Is the top layout what you have now? Wondering how you get furniture into your the bedroom with that tight turn?

Thanks for your input, chartist. That's a good point about the shower/toilet use, but we have another bathroom 5 steps down the hall, so I'm not sure it will be a problem in real life. We currently only have one bathroom in our house (2 adults, 2 young kids), so anything is going to be a major upgrade!

I like the toilet and shower flipped, and had tried that in an earlier layout, but still had the pocket door, which would interfere with the plumbing for the shower. Without the door, I see that this could work. I'm concerned however about putting the plumbing for the toilet on the outside wall, as I've been told it's hard to insulate. How big does a water closet need to be? Did I read 36x60 is the absolute minimum? Maybe it's not even worth separating it. I liked the little room for toilet and shower, as we have hardwood throughout that space now, and I was thinking we could tile just the floor in that small room, rather than in front of the vanity as well.

I'm torn on the closet through the bathroom. Part of me thinks it will limit the noise myself or my husband makes while getting ready, as we won't have to come back through the bedroom. And honestly, we are trying to save space (like a builder I guess). We currently have about 1500sf on our first floor, 4 bed 1 bath, and we're adding dormers to our walkup attic to create 3 bedrooms and another bath. We're using 3 of the 4 bedrooms on the first floor to create a master suite and laundry room. But it's not like this is a big, high-end house. In the end, it will still be a modest cape...we just want it to work as efficiently as possible.

Here's the whole first floor layout for reference.

There is a lot of space used up for shelves and hanging. Are you sure you need that much storage? I think you could have a toilet room, bigger shower and tub in this space if you got rid of the extra shelving on the left.

You're right, Carolyn...it's definitely a big closet. I'm not sure I need ALL that space, but definitely want a decent amount, as my husband's and my clothes are spread all over the house at this point. Would be nice to have them in the same space. If you have thoughts on an alternate layout, I'm open to ideas! I just can't seem to get past this one that I have in my head, so I'm looking for some fresh thoughts.

Oh whoops, I didn't realize that was your master closet. I was envisioning a large wet room/locker room type situation with a bunch of hooks and shelves. lol. Let me think about alternatives including the closet!