Don't you want windows on the back of the house to see the backyard?

Hi robin,

I guess the picture isn't clear, but the master suite is at the back of the house, so there are windows there! lol...

Also, I forgot to mention that the outside walls slope to 6'11, so we are keeping the heads of beds etc. along those walls. Also trying to keep toilets or tubs on the outside walls where a lower ceiling height will have less impact.

Good idea to shift the doors and closets a bit to make Bedroom 2 a bit wider. Split the difference and both of the bedrooms would be ~10+' wide. Still a small bedroom, but more reasonable.

As for the bathroom/laundry area, it can stay basically the same. The laundry area can be 2 feet wider which would allow you to have double doors or a bifold door for a more reach in type. You then have the option of unstacking the W/D to spread them out a bit or leave stacked, but now you have extra room for more cabinets/shelves/folding area/etc.

I'd also opt for only 1 sink in the kids bathroom. My girls have two sinks now and one just collects dust. We are building and opted for 1 sink and extra storage instead. My girls even said that it was a much better idea.

Check with your designer/contractor if you can place the bedroom 1 door at the stairs and still have stairs headroom (shifting door to the left creating a little nook for door). If this is possible, extend wall between stairs and bedroom 1 to bedroom 2 wall.

Center bedroom 1 closet so both rooms have the same width. Now closet one should be wider.
Make bedroom 2 closet shorter, and place door at that space, just across the new location of bedroom 1 door.

Thanks cpartist,

answers below...

other one flushes, the sleeping person may hear it. Can it be moved to the opposite wall?

- yes! totally doing it. hubbie thought of that one too. He has a 'thing' about toilets and would love to pretend that they don't exist....

Also do you really want your linen closet in the room you do your, um, business?

- well, no. But it seems like a good way to use up some space. I imagine it full of toilet paper and cleaning supplies more than sheets etc. Would you just leave the space empty?

How old are your kids?

- 2 girls, 6 and 8yrs old.

I would do a single sink with extra storage in the kid's bath. You'll find the extra storage is more important.

- i think that is a good idea too. I believe that our designer just drew 2 sinks to indicate that we want the longer cabinet. I am thinking that a wide sink with faucets might be great for them. Then they could each have a bank of drawers or something flanking the sink.

decrease the size of bedroom 2 from 13 to 11 ft,

- Depending on how the bathroom/laundry lays out, I might be able to give back a bit more space. I would love to give them each enormous rooms, but not at the expense of anything else. Right now they have single beds and if that is what they have until they leave home then so be it. I slept in a single until I left home. Believe it or not, these are BIG kid rooms in our neighborhood, houses here are pretty small. We had to work really hard to use skylight exclusions and the sloping ceiling to get the square footage upstairs that we do have. With 2 girls, I also have to keep in mind to try and keep the rooms a similar size or I would be hearing about it forever... :)

Naf naf,

I have a feeling that you are on to something, but I can't quite figure it out.... do you mean extending the wall between bedroom 1 and the stairs and having the door there?

I lost some walls etc. but here is a suggestion based on mine and others. At least make sure you have doors that covers the length of the reach in closets. Those corners becomes pretty useless very quickly otherwise.

Tarnator,
What I suggested is very similar to what Iyfia suggested. The difference is that I'd place a large closet in bed 1 and a smaller closet in bedroom 2 (by the door, just where you have it now, but smaller).

Here's what I'd do for the master bath. I do like what Lyfia did for the second bath, and bedrooms.

woah, thanks lyfia!

...as an aside, what program are you using to change this? I can't do anything except with pencil and paper. Posting my original pic took me all evening... :)

I love the idea of gaining a bit more room space for my girls, but I am hesitating about losing some light over the stairs. We will have a skylight over that zone (as well as in the master closet, kids bathroom and our bathroom.) I am going to shoot the idea over to our GC and designer though, so check the headroom clearance - it is worth looking at it.

cpartist,

I do like that master bath reconfigure, I think DH will like it too. Good ideas on here... Thanks.

I would do a single sink with extra storage in the kid's bath. You'll find the extra storage is more important.

I was going to say the same thing. Duplicate sinks are of dubious value anywhere, but one of these sinks is right in front of the door, so someone standing at that sink would be subject to a "door thumping". An open-front linen closet or linen tower (open front to avoid conflicts with the door) would be more valuable in this space.

I had a tall, thin linen tower like this in a bathroom once, and it held an amazing amount of stuff.

In fact, I'd do the same thing in the master bath. It's a small space (smaller than the girls' bath, I think), and the storage would be welcome in that area too.

With a width of only 9' 2 1/2" that will feel more like a closet than a
bedroom. It would work fine as an office, a nursery for a year or two or
a small sitting room, but for a growing child would not allow anything
larger than a twin bed, especially with your sloping ceilings.

As much as I think your laundry room needs more space, I have to agree. 9 1/2' is awfully small. It would be small-but-manageable for a teen, but if you're planning on staying in this house, you'll run into a problem in the future: If you want to set this room up for your adult child (and spouse), you really won't be able to put in even a queen-sized bed.

Could you remove the closet from Bedroom 1 ... and instead give Bedroom 1 a small L-shaped closet above the stairs? If you could do that, adding 2' of width to Bedroom 2, then I'd say yes -- widen the bathroom. And it would make the two bedrooms equal.

- yes! totally doing it. hubbie thought of that one too.
He has a 'thing' about toilets and would love to pretend that they don't
exist....

I find toilet-squeamishness quite odd.

- 2 girls, 6 and 8yrs old.

Yes, trust another two-girl mother: You'll want bathroom storage.

- Depending on how the bathroom/laundry lays out, I might be able to
give back a bit more space. I would love to give them each enormous
rooms,

I don't care about huge bedrooms for kids (well, for anyone, really), but I do like good-sized storage. With good storage, kids can keep their rooms clean.

My thoughts:

- I'm not in the camp of "the laundry can never be big enough!"; however, I think with a four-person family, you need more space. In our first house we had a laundry closet in the kitchen ... and it had no space for "waiting loads". So where'd they end up? Stacked in front of the door in my kitchen. In this house, that means you'd step over them to reach your master bedroom. If you could squeeze out a bit more space, you could stick with the stacking machines and allow for a small bit of storage:

I'd increase the size of the doors on your girls' closets ... or go with sliders instead of hinge doors. Why? Because wider doors will allow them better access to the corners of the closets, which -- otherwise -- could become deep, dark caves of clutter.

I'm surprised no one's mentioned walking through the closet to reach the bathroom. I see that it's kind of what's possible ... since this is also open to the bedroom (I'm doing that too), I'd place a set of drawers with a mirror above them directly in front of the closet door ... this'd make for a pretty sight line into the closet.

I agree with most of what everyone has said except for the 2 sinks. KEEP the 2 sinks. I have 4 girls (13,13,11,8) Trust me you will want 2 sinks as they get older and are getting ready at the same time in the mornings. I understand that storage is important. In-wall built in storage mirrors work very well with girls and their stuff. I have put them in 2 of the 3 custom homes I've built. I love them.

I would lean more towards lyfia's master bath compared to cpartist. Rationale for that would be that sinks will run for shorter duration than shower so less noise compared to when someone is taking shower.

Also if you mean to have 1 sink in other bath make sure architect draws one sink and rest plain counter or storage above counter, because plumbers/electricians take these plans seriously and they will run lines etc as per plan and bid for it as per plan. More clarity on plans more better it is for you.

If you put storage near the door, issue would be about switches, there does not seem to be enough space for switches unless you go for narrow storage. The storage solution from mrspete's photo could leave little to no space for switches.

I would lean more towards lyfia's master bath compared to cpartist. Rationale for that would be that sinks will run for shorter duration than shower so less noise compared to when someone is taking shower.

Of course that would also depend on when one showers. Both DH and I like to shower before dinnertime so having the shower on the same wall as our bedroom wouldn't be an issue. Of course if your DH wakes up early and showers, it might be an issue, but then again, I've never had a problem with the sound of running water, just a toilet flushing.

@cpartist, I agree with what you are saying and that would work for you and family. But when I read OP saying they are "shift workers" I assumed that there are chances that they might be on opposing schedule at some point in time.

Personally to me none of those sounds are a problem.

jimpats, I agree it was a point worth bringing up. Was just throwing out another idea to show that the OP really needs to think it all through for how it works best for the two of them.

Well, now I don't know where to start!

First - does anyone think that having the shower on the outside wall would be too low for comfort? That is one of the reasons we wanted it on the inside wall. We are not tall, but any future buyer might be...

Next, there is no way that I could even conceive of moving a spouse into the kid's rooms!!!! If they still need to live with us a that point, I would reconfigure the basement as a suite. I want to give them a decent sized room with the potential to put in a double bed, I can't plan that far ahead!

Yes, I do think that our own bathroom is a bit too small - I would like a bit more storage, so I think that we will steal from the closet which I do think is too large for us.

Mrs Pete - "I'm surprised no one's mentioned walking through the closet to reach the bathroom." I too am surprised that no one has raked me over the coals for this! lol...! It might have been your set-up that gave me a bit of this idea...

And point noted about getting things right on the actual drawing. I am going to get that double sink changed to a single and fix some of the doors on the closets etc. Our designer is on holiday right now, so I am not getting any instant responses. you guys are WAY faster...

....hey! I also just noticed that I can't see anywhere to hang towels in our master bathroom... drat...

I agree with most of what everyone has said except for the 2 sinks. KEEP
the 2 sinks. I have 4 girls (13,13,11,8) Trust me you will want 2 sinks
as they get older and are getting ready at the same time in the
mornings

If the OP had four girls in one bathroom, I'd agree with two sinks ... but she has two girls. One sink is plenty for two kids to share.

Next, there is no way that I could even conceive of moving a spouse into
the kid's rooms!!!! If they still need to live with us a that point, I
would reconfigure the basement as a suite. I want to give them a decent
sized room with the potential to put in a double bed, I can't plan that
far ahead!

I mentioned that the room wouldn't be big enough for a queen sized bed ... but I wasn't thinking about a spouse moving in -- I was thinking of them visiting you as adults.

I think that we will steal from the closet which I do think is too large for us.

I'm no clothes horse, but I don't think this closet is large at all -- not when it appears that you won't have a dresser in the bedroom.

Hmmm, looking back at the plan again, I just noticed that your toilet closet is only 33" wide. You really ought to mock that space up with cardboard boxes and see just how narrow that is.

If the OP had four girls in one bathroom, I'd agree with two sinks ... but she has two girls. One sink is plenty for two kids to share.

Agree with mrspete.

I'm no clothes horse, but I don't think this closet is large at all -- not when it appears that you won't have a dresser in the bedroom.

I disagree with mrspete here as my closet in my condo was 7' 5" and it was plenty large enough. I had a 42" 4 drawer dresser in the closet too.

Hmmm, looking back at the plan again, I just noticed that your toilet closet is only 33" wide. You really ought to mock that space up with cardboard boxes and see just how narrow that is.

I personally wouldn't want a toilet closet smaller than 36" wide.

If the OP had four girls in one bathroom, I'd agree with two sinks ... but she has two girls. One sink is plenty for two kids to share.

I don't have 4 sharing one bathroom. I currently have 2 sharing one and 2 sharing another. My point was that I have a lot of girls, and feel pretty well versed in their needs in this area. Obviously OP can do what works best for her family.

In our new build they each have their own.

I see nothing wrong with 2 girls sharing one sink. I shared one sink with my two sisters growing up and somehow we all survived and learned some lessons about...sharing. What was missing in our bathroom growing up was extra storage for all our "stuff" which is why extra storage is better than an extra sink.

And it's great that you have the ability in your new build to give each child their own private bathroom, but not everyone can or wants to, especially if they're the ones cleaning the bathrooms.