No the laundry room doesn't need to be next to the garage. How often have you ever carried a bunch of laundry in from the garage to wash it? Or carried a bunch of clean laundry out to the garage to put it away? LOL. The only reason laundry rooms in many on-line plans are next to the garage is that many designers still think in terms of women tending to the laundry WHILE they slave away in the kitchen all day and there IS a good reason to have the kitchen near the garage(carrying bags of groceries in from the car) so the laundry winds up there too. It was probably sensible to have the laundry near the kitchen back in the days when very few women worked outside of their homes, and most spent hours and hours in their kitchen every single cooking meals, baking fresh bread, and canning produce from their gardens. Plus, in the early days of washing machines, one had to pretty much 'babysit' the washing machine because they tended to get out of balance easily and you had to start the machines and then come back and laundry powder and bleach after the tub filled and then come back again to add fabric softeners at the start of the rinse cycle, etc. Nowadays tho, the biggest chore related to washing clothing is getting the laundry TO the machine and then getting the clean clothes back into closets. And no woman I know spends hours and hours in her kitchen everyday any more. So IMHO, it makes much more sense to have the washer/dryer close to the bedrooms/bathrooms because that is where 90% of laundry originates and that is where 90% of clean laundry is stored. However, with your design it appears that the master closet is only accessible by going thru the master bedroom. Not sure what revisions you're planning to make but will they result in the laundry room being accessible without having to go thru the master bedroom??? Your children may be too small to do their own laundry now but, when they get older, I'm sure you're going to want them to learn to be responsible for caring for their own clothing. To do so, they are going to need to be able to get to the washer/dryer without having to go thru your bedroom. Besides which, I don't think a 4 bedroom (4 SUITE) house where the laundry can only be accessed via the master suite would be very easy to sell if/when you ever decide to put this house on the market. Personally, I'd revise the upstairs area to put the main laundry room up there. If you were to close up the two-story great room OR the two-story entry, you would have plenty of room for a second floor laundry. Then I might consider adding a stacking washer/dryer in the master closet so I could do mine and DH's dirty laundry without lugging it up/down stairs. ***** Finally, I know you didn't ask for comments on your elevation, but before you settle firmly on the plan you posted, you might want to take a look at the attached link (which was first found and posted here on GW by CamG.) It summarizes some of the principles of good exterior design. At least take a look at pages 22 thru 37. I know everyone's tastes are different, but honestly, in my opinion the exterior elevation of the house you've chosen could serve as a poster child for many of the design faux pas perpetuated by spec-builders pushing mini-McMansions. Shutters that don't fit the windows they are attached to, an excessive number of gables resulting in a needlessly complex roof-line, far too many decorative design elements thrown together (faux archtop windows bay windows, a round window, double hung windows; quoins, arched keystone pediments, a splayed copper roof over the bay window, decorative attic vents...including one on a garage gable that leads to a section of garage attic that isn't even accessible, full cornice return on one gable, terminating cornice returns on the other), and all of that topped off with a double height entry because otherwise one wouldn't be able to find the front door. Somehow it reminds me of the sorts of bridesmaid's dresses sometimes selected by very young brides.... too many frills and furbelows and no sense of classic style, proportion or grace. Here is a link that might be useful: The Value of Design

Why would I have to open up the fall if I can fit the appliance through the existing door? IF you can get both appliances into the pantry (and I don't think that it is possible to do with the existing door opening), then you need room in front of the appliances so you can operate them. My laundry 'closet' is 53.5" deep with a 40" door opening and I know how restrictive that is. If I had only 45" of depth, I don't think the dryer door would open. I have conventional old school appliances. 29" wide dryer with fold down door & skinny Speed Queen top loader (<26" wide). ...realized by the time that's done I wouldn't be cutting the vent run down by much... Would venting the dryer through the roof eliminate any elbows? Do you have rigid (smooth) ducting or is it all flex vent? What is the length of the current run vs the thru-the-wall & Up option? Keep in mind that heated air rises so you'll gain some venting help when the vent goes vertical. Thru the wall and up will require just one elbow and possibly another 120 degree fitting (if you need to offset because of a wall extending above the roof of the garage. In calculating vent length equivalents, an elbow is equal to 5' of straight run length. So, if your current set-up has more than one elbow, you may be gaining more efficiency than you realize. If you have a lot of corrugated, flex duct, you'll benefit by replacing with smooth rigid venting. My venting scenario is awful. I had 4 elbows in about 12' of run. We were able to switch out one elbow for a 120 and replaced most of the flex w/ rigid duct. Still far from ideal but those changes made a significant difference in drying time. Even heavy loads like jeans (out of the SQ top loader) dry with one setting of the dryer (about 50 minutes.) Most other loads dry in 40 minutes. Synthetic loads in much less time. Before, I routinely timed out and had to reset the dryer a second time in order to get dry clothes.

You can't just "flip over" the lever handle will point in a different direction ( up/down) . My advice is show the builder what you want, and let him ORDER ALL OF IT. Hinges, rosettes, handles, should all match. btw

@Jack D - Yes, like that, but can you move the W/D to the opposite wall that it is currently on and reframe the doorway closer to the "new bedroom" (might need a pocket door to laundry) perhaps shrink the laundry room a foot or whatever you can get making a bit more room for the closet system? I don't like the open closet system as I prefer the ones with doors. As a designer and a realtor, even though the room is small, you still have the extra room. I've got 5 bedrooms in my home and one of them is only 10 x 10. I've got a twin bed in there as well as a dresser. It's my sister's favorite room to stay in when she visits. https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/pax-wardrobe-white-bergsbo-white-s19127297/?gclid=Cj0KCQiAkePyBRCEARIsAMy5ScuNAD-dsyPBUR5RMtwyJY550Nz6nsSDgCNi8biKdAOBwSi8dWbarqoaAr-8EALw_wcB