lights on in the kitchen and/or living area at night. Maybe if there were roller shades on the frosted glass that the room mate could roll down at night. If I were renting, I'd also be concerned about having the head of my bed up against the wall with the boiler right on the other side. Don't those things make quite a bit of noise? It might be better to go ahead and tear out that "chimney breast" so that the head of the bed could go up there instead. Given that NY has real winters with lots of snow and rain, and that I understand people in Manhattan mostly walk or take public transportation to get around, I think I would want a closet near the front door to store galoshes, hats, gloves, coats, umbrellas, etc. So I sketched one in. It does make the living room a bit smaller but, so long as meals tend to be eaten at the bar so that you don't really need a dining table, the living room is still a good size. Or, you could cut out the entry closet if you prefer. Or, thinking about it now that I've already uploaded my image to Photobucket; it might actually be better to move the W/D out to take up 1/2 of the entry closet and use the space where I show the W/D as a linen and broom closet. Easier to get the W/D in and hooked up... but you would have to run plumbing lines further. At least this maybe gives you some ideas. Good luck with your project.

My wife and I had shopped for months trying to decide between quartz or granite. We settled on Cambria Quartz in Parys blue. We had seen small samples of our color but never a complete slab. When our slabs were ready to be cut, we were notified that there were black spots throughout the slabs. We drove the 60 miles to see what they were talking about. There were dime size black splotches throughout the slabs and was told this is normal for our color. This was the first we had heard of this. This was unacceptable and decided to wait for the next shipment to arrive in a month or 2. So the new tops have not come in yet and we are not sure what will happen when they arrive. My biggest fear is that all the countertops will have flaws in them which will lead us to maybe switching to granite. We had no idea that there would be flaws in quartz countertops. The big selling point for quartz is the no sealing and the uniform consistency between slabs of the same color.

Rouan, thanks for the ID. I think my mother-in-law told me the same thing, but to me it will be the cheeseburger bird. It must know I've been complaining about it for years and went away as I haven't heard it yet this spring. It's replacement is a bird that sounds like a slow machine gun. eh..eh..eh..eh..eh This site is nice for listening to bird songs, though it may be limited to birds of North America. It isn't terribly helpful if you don't know what the bird is as you are limited to guessing. My son and I did ID the "zebra" bird at our feeder which turned out to be a black & white warbler. Here is a link that might be useful: Bird guide

Let's see - gardening rules I break all the time: - I plant my roses far too close together and I actually want them to intermingle - I interplant with a wide variety of other plants, when "everyone knows" rose gardens can only contain roses (smile) - I don't prune below the first 5 leaf nodule or some such foolishness - if it looks dead or is in my way I cut it back as much as I feel like - I don't spray anything - I don't fuss over them - I don't use products specifically designed (or priced) for roses, but buy my fertilizer at the hardware store and huge bales of alfalfa at the farm supply store - I don't worry about bugs or diseases and make them shape up or ship out - I put colors next to each other that aren't supposed to go together, most of the time by accident but I'm too lazy to move them - I buy roses from anyone and everyone that has quality plants to sell, including big box stores if that applies - I overwinter roses that aren't supposed to grow in my climate - I kill roses that are supposed to be perfectly hardy for me And gardening rules that I keep, most of the time - I find joy in the small things in the garden, and try to see the roses more than the bugs, blackspot or sweat dripping off my nose - I share that joy with anyone who expresses even a passing interest in any of the above - I bring bouquets all the time to friends and neighbors even though I rarely cut them for myself - I bring my kids out into the garden to enjoy nature, including the cool bugs - I get a kick out of helping newbies learn that roses aren't that hard to grow - I don't expect perfection - If I don't feel like getting out to the garden for some strange reason I take a break - I try to spend as much time stretching back out as I do bending over - I remember to hang out on my swing or hammock and gaze out proudly over the garden (however ratty it may look) and sigh, "Dang, I love gardening" Cynthia