"Would you suggest we give up the closet space for another bath?"

I suggest you design the house with an architect so you gan get what you need and not have to give up anything. Your architect can help you make such decisions because they know you and your circumstances, now and in the foreseeable future.

3 1/2 baths.

(not a pro) When we did a big reno, we added a 2nd hall bath on the 2nd floor (so we have 2 halls baths and the master bath on that floor, serving 4 bedrooms.) I have one girl and one boy and when they were in middle and high school, it was very helpful that they each had their own bathroom, for expediency getting ready at the same time and for storage/privacy (they have different "stuff".) (They also learned how to clean their own bathrooms.) Also, I'm going on the market soon and having the second hall bath definitely helps differentiate my house from houses with only 1 hall bath upstairs. (I also have a full bath with guest room in the lower level for the occasional guest.)

IME guests really do appreciate not having to share a bathroom with kids. But do your guests sleep upstairs or downstairs? Sounds like you have a guest bed and bath downstairs.

Depends how many toilets you want to keep cleaning. And yes you may have a housekeeper but what happens when she can't come because of something like covid?

thanks everyone for your input.

• yes we have first floor guest bedroom with ensuite. Parent when they visit, they typically stay there overnight
  -two girls 8 and 3 are sharing a bed on 2and floor but we know they will like their separate rooms (BR2 and BR3) down the line. as suggested above, we did not like idea of jack and jill as it was very inefficient in term of using space. there is 1 common bath to be used by both (it has 2 separate vanities). our struggle is should we add ensuite in exchange of the WIC to BR2 and make the current hall entry bath to ensuite to BR3.

I'd prefer the larger closet.

Closet for sure

If this was my house I would definitely keep the closet and not add another bath. 3.5 is plenty.

I'd rather have a closet vs. an extra bath. I would also consider if it is possible to just have one bath downstairs. Of course I come from the view that I'd rather have fewer bathrooms to clean. It is also not a room I want to spend my square footage on due to the limited amount of time that is spent in it.

For me, it depends on a few things.

One, which bedroom will be losing the large 5x10 closet?

Two, how much storage space is in the current kids' bath?

Three, is there any chance y'all would expand your young family in the future, making it easier for 4 or more kids to share 2 toilets instead of 1? Or take in a niece or nephew, or be a host family for a foreign exchange student, or something?

Designed well, the space could be currently used for something like a closet, with the ability to be easily converted into a bath/powder later, if needed. Walls can be built at appropriate thicknesses for plumbing, with careful planning on where the new plumbing would tie into the existing.