I have an almost 400sq ft master bedroom including master bath in a two bedroom, 1500 sq ft house. I have a three person jetted tub, a five foot shower with seat, a 55" single vanity. and a separate wc. It's big enough so I can have my dresser in the bathroom containing my underwear/basic wear. So when I wake up in the morning, I can go take my shower, get out of the shower, dry off and put on my basics. Turn around, blow dry my hair, put on my make up. All without ever having to turn on a light in the bedroom and without disturbing my husband who probably is still asleep. I spend at least 25 minutes every morning in my bathroom. One of my must haves during the design was ample space for my hair dryer, brushes and straightener. I want to be able to dry my hair while having my straightener turned on and heating up and I need a dedicated spot for that. At night, my 3 year old can comfortable splash in the tub, recreating a scene from godzilla with dinosaurs and boats while I relax in my recliner and whatch tv, while also keeping an eye on the kiddo because I do not have a door to my bathroom. After the kiddo is in bed, if I want to I can take a nice long soak while watching House Hunters. My master bath is massive in relation to the size of my house, but you know what? So what. It's not "fantasy living". I don't have to live with a child bothering me or knocking on the door, I'm not wasting any space. I spend a lot of time in my bathroom and I enjoy every minute of it. I'm not wasting any space. I don't have marble tile, I have soft, non slip luxury vinyl plank. I have a regular, plain old shower instead of a custom tiled shower. We only have one child. We don't entertain. We don't have a million overnight guests. If I had build 3 bedrooms, I would have one completely empty room that would never get used for anything except maybe some boxes. I don't even have furniture for a third bedroom. But the resale value!!! Who cares? I am not selling. Instead I built a massively oversize bedroom for the one child. If he wants sleepovers, he'll have plenty of room for all of his friends without having to break out an air mattress in the living room. And he can keep all of his toys in his room. I hate toys in the living room. Everyone advised us on this kid friendly feature and that kid friendly feature. Uhm...he's only 3 for one year of his life. So no. I'm not going with a Mickey Mouse light fixture and miniature urinal, things that were recommended to us in all seriousness during our build. Moral of the story. Make your bathroom any damn size you want. It's your bathroom.

Deb, one question that I haven't heard yet is, is your library-media room the main gathering/ tv watching in your home? It's a really lovely room (actually every room you've shown us is lovely). I'm so impressed with the gorgeous bookcases your DH built. I see that you have steps down to this room, which would mean that you'd be carrying platters and bowls of food, plates, glasses, etc, down those steps for every meal that you serve in there, as your new dining room. It's only two steps, but you need to seriously think about whether this would become a real irritant after a while, let alone a possible tripping danger. Unfortunately, having the steps would make it near to impossible to move the wall between the present dining room and library, to give you more space in the dining room. That would have been ideal . . . if it was possible. More questions and thoughts: ~do you have a family room or living room that you can move the tv into comfortably? ~ what do you and your DH actually need the most, a home office or a butler's pantry? ~ With both rooms having wide doorways that open into it, instead of actual doors that you can close off, will you be happy seeing a desk and other office things in full view from your kitchen (which is lovely, BTW)? Friends and family will be passing through it getting from your kitchen to the new dining room. ~ If you turn it into a butler's pantry, are you willing to set it up nicely enough so as not to detract from your kitchen or your new dining room? ~ another idea to consider is to just incorporate the present dining room into the kitchen with, perhaps, built-in cabs to house your nice serving pieces, china and crystal in glass-fronted cabs with closed cabs below for storing what ever you need. You could set up a seating area on that side, too, and/or a secretary desk and chair that you can close up when company arrives for a meal. Personally, I think that turning your present dining room into a sitting room, would be a wasted space, that probably wouldn't be used all that much. But, that's JMHO. Anyhoo, just some other things to think about. Lynn

"Looks like you did it without spending anything too." Bingo! The only thing we bought was the fireplace screen, about $35 at Lowes. [sidenote: how impossible is it to find these thing in stores these days! catalog only, almost. Home Depot doesn't even carry them anymore. I didn't like the ones at Target. I never made it to a fireplace shop, but I didn't want a nice (ie expensive) one anyway. ] Oh, and the tree, but we would have bought one anyway. The good thing is that we have a 9-month-old puppy who will eat the tree and everything on it if given the chance, so being able to shut the French doors is necessary -- but we can still see the tree. The rest of the house is much less decorated (due to dog), but at least we have a riot of crap in one room! ;-)

Depends upon your interior load bearing walls or whether or not you can add to a room and increase the footprint of your home. In my view, you do not need a "formal" dining room, but if you entertain at all -- even just family or special occasions, it's a good idea to have a very specific dining space that accommodates the size crowd you have -- even if it means seating children at a bar or adjacent drop leaf table -- rather than having only a "dining nook" in and part of either the kitchen or the living room. I like the idea of an "L" shaped great room so the living room guests cannot see the kitchen at work but those guests moving into the dining room and near the dividing cabinet/bar would be able to socialize -- without actually being in the kitchen in the way or getting a close up view of dirty pots and pans or dishes ... because There would be a room dividing cabinet/bar w/overhead cabinets with class doors on both sides. That overhead cabinet with glass doors would hold glass items -- mostly clear drinking glasses but perhaps a cut glass pitcher and/or some colored glass candy dishes and/or candle holders w/candles -- something both useful and decorative. All the kitchen cabinets would have doors solid so you'd not have a constant struggle to keep all cabinets neat enough for displaying what's behind them. A guest powder room could be accessible from a mud room -- with pretty much wall to wall, floor to ceiling cabinets, including a closet for washer and dryer. The mudroom could b e adjacent to the kitchen accessible via a door beside that room dividing cabinet and also lead to a sun room or a porch or a deck or a patio so the entertaining can be indoor/outdoor..