Catching up on this post from yesterday… it just gets progressively funnier. Since we’ve bypassed delicacy, I’m not actually concerned about the *need* for an exhaust fan… And I agree that I don’t expect a guest bath to see much use…just the general strangeness of sitting on the sofa chatting with friends, while some one is in the bathroom two feet away. How often that would be a problem? Probably never… like you said, they can go upstairs. Bellsmom-- I’m impressed with your photoshop skills. That looks really nice!! Thank you! There really isn’t another spot for a powder room. We had considered moving it to the other end of the kitchen, where it could be aligned with the fridge and you wouldn’t see it as a boxed-out area, but then it’s really IN the kitchen. And disrupts the whole layout of the area. We’ve gone back and forth on the backdoor. Bumping it out to square the room would be ideal. But it would require adding a foundation, and also removing the concrete and brick stairs that lead directly down to already existing concrete patio. So it’s not just the door… it’s the other twenty things it affects. I wanted to square the room, and put French doors on the right hand wall, but there is a tree there, and adding steps down to ground level would require removing it. I love seeing it out the window, and was unsure I wanted to take it down. The problem with this project is that we are trying to fix someone else’s poor design rather than doing it right. Which may be only marginally easier than starting from scratch. Thank you so much for sharing all your thoughts!! I will upload a photo when we have some kind of mock up of the wall… hopefully it will give us a better idea of how it might look in reality. Bellsmom’s photo kind of looks too good to be true. And I liked the idea of bookshelves, although the wall would probably be better as a sofa wall, since the room is long and narrow and the sofa depth would be better not sticking into the room.

Our house is 100-year-old 2-story, and the original (only) bathroom is on the main floor, directly off the KITCHEN of all places. All 3 bedrooms are upstairs. Somewhere along the line, previous owners remodeled an upstairs porch into a half-bath, but when we bought the place, the only tub/shower was downstairs. We've since remodeled the upstairs half-bath into a full bath with a large shower. With that being said, I still LOVE having a full bath with tub downstairs. It comes in extremely handy for bathing our dog, and on the occasions where we've had multiple houseguests overflowing the upstairs bedrooms, they've had a full bath to use on the main floor. Since it's off the kitchen, the tub has doubled as excess pot-and-pan drainage after having 20 guests for Thanksgiving dinner (and no dishwasher!) Even though we hardly ever use it for baths, we end up using it for other things... and when the time comes to remodel that bathroom, we're definitely keeping the tub.

I admit I have biases and priorities that may not be yours: I like living rooms. I hate the way that they are a step-child in so many newer homes. To the extent that floorplans are open - I like living and dininnig rooms to be visually connected but defined spaces. I don't want the kitchen to be a "public room" like the LR and DR. And I sure don't want the kitchen to be visible from the front door. Option 1 isn't an option in my view. Although it's more consistent with my ideas about keeping the kitchen connected to the "informal, more private part of the house" It seems like the LR and DR are then not very usable or desirable places to be. That's almost half of the main floor! Moving the plumbing going upstairs would be unreasonable. Providing structural support would be a challenge and what is left of the old living room is not workable in my view. Option 2 is much better from a "Do-ability" standpoint and what you would end up with. The DR becomes a much more desirable place to be.

chicagoans, I will most likely remove those French Doors since that will be the new living room. Not sure I will need a door or should I add one? I have moved all of my cabinets that were in my sewing room to the new sewing room and because it is laid out different I could not figure out how to add everything. I removed the half bath for the moment. Also, if you are talking about the window on the porch I will be removing it and putting the den on the left side of the porch. I have not added a door in the garage yet to go to the outside (is that what a man door is?) I have been looking at Foyer layouts but don't want to go too wide but I think I would like French Doors for the entry or at least a door and a half with both sides that will open. I will have the doors to the den will be off the foyer and I was thinking about adding the half bath at the end of the den wall. If I put the laundry room in the kitchen I was going to put the pantry on the east side but the entry door will be at the other end. What would you do and would you enclose the pantry with walls and a separate door or just have the shelves exposed? Right now my shelves are 12" deep but I think I would like them deeper--maybe at least 14" deep. I know the garage is on the opposite side of the house from the kitchen but those are the only places I can have them located because of the lot.