Are two bedrooms really needed for an in-law addition? If this is truly for aging in place, I personally would prefer to make a master suite with ADA large master bath in the space taken by the two very small bedrooms.

Bathroom should be nearer the bedrooms not the other side of the flat

I agree with bathroom closer to bedroom. If you are trying to keep all plumbing on one side maybe put kitchen and living area along wall you enter with bedrooms across? One bedroom could be next to bathroom.

In designing a new home, the site and the client's needs are big factors. When designing an addition or remodeling of a home, the existing house, the site, and the owner's needs are the big factors with emphasis on the existing house. The many existing conditions of the house can be the driving factor in the design decisions for the addition/remodeling. Without knowing what the existing conditions are of the existing house, you are better off hiring a local architect that can investigate the existing conditions to come up with a proper design with you.

I agree that you need an architect to make sure this is done so that it works with the existing building. If this is for aging parents you should be looking at more aging in place design. The bathroom that far from bedroom makes no sense . I am wondering why 2 brs at all I see no entry into the laundry from the unit. Who is designing this space ?If you only had one BR then the plan would be easier to work with so I guess you need to share how important this 2nd bedroom is .

If you really need the two bedrooms then switch the bath and the kitchen locations . Put the bathroom at the entrance and make the bigger bedroom across on the other side of the entrance . The kitchen can also back to the bathroom and the dining area can be where you show the bath now . Either - ither !

Waiting for some answers now.

A large budget and an architect are both required. If either is lacking, figure out how to convert your dining room

to the MIL room.

Thank you so much for all the replies. This in law(ADU) would mainly used for rental to cover house cost in near futures. To reduce the impact between the old main unit and this new ADU, so I plan to put bedroom further from old unit.

As the school is pretty good and rental difference between 1 versus 2 bedroom, I will create it as 2 bedroom for sure. The design mainly want to keep original storage used as a laundrary room to reduce converting cost.

Maybe one bedroom can be more formal bedroom, another bedroom can be flexible without closet or even a real door. Another bedroom can be flexible as a small room and add barn door

Original storage room has a low ceiling 7'10'' and new construction are at 9'. the concrete floor of storage is lower too.If we need to make entrance from laundry to ADU, the ceiling and floor has to be redone. So we plan to let the access from outside

I am working with an architect and also my friend. we are having a hard time to get things out so far.

This is the original floorpan. blue area is new addition. width and length can be adjusted.

Ms Lana SnaggyI totally agree what bathroom should be closer to bedroom. I don't understand what you mean "put kitchen and living area along wall you enter with bedrooms across?" can you draw me your thoughts?

based on lefty47's suggestion, I drawed a new one. Is it better?

It is not that crazy.I have calculated that this investment make sense and annual rental is around 10% of the total cost. And the house will appreciate itself

As one of the other posters asked - are two bedrooms necessary? If not, I would take square footage from one of the bedrooms for additional living space and would make the remaining bedroom larger.

I have hired a licensed architect already. She gave out several plans but I hope to find some better ideas on floorpan. I am not here to argue with you

I am not sure how other architect works. I feel I can not let architect change her design everyday so I am trying in keynote myself sometime.

No, just no to trying to cram 2 bedrooms in 700 sq ft. I live in a 900 sq ft apt 2 br,/1 ba. My bedroom is 12 ft x 12 ft (144 sq ft) WITHOUT the closed (the closet is just outside the BR in the hall) and my bathroom is 8 ft x 8 ft (64 sq ft) and INCLUDES a large linen closet. I doubt very many folks would want to 'rent' a 700 sq ft apt with 2 small bedrooms. Keep in mind those dimensions shown on your 'print' are exterior, not interior. A 98 sq ft bedroom is actually about 8 ft x 12 ft. A double bed (and how many adults sleep in a double bed now?) is 54" x 72" so the double bed takes up half of the room (actually a bit more than half). So that is your smaller of the two bedrooms.

Unfortunately in Bay Area we have smaller rooms. I will take this into consideration and try to make it bigger .

Smaller bedroom can put one double or twin bed

Twin bed or twin kids??

I have a brand new 700 square foot "granny cottage" (aka a little house) with 2 bedrooms, so many of the posts upthread saying it can't be done? It would be a bad idea? It would be stupid (many seem to imply this)? Wrong. Mine even has an ADA bathroom with roll-in shower.

And the mortgage is significantly less than rent (which is likely your goal?).

Does the 700 square feet exclude the laundry room? Even better.

I have 2 major thoughts:

1. You're not ready yet for someone to do a technical drawing of any kind. Get an app that will give you graph paper and let you make boxes you can grab and move around. Have it to scale. (I got an app that automatically measured dimensions and had a measuring tool). Now, play with moving room shapes around. This should help you arrive at priorities.

2. You'll have to make some sacrifices about what you're going to end up with. The first item that jumps out at me is the amount of space allocated to a dining area. Huge! And, do you really need a hallway? Again, this is about figuring out priorities.

Does the front door have to be in the middle? Or can it be scooched to one side or another? If it can, you'll have more scope to play with the layout.

Can the windows along the north and south walls be moved around, or are they fixed locations and sizes?

Also, when space is tight, little things matter MORE not less. E.g. When you come in the front door, where are you taking off shoes and wet raincoats? You have to accommodate that kind of thing in the plan.

Do not spend an inch on any kind of hallway. E.g. Those mini hallways going into the bedrooms to get around a closet? Come up with a different arrangement, 'cos you're wasting space.

And, also note: If the unit only has one bedroom, you might not be able to get it appraised for the cost of construction.

I firmly believe you can make this happen, but IMO you need more work trying to figure things out for yourself before you pay for technical input 'cos you'll be wasting money and they won't get you what you want (which seems to have happened already).

Just a thought: I have helical piers in lieu of crawl space. We don't have earthquakes here, but my understanding is they do well in those conditions. They are used for bridges and lighthouses, so they're hardy. As far as foundations go, they are budget-friendly as well.

You can PM me, by the way.

As I read it, you're looking for just a floor layout, not price points, zoning, neighborhoods, regional real estate values.....

More questions:

1. How many people is the unit for? 3? 2? 1?

2. It would help to have clarity on what your restrictions are for the shape of the footprint. Does it have to be exactly the blue space in your diagram? E.g. Does the unit have to be situated such that you have the 6'9" piece south of the laundry room? Or can you scooch the whole unit north by 6'9" and make the south wall in the same line as the south wall of the laundry room so you have a simple square or rectangle for the addition? Or maybe you have to place the 700 square feet a certain way because of the space considerations on the lot?

Yes. I am looking for a floor layout. I have done other research already. Thank you for those comments who helped on that.

For the north side, due to fence sidewalk restriction, I can only go 3 feet north of original line.

I guess this unit can fit 1-2 adult and 1 kid.

can any one suggest some easy tools to draw floorpan by my own?

I ended up using Live Home 3D, but my brain could only handle 2D, so I didn't turn on the 3D feature.

But here are some free ones: https://www.housebeautiful.com/uk/renovate/design/a28461218/best-free-home-interior-design-tools-apps-software/

https://financesonline.com/free-floor-plan-software/

My understanding is that 700 square feet is the size that's allowed for an accessory dwelling (or whatever you call it).

About the laundry room the way you're currently thinking about it..... I see that it's eating up 79 square feet of that precious space, and it's an awkward space to begin with, and it'll be a super hassle to go outside to get into that room.

I say skip it: let that "laundry room" just belong to your garage. Keep the accessory unit self-contained.

Put the W/D in the blue area. Either use stacked ultra-efficient W/D or W/D combinations that fit under a countertop. This is quite normal for European homes and has become trendy here. In a small home, you think small! You can find some examples of this if you do a Houzz search, but here is one that's in a bathroom:

Salle de bain contemporaine - Appartement Fessart · More Info

How thick are the outside walls?

The layouts I would play around with are #1 and #2 in your original post. These have the living room on the south, which is what your priority.

I don't think a viable kitchen will fit into that small space south of the "laundry room", so I think you pretty much have to have the bathroom there.

The difference between #1 and #2 is the peninsula in the kitchen. When I designed my place, I had to go through this decision as well. Not having a peninsula gives a more spacious feeling, IMO, but this is a personal thing.

Regarding the bedrooms....

Bedroom #2: Make a closet the entire back wall, so you face it when you go in the door. Voilà, bigger closet and no squeezing at the entrance into the bedroom. IIRC, the bedroom has to be 70 square feet excluding the closet, so you might want to doublecheck numbers, but I would try to make this room as small as legal and will still fit a twin bed.

@tangerinedoorThanks! I like your idea that we should not see closet in front at entrance in BR2. Making it at west side would make this closet super long but I will definitely try to adjust it.

Oops, I mixed up bedroom #1 and #2 above. They are correct in this post.

This paragraph refers to bedroom #1 in the northeast corner of the home. Yep, put the closet on the east wall. Having a long closet is a bonus..... However, if it's too long (I really don't think it will be), halve it and use the rest of the back wall as a niche for the head of a twin bed or a study desk. If you have a niche, I'd put it nearest the window, in the northeast.

See if you can do the same thing with the large bedroom (#2): put the closet on the opposite wall from the entrance. That way, there's no dead space when you step in the door. This one is harder because of the way it's shaped right now.

You need way more closet space than you have right now, IMO. In fact, if you put the W/D in the bathroom, you can offer the space allocated to "laundry" as a nice big storage space, for stuff, bicycles, a kayak, electric bicycle, camping equipment.... This would be very valuable to a renter in an urban area.

Next possibility....Would you consider having the two bedrooms on the south side and the kitchen/living room on the north? I know it's not your preference, but it would put the bedrooms near the bathroom. I really don't see any good alternative to putting that bathroom in the southwest corner. Too bad the available space is not just a bit bigger, so there'd be more possibilities.

Is your local code for a bedroom 70 square feet (with a minimum wall of 7') plus a closet? Or? It's important to know this exactly. Minimize Bedroom #1 IMO even if it's just a few inches smaller than right now. You'll need those few inches either in kitchen cabinets or inside the front entrance to make a drop spot, hooks for jackets on the wall, etc. You don't really have room in the cabinets for a dishwasher right now: every inch in a small home really matters.

Hope this helps...

My thoughts are I would never rent out a suite in my house to people with kids to many issues about thwere the kids play etc. I also would never rent a space where I had to take my laundry outside to get to the W/D BTW if you want to rent it as a 2 BR you will need a closet in both and for sure not a barn door going into it.

I don't see anyone suggesting the bedrooms shouldn't have closets, PCC, and they are in every plan upthread as far as I can tell. I doubt the house would ever rent unless there are closets in the bedrooms, and they are generally required anyway (at least in my state) in order to categorize a room as a "bedroom".

********

If you do the "peninsula kitchen" version of your plan, you could have the dining space up against the "laundry room" wall. You could have a built-in L-shaped bench with lift-up seats for storage instead of 2-3 chairs. (This is where you store your COVID toilet paper stockpile IMO). The short length would abut the base kitchen cabinets, with the long length against the wall. The dining area will then sprawl less IMO and leave more room for "living room". Using this method, you might even be able to sneak in a few more inches of cabinet space.

*********

Right now, on the peninsula model, a standard dishwasher door would have to open right where you're standing at the sink. That's not gonna work. I don't use a dishwasher, but maybe there are some new versions available that would address this situation.

Hope that helps.

Patricia Colwell Consulting

maybe that's the case in your area, however, around my area, it's already a luxury to have an apartment with private laundry. Most of apartment share the laundry room.

Can you let me know what you mean about "people with kids to many issues about thwere the kids play etc. "?

Since it would have two entrance, I guess it's the same as duet.

tangerinedooris this the built in bench you recommend? I don't not plan to add dishwasher so far. Thank you so much for helping me on this project.

I hope to have more Floorplan or tool suggestions instead of financial or safety suggestion.

If you have questions/concern or want to know more about Bay Area housing market.I am very willing to share things. Feel free to message me.