Well, I could totally live with that bathroom, but more closet space would be nice. But mainly, given that I have kids, I would want a proper laundry room with room for a sink and room to store the detergent, stain remover, etc. maybe you could leave room for a laundry chute, at least for sending laundry down to the basement? And hey, why not finish part of the basement for it?

The secondary bath looks minimal, but I totally agree that the master bath is just too small.

The agree that the first thing I'd do is lose the double sinks. The vanity isn't wide enough to support two sinks, and in that space I can't imagine two of you standing there together in that tiny spot at the same time. Plus, downsizing to a single sink will allow you space for drawers underneath and/or a tall, thin linen tower ... which, actually, could provide a nice divider between the vanity and toilet; I could imagine it opening to one side to hold extra toilet paper and to the other side to hold toiletries needed by the sink.

Even if you move the laundry to the basement, I don't see how you could get a tub and separate shower into this space.

Could you use the space above the stairwell? I'm wondering if you could have an L-shaped bath ... walk in and straight across /above the stairwell could be a good-sized shower ... and this leaves the sink and toilet to the other side of the L.

However, I would HATE the laundry in the basement. Carrying every basket up and down not one but two flights of stairs? No thanks. Of course, the laundry isn't much where it is -- no storage space, and you'll always have piles of clothes in the hallway. I don't like either option.

Honestly, I think the answer is, You just don't have enough square footage here. Do you need three bedrooms? Could you make the current master bath into a nice-sized walk-in closet ... and sacrifice the corner bedroom, making it into a comfortable master bath AND laundry? Without knowing your family make-up, I don't know whether that's do-able or not.

I agree with Mrs Pete..,there just isn't enough sq ft to do what you want here. What if you moved one of the guest bedrooms to the basement (if there are windows)?

You gain more square footage but it is all in length. I had this same dilemma with my new build and I thought about it a long time but really the added length did not help what I saw was the problem with the bathroom.

You could potentially make a wet room - with a tub and shower both at the end there. Otherwise, you just space your current layout apart more, which may not really help things (which is what I concluded.)

Agree with one sink.

Beachaus I · More Info

I would vote for laundry in the basement. We hang/drip dry a lot of clothing so it makes sense to me.

Are you able to reconfigure the closet and opening to the bathroom? I don't particularly care for the way the closet currently is laid out with the 2 doors. If you change to a walk-in closet at the top, then bath entry, might you have room for a soaking tub by the window?

Good luck!

Well, it seems a small thing now but........ originally our laundry was planned into the basement just for that reason, then we thought about it. We ended up moving things around up stairs enough to accommodate the laundry room, where we all live. Even with a chute you'll still have to carry baskets of clean stuff back upstairs unless you put in a dumbwaiter. That's about the last thing I want to do on the stairs especially with a lot of laundry (kids). You can do it but it's like purposely building the home without thought. I know a lot of people have basement laundry rooms and I would bet pretty much all of them would wish for a laundry room on the same floor as they live (unless a finished used basement w/bedrooms). We actually ended up doing 2 laundry rooms as we plan to move the kids downstairs when they're old enough, DW doesn't want to have to use the stairs and is a proponent of kids doing they're own laundry.

If your building a new house that's a big sacrifice to functionality which is what most of us strive for in a home. Resale may suffer for it also.

Thanks for the comments thus far.

I can reconfigure the master closet. Maybe that helps. I have two young kids; boy/girl, so I need the two other bedrooms upstairs. I do not think reconfiguring the stairs is an option. It is a small house, so it is very likely that there's just not enough square footage to work with. Down the road I'd like to finish the basement maybe with a guest bedroom and game room, but that probably wouldn't be for another five years or so.

The wet room thing is cool, but beyond my budget for sure.

I need to get actual measurements. The master bath or my current rental is long and narrow, but it is probably larger than the new house.

I'm with mrspete - can you go over the stair well? That would give you the space you need to get a tub and shower in the master bath. To make it function better layout wise you could split the master closet into two separate ones and enter the bath in between them.

I would really try to keep the laundry on that floor. Ours has been moved from the basement to the main level off the kitchen and we are about to re-do the master bath to get it up to that level. There are just two of us and I despise taking clothes down and up, when everything is basically in one room upstairs.

I would also look at loosing that awkward angled wall in the left bedroom. The only thing gained is a lil bit of hall space, which could be better utilized in a closed in the bedroom.

If your kids are 4 yrs or older, their job can be to carry a hamper down at least one flight, and carry their own laundry back up (my mom put our clean clothes in our designated dish pans)

Since you are probably downstairs more during the day, having it in the basement where you can easily take care of every aspect of laundry, including soaking, drip-dry, and sorting, might be easier.

I think your bathroom as it is (with one sink) is just fine. You may rather have that laundry closet as a storage closet.

No, no one's suggesting reconfiguring the stairs -- if you launch into that project, it really is time to just choose another plan. Moving stairs means massive re-engineering, which would not be worthwhile when other small plans are available.

What we're suggesting is using the space ABOVE the stairs. This would remove the open, airy feeling of the staircase ... but it would give you more liveable space in an otherwise too-small upstairs.

Here's a website with step-by-step pictures of a couple guys "taking in" that space. Obviously you wouldn't do it later; you'd have it included with the original build, but this gives you an idea of what type of space we're discussing:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Turn-an-Empty-Stairwell-into-a-Storage-Loft/

Consider the poorly-drawn layout I've sketched below. The bedrooms are untouched. This makes the current kid's bathroom into a larger closet for you ... takes in the space over the stairs to allow you a slightly-larger-but-still-simple bath; you could probably have a small linen closet next to the vanity ... and relocates the kids' bathroom. I think the proportions in the kids' bathroom may be problematic -- it's just a rough sketch.

Of course, this does nothing to address your initial concerns about the laundry. Perhaps you could go with a small stack-up machine INSIDE the kids' bath? Perhaps a stack-up machine where I placed the toilet, move the toilet over to the other side of the room. I'm thinking this room would be about 7' wide -- it took in a basic bath PLUS your closet -- so that might be enough to have a small machine in that room.

Then you could build a larger, nicer laundry in the basement eventually ... but still have the small, stack-up machine handy for small, quick loads. Perhaps this could be the best of both worlds -- or as close as can be in a small space?

Off topic: Is a wet room 'specially expensive? Why?

Wet room - not "specially expensive" but more expensive than a tub/shower combo would be.

Instead of a freestanding tub you could do a tub with a skirt for the tub part and you could do a raised platform to save money. You're not going to want to do a builders grade 14" deep tub anyway. But that still leaves you with something like 7K for the tiling and 3K for the glass. Prices vary depending on region and finishes etc. This was my experience anyway, and too much for me to spend on the guest bath.

Ah, that's sensible. I can see that a wet room is more expensive than a standard shower-over-tub, yet not out-of-the-water expensive like some other options. Definitely more tile. Thanks for the clarification.

I'm a light sleeper so the vibration and noise from a laundry on the same floor would drive me nuts. Closet-laundry rooms also mean that the mess/piles of laundry congregate on the floor. Also, what happens when your front-loader washing machine inevitably screws up its cycle and pours water all over the floor when you open the door? (Happened in my rental, sooo glad it was just a basic concrete floor, cause MAN, was that a lot of water!)

I too like to hang laundry to dry, so a damp-tolerant surface underneath is a good thing.

I find vertically stacked machines un-ergonomic - esp alternating between reaching up (too) high, and then reaching down to retrieve clothes later.

Unless it's an accessible home and the laundry has to be on the same floor, i'd rather carry loads up and down the stairs, and have a larger bedroom.

To free up space in our kitchen, we moved our laundry from the first floor and placed it in a separate closet in the Master Bedroom sitting area which we absolutely love.! (It was our only option.) For resale purposes, we are going to put another laundry area in the basement for teenagers or adult children who do their own laundry and and therefore won't need to come through the master bedroom. Hopefully having 2 laundry areas will be a selling feature for buyers.

Can you fit the laundry on the first floor?

Even without the laundry, it's a small space. It will give you a lot more storage to move the laundry downstairs....and you'll get a larger closet, too :)

If you decide to put the laundry room in the basement have you thought about adding a laundry chute? We are considering this idea for the upstairs bedroom/bathroom. It will be less laundry to carry downstairs and then you only have to carry up clean items.

So my home is almost complete now. I ended up moving the laundry to the basement and having a walk in closet in my master. I'm happy with the way it turned out. After seeing the space there wouldn't have been enough room in the upstairs hallway for the laundry anyway.