Solie wrote that having the kids bedrooms downstairs and the master upstairs would be a problem. People don't want their children sleeping below them. WRONG! Or at least he/she didn't consult me. My master bedroom is on the main level. I have everything I needhe on the main level and do not need to deal with steps. My kids bedroom were on the walk-out level. We moved in when the youngest was about 6. Personally, I wouldn't want them ABOVE me, hearing them walk and making noise. And I LOVE having the privacy on the main floor. I don't know how other married couples get their romance time in when their bedrooms are in such close proximity to the kiddies! That's one thing I always check out when looking at blueprints. As long as the nursery days are behind us I want seperate bedroom space.

I know you will hate me for this, but please understand my view point. I am an old house LOVER! I also spent twenty years as a banker trying to talk people into understanding that their future home purchase had to be about love....and practicality. When you are in love with a house you think that the fact that it slapped around the last owners was likely because they were bad owners...they probably deserved it because they didn't do the maintenance you would do to keep it in check. You justify the little issues like the third eye as something minor instead of realizing that a third eye is not actually a normal thing and will require some seriously expensive custom lenses. You turn a wet basement into a couple puddles.... Ten years,..no lets make it five if you get the house....if you find that my pessimistic attitude was totally incorrect and your home turned out to be perfect beyond compare...please tell me I am wrong so I can learn a lesson. But if on the other hand my gazillion years of trying to make people understand that they should buy a home they love....but should equally involve their brains and heart in the equation turns out to make some sense in your potential chris brown like situation.....well be sure to share that valuable experience as well so that others can learn from you...and make light of your experience because "that will never happen to them". I tried to buy the egg and I farm as a young wife ohhhhh so many years ago thinking that a house with walls falling down and a tree growing in the living room just needed our tender and inexperienced care to bring it back.....the bank laughed...thank god!

How about: --Move the 13'9 wall "up" 1' to change the width of this bedroom from 11' to 10'. Then cut the long closet in it in half, with the right part remaining a closet. Remove the left part of the original closet wall so that you now have about a 6'6 wide alcove on this bedroom that's ~4' deep. --Now the other bedroom is 7'6 wide between the 5' knee wall and the 13'9 wall, which will be better with the 5' knee wall. We have a 6' knee wall next to a 6' dormer like yours. When the kids are up tomorrow afternoon when I get home, I'll measure things to see how I think it might feel and post again. --Make the new hall to this dormered bedroom 42" wide, with a wall parallel to the 12' wall of the 12'6 x 12' bedroom. (Could you label your next drawing bedrooms A, B, C, D to make things easier to identify?) ;0) Put a linen closet about 18" deep and 4'6 wide opposite the new laundry. "Below" that, make a 5'x4'6 closet for the bedroom to the right. Then use the space "below" it for another closet the same size for the dormered bedroom. It looks like you're trying to get the same square footage for each room, so you may want to juggle my suggestions around a little bit. If the new closet sizes seem too small, you could make the one for the 12'6x12' BR 4'6x10', make the alcove in the 13'9x10 BR a little narrower thus widening the closet, and make the dormered BR closet 7'6x4 between the 5' knee wall and the 13'9 wall. Hope this helps! Anne

whenicit, Thanks, but I need LOTS of help! The other advantage to the 2nd layout in BR1 is that the headboard is rather high and if I put it along the wall, it won't block the windows which would probably be better. I'll see about adding seating when I get the beds assembled. We may have room and it would give me a project to scour antique shops. That is what I'm planning on doing for a nightstand in the second bedroom. A little shabby/chic, beachy. I was going to look through some "Real Simple" magazines for inspiration. I'm not sure exactly what I want yet, but I though a "weathered" table, perhaps in a fun color, would go nicely with the iron bed. ajsmama, Thank you for the suggestion on BR1. I agree that swaping the nightstand is much better. On BR2, I think I could move the dresser closer to the door. The only think I actually don't like about the dresser in that position in general is that I'm not fond of the look of it from the side, but no mater how far forward or backward it is, I'm going to have that problem... Thanks for all you help! Jaymie