Thanks so much for your input everyone! Bevangel, special thanks to you for modifying my picture. It definitely helps to have a visual! I think moving the doors further into the hall will work, and should be very easy for the builder to do. We'd lose a little more exterior hallway space (the bedroom doors were originally at the dotted line), but having the longer hallway within the master bedroom will be more dramatic. I love this website! I'm glad I finally decided to join and stop lurking. ;)

MrsPete, you are exactly right! As long as I was just THINKING about things, I could consider lots of different ideas. But when the "rubber hits the road" or when the time comes to think about paying for all these great ideas, I'd rather have it paid for with a REALITY CHECK. I can afford more of that. One thing I had on my idea list was an emergency natural gas generator, like the brand Generac. However, with all the other things we need now, that is going to have to be postponed. We will have natural gas range and water heater, and maybe a small gasoline generator to carry the fridge and the a/c. It will be mostly hot weather when our emergencies occur. In the house plan we just recently worked out, the original bedroom is staying the same size. But where the exterior wall once was, we will take out a single window and widen that into about 5 foot wide opening, same as the passageway from living to dining room. Then that allows us a sitting area for us, with an 8' wide closet at one end, I wear a lot of long caftans or muumuus whatever, and then I can keep my sewing in on end of the space too. Future residents can have the option of adding another doorway to the wider opening, I've made it possible to have a kingsize bed on two walls of the bedroom (we only like a queen). Present plans though are for a surface mounted door using barn door hardware. Haven't bought the hardware yet, but we are using an old heavy cypress door salvaged from our house destroyed by Katrina. My DH likes things finished nicely, while I like OLD look, with some of the paint left on it, sanded of course, and then sealed. I have a pocket bathroom door, and they are fine in the right spot, but for sheer character, nothing beats an old door with its hardware visible.

I agree. It's less about wall space it takes up than floor space. So long as you have plenty of room to walk around the bed and such, you should be fine. Fwiw, my dresser mirror comes to within 3 feet of the ceiling, but it is also wider than it is tall. Another thing to consider if you are worried about too much furniture for the space is you don't have to buy all the pieces or use them in the room if you do get them. Our small bedroom has a big bed and a big dresser and nothing else. Better to have a couple large items in a small space than lots of small ones. For bedside tables we use small wall mounted shelves.

To me, the floorpan seems to make sense as it is. You could extend the bath slightly into the bedroom to give you a longer countertop space, about where the wall of bedroom2 runs, but you need to know if that works with your bedroom furniture. You could also slide the shower over to the back part of your closet, accessed from the shorter end, to slide to toilet down and have more countertop. It depends on your priorities.