I love seeing creativity thinking thru options and big props for the switching the entrance, can appreciate the privacy factor. I was ready to offer thoughts but my first reaction to seeing original was very much liking the balance of it. My only tought was how an all glass enclose shower along with space above tube would help fell of room being more spacious. DESIGN 1 - the built in is fine but personally wouldnt do it there, Id have full glass shower with no builtin coveing it and would tuck shelves of built-in around the corner inside closet which seems spacious enough to accommodate it - more room for bathroom DESIGN 2 - my fav although at first didnt feel it (as I like balance of #1) but have to admit its looks more spacious and this would be my choice. Loving the unobstructed wall window and with the glass shower to the side, extending the spacious feel gets my vote although two is still quite nice. DESIGN 3 - appreciate the creativity but just not a fan of this style shower if you can go glass. Not bad, perfectly fine but to me simply darker and not as nice as an open shower. Thats preference, cant see issue though with any three youve done -wish I'd had you to consult with when I struggled trying to nail down my bath layout.

Many thanks to everybody who answered, you have all been very helpful in clarifying my very muddled thoughts. Here is a hopefully clearer description of the situation: The house is a 50's ranch style, with 3 bedrooms and a hall bath (4.5x8.5 ft) clustered on one side of the house, and the kitchen, office/den and another hall bath (4x9 ft) on the other side of the house, with a great room in the middle. We plan to stay in this house as long as we can, but we are in this city for my husband's work, and if something happens (although unlikely with his kind of job), we know we'll have to move somewhere else; therefore, we'd like to make updates to the house while keeping resale in mind. Our (excellent) realtor said that for resale we should have an ensuite. After reading the comments, I have to clarify with him if he thinks a lack of ensuite will narrow down the market significantly, or if we 'simply' would not get the best price for the house. Most houses in the area are old (in the whole city actually), and we saw plenty without ensuites. We saw two of the neighbors' houses, and they did not have ensuites. This is what we considered: 1. Redo the bathrooms with the existing footprint (not that we have room to change anything inside), but we can go far into making them pretty, 2. Add a door from the master bedroom to the hall bath next to it, and close access from the hall. This I think would be a bad idea, not only because the people in the other two bedrooms will have to go across the house to the other bathroom, but also because the master bedroom will end up with windows on two walls, three closets on another, and two doors on the fourth side. Not restful. 3. Add another bathroom next to the master bedroom where the closets are, with one closet door transformed into a bathroom door. This bathroom would be 4.5x12 ft, although it could go to 5x12 if need be (but no more, because we'll hit a big window), which will have a shower but no bathtub. We talked to a professional who said it will fit fine with the caveat that the toilet will likely be the first thing you see in front of the door because of the current clearance requirements. 4. Build an addition. This again I think would be a very bad idea, since it would be blindingly expensive and the house is already on the higher side of square footage for the surrounding area. We will of course fix everything that is broken. The interior doors are the original 50s doors, hollow core dark wood look with lots of scuffs and holes, and they were cut short to fit the now non-existent carpet, so I would qualify changing them as fixing what is broken (and they bug me every time I look at them... ). The windows are a perk; we are still divided on those. I tend toward option 1, while my husband is going for option 3, although he agrees we do not need another bathroom. The reason I feel ill equipped to make this decision is that I'm originally from Europe, and even after so many years here I feel mildly perplexed about the North American love affair with bathrooms. Our previous rental was built in the last ten years and had a huge ensuite which I didn't like. I found it hard to keep as clean as I thought it should be, and it was so large I felt as if I was doing my business in public. Given the bathroom pictures on Houzz, I'm clearly in a minority. Your comments help ensure that I don't miss anything that might otherwise be obvious, so thanks again. And extra thanks to whoever makes it to the end of this post...

I like my first idea best as far as use of space. I know people say not to put toilets on an outside wall. We had one in our last house in Iowa, but we had 2X6 construction. I don't know how high your window is, but I'm guessing the toilet would fit under there. The shower would be 5 feet long or shorter if you want a wider space to get to the toilet. (kind of tight the way I have drawn). You could do a 5 and half foot long shower and do an angled door at the left end to allow room between the shower and toilet. The vanity would be about 7 feet long, unless you do a 60 inch vanity with a linen cabinet at the door. I would reverse entry door swing if you do that.. The second top right could work and you would still have a small closet. The bottom left plan would require waterproofing your front window. Hopefully someone will give you other ideas. The bottom right plan is bigger, but no closet. Each square equals 1 foot.

A couple of things. How many shower heads will you have? If you don't plan on 2 people taking showers at the same time, I think you could go 5' long on the shower and have that wall line up, with the toilet wall. I don't know if that is important to you. I have a 5' long shower and it is plenty long for showering. I am glad I didn't go bigger because there would have been more to wipe down. I like the window in the toilet room, because it adds a view. I wished there was an entry into the closet from the bathroom, so I would be able to access my clothing/dressing room following my shower. Otherwise I see you have to go into the bedroom and into the entry hall to access the closet. Not too big a deal, unless the bedroom/hall doorway is open. No plumbing in the exterior walls. In Montana it may be against code. I don't know how thick a wall would need to be to accommodate enough insulation to allow plumbing in the walls. Kitchen: I know this isn't part of your question, but have you posted over on the kitchen forum yet? I see 2 things from your plan that might be a problem. The first is the frig next to the cook top. There is a phrase over there that help people understand the layout of a kitchen. It goes, "ice, water, stone, fire". So this means that the ice (refrigerator) wouldn't be next to the fire (cook top). So Refrigerator (ice), sink (water), counter top for prep (stone), then the cooking area (fire), is the order for most efficiency in the kitchen. The second thing, is the pantry. I'd prefer that the pantry opened into the kitchen. But I wouldn't want it hard to access from the car either, for unloading groceries.