Oh, wow, this bathroom is for the visiting grandkids? I agree, it's a lot of wasted space.

No one will fall down the stairs. If the grand kids are young enough to fall down stairs and tend to sleepwalk at night, put a gate on the door.

Or move it down if you're that concerned. But it's really a non-issue. Our neighborhood is full of young kids. The room at the top of the stairs is even our neighbor's play room. Here it is. Stairs are cut off but you get the gist.

Add reach in closets along stair wall and then put entrance to both bedrooms where the too small walk in closet is now

Do this please? Eliminate the walkin closet. - not at all a necessity for grand kids,nor even an adult guest. Use it for an entry to bed 2, shelves , books on the back side, or linens!

Now change the bath as below....and make the separation useful in all regards.

The point is you can't have it all, so give up the sleeves from your vest.

I definitely will be giving up the walk in closet. I absolutely love the space on the back wall of entrance for storage. I will probably not add the extra toilet and sink because I do want a linen closet and changing to the extra sink and toilet will add to a budget I am already over by more than I care to think about.

Basically, every townhouse in Philadelphia has a door that opens onto a small landing that immediately becomes stairs, just like the situation you show. As long as there's a railing, it works just fine.

Because of the in-swinging door of the existing walk in closet, you will not lose

much organized space by switching it to a reach in closet.

Agree!!

I also like for the toilet and bath to be in a separate room when it is the only bathroom to be used by multiple bedrooms. But the layout of that is so inefficient.

Maybe I am missing something, but I don’t really understand Jan’s toilet in a room you have to pass through to get to the other bathroom. But if you took her plan and put the tub at the other end of the bathroom, you could have a door to the hall in that bathroom. And then have one and a half baths. For the half bath, I would move the toilet to the end of the room, maybe in its own room, with a double vanity near the hall. Lot of space for grands to all get ready for bed at the same time.

Technically you have enough space to have two 5x8 bathrooms back to back. With the possibility of one opening to the hall and bedroom 3.

Both of my upstairs bathrooms would fit in the space you have allotted to one bathroom, and then you would definitely have the ability for one person to be using the vanity while another person was using the toilet or shower. Because they would each be in a different bathroom. :)

Here is a conceptual variation on JAN MOYER's idea. Location 'A' would be a door from the hall to an ante room, 'B' would be a door from the ante room into the bedroom, 'C' would be a door from the ante room into the bathroom. This would allow "bedroom 3" to be bedroom suite or a bedroom like the others that shares two bathrooms.

Yes, that works too! Assuming whatever the "future" may hold go off hold?: )

I was curious about the sloped ceiling in the closet. This shows a door entering from the hall and a 2' deep closet along the back wall.

Wow I think Marks update is my great! Just to clarify the future bedroom is a bedroom. The label just never changed on paper. If I’m understanding correctly would would bedroom two and “future bedroom” be entered from across one another in a small hallway ?

PPF, I will get a picture of it tomorrow. I’ll take a few to better see how it’s framed out right now.

Ugh Jan….that would be ideal…I’m almost afraid to see how much that change would cost.😩, but I’m going to hold my breath and inquire!

This is my favorite. Now I have to see how much.

Fingers crossed!

Wait! I like the new plan, but how about this: see how the bathroom door is also right at the top of the stairs?

Could you rotate that block of two bathrooms 90°, so that one is along the far back wall and has a door to that bedroom. and the other bathroom parallels the hall? That hall bath door could then be moved further from the stairs, kind of opposite the niche to the other two bedrooms. And if the middle bedroom has a door to that niche instead of to the hall, it becomes almost like a suite.

I think the doors only have to be far enough from the stair to alleviate the fear and not eliminated any phobias.

Well, oopsie, I misread the exclamatiob marks as steps. Never mind.

Do the bathrooms have windows?

Remember the sloped ceiling? what does that do to the linen closet in the niche?

I feel like if the bedroom #2 door remains along the hall like I showed in my plan, it allows that closet to be used as the closet for bedroom 2.

If the bedroom doors are placed in the alcove and that becomes a linen closet, a closet needs to be placed in bedroom #2.

A closet where Jan shows it makes that room a little tight:

(12'2" width of room) minus (2 foot depth of closet) minus (5" wall thickness)

146 - 24 - 5 = 9ft, 9 inches.

So 9'9" then you have to have doors. This is the bed wall. If the opposite is the bed wall, you have less than 9' 9" (32" door, minimum 4" from corner) leaves 9'2"

If you want to put the closet on one of the 12'2 walls, since you have 13' overall, then you will have to shrink the windows or the will be off center in the room (which is not a huge deal) but almost right up against the new closet wall on one side or the other (which will be a pain)

I tried to find if there was a minimum distance between the top of the stairs and a door opening and I could not find anything.

The only thing that I could find had to do with handrail extension at the top of the stairs, and it should be 12". And this could really be a commercial requirement, most houses do not have this, their handrail dies at the top step.

These are KIDS!!! Grands!

A little tight for a bedroom ( with the reach in closet ) ........ They don't live there! Ever been in a NYC apartment with two adults sharing a room that size or less?

I am serious when I say......

They come with a backpack and a duffel. They toss it on the floor. They don't unpack. They simply don't care. Nor do small kids care where they sleep!

How do I know? Well. I'll tell you the story about the adorable room a recently single dad. The two girls came, along with two friends, and they alllllll slept in the walk in closet because they thought it so FUN . No mattress, nothing but a heap of four giggling girls and all the new bedding piled into comfy heaps on the closet floor.

Jan, yes.

I lived in an entire apartment that was the size of that bedroom, excluding the bathroom. I had friends who lived in apartment where 9 feet was the maximum width of most of the apartment. I had a friend who lived in an apartment with the raised bathtub and hinged lid in the kitchen that I needed to use a stepstool to get into. My last apartment (which was "big") had a bedroom that was 9 feet.

I am very conversant with small apartment living in several large cities. So I don't need to be scolded about what something 9 feet wide means, just because I think something you drew would be a little tight for a house that doesn't look all that small.

Nine feet + is adequate. So is 8 feet. You can fit a double bed in 7 feet: 15" on each side is adequate for most people to slide through. Plenty of people in small apartments everywhere live like this and it doesn't kill them because that's what they are handed.

But this isn't even built yet.

I get that : ) All of it -but they aren't "living" in it as you did. They are guests.....and generally that means brief use, even if frequently brief.

When you go past a bus stop.....do you notice even in rain or snow? They're clad for a July 4th summer day! I go white knuckle brrrrr I can't even LOOK at you as I pass. Different kind of circulation, different everything lol.

No, I don't get it. My mom made us wear snow pants until April 15.

Well I hate to talk about resale.

My SO is a realtor. We live in an area with a lot of old housing stock. 1810s to 1970 in our area. Lots are 11, 13, 15 feet wide (there are 9 footers in another neighborhood).

If the house has no furniture in it, many people have absolutely no idea how big a room is unless it is obviously big. They will look at a bedroom 9 feet wide (which is a good portion of the bedrooms in houses like that) and say "What is this room used for? A bed couldn't even fit in here?" And these are people intentionally Looking at small urban houses--although some of them are coming from the suburbs.

I don't know what they think people have been doing for the last 50 to 200 years, but most of them were not sleeping on the floor.

So this may be a bedroom for occasional grandchildren now, but someday it might belong to someone else. Now that everything has to be supersized to be even remotely acceptable, a 9 ft bedroom wouldn't be a strong selling point in an average sized house. The current mentality is that the child would already be deprived by not having their own personal connected bathroom.

Is this guest bedrooms over a garage?

@lori I just want to say that I have been on this site for years and a lot of people confidently offer free advice that's not that great and they are rude as well. But, you are very lucky to have the A team helping you and their free advice is a generous gift.

Honestly, I have stayed in a home that had this exact setup and the only time it was a problem was one night when a twenty something guy was staying in that room, went out, got wasted and was afraid he would fall down the stairs so he crawled on his hands and knees to the bathroom. As long as no one is wasted out of their minds, it shouldn't be an issue.

Just quickly looking at the plan I would leave the doorway but use the closet space as two reach in closets rather than a walk in. Really not gaining much storage with the walk in closet once clothing is hung on the back wall.

This would give you a lot more storage space overall and make the future bedroom bigger with a closet in the wall rather then protruding into the room.

If you must move the doorway I would do what Mark Bischak, Architect suggested.

Now it comes out......the little bits and pieces info:

"The "future bedroom " Is already a bedroom, they just didn't change the label"

.Well........that makes THIS make yet more sense if we're going there : )

However you decide doors,...which makes the Mark entries very logical

Sorry for the confusion Jan. My fault for not being clear. I hope to discuss your last option with Marks door placement to the two bedrooms tomorrow.

I took a few photos today to help clarify how close the door is to the stairs, what the original closet looks like now before I make a change and also a thought of where to change the location of the closet. Maybe in stead of one closet I could put two smaller ones on each side of the window. I’m thinking that would give me better use of the bedroom walls for furniture placement. Still not sure…just thinking about closet location.

Palimpsest I agree about future resale 100% . Obviously I am building to get the home that works best for me and what I like, but I also want to make sure it will be appealing to future buyers. The changes from what I had, to now with the possibilty of two bathrooms is huge. Thanks for your input about resale.

The bedroom I am disgussing about the door change is over a den. The bedroom that is labeled “future bedroom” is over the garage.

Two closets with a window seat between would be fun!

k8cd that’s what I was thinking.

I grew up in a house where my brothers bedroom door was set up just like your plan. It was never a problem, and I have not given it a thought until I read this thread.

When building our new house, and planning for the grandchildrens bedrooms, I, like you, did not realize how close my grandaughters bedroom would be to the stairs until the house was under construction. I begged the builder to come up with a solution. I wanted a little 12" wall to jutt out past the staircase so that when GD came out of her bedroom, she would have to walk around that wall to get to the stairs. My builder and carpenter thought it a crazy idea and encouraged me to leave the set-up as is. They both said that having a bedroom door at the top of the stair was very normal. So I gave in and asked for the hand-rail molding to wrap around the wall at the bedroom opening..

Guess what! My granddaughter has been sleeping in the room since she was 5 (now 7) and having the door next to the stairs is not a problem. GD has gotten out of bed in the middle of the night and has walked past the stairs to get to her siblings room, and also come downstairs to our room multiple times. She has made her way just fine. To make me feel better, I place a night light at the bottom of the stair landing that cast a glow on the upper stair area without being too bright. I thought about using a gate, but decided against it.

Well. As we say, you can never have it all.

To me, when there is a first floor master, and all other beds are second floor? Those houses attract people with older kids, or empty nest.

If you need guest, make it private. Two kids share one bath, the other is en suite.

Or...........tweak the two bath concept for all three beds . Get the charm factor in two closets, and a window seat between.

The slope closet area is fine for linens.

or....... a combo

What I'd spend more time on is the kitchen..........

and that back powder room.

( all below from the other kitchen thread you have

nhb22 Thanks for your input and your house looks beautiful. If I’m understanding your drawing the way your door opens does not put the first footstep at the top step. That’s where my concern is.

Jan, The kitchen is still in the works. I did move the door in the powder room to the other side and eliminated the window as well👍🏻
I will be discussing the upstairs first thing tomorrow going off of the pic below.

Closest along side windows are better in the other bed? ( bottom right below, the"future")

It seems that even if it is safe, no one has fallen in a similar situation— heck, even in Jennifer’s experience, the drunk guy knew enough to crawl across the hall— is it nice? You felt something is amiss, and that speaks volumes. Listen to your instinct.

Seeing those pictures of the framing, I agree that the door is way too close to the edge of the stair. I could see myself tripping going into the room if I was coming up the stairs in a rush.

Everyone worries about something. It's usually the stuff that doesn't happen........

Or it does?

We have building codes for toilet space. For stair treads and stair height, for the inches between the spindles. There's NO code for how close to a stair a door can be: ) and even if a landing is ten or twenty feet deep , people trip and fall down stairs every day.

LOL Reminds me of Redford/Newman

" What are ya waiting for.....?" I can't swim! "hahahaahahah "Are ya nuts ? the FALL is gonna kill ya!

Having had a family member fall down the stairs outside of a bedroom and experience a serious head injury (thankfully fully recovered), I agree with moving the bedroom door.

Also consider stair night lighting for safety. There is integrated lighting which is good for new builds. I had an electrician install outlets at the top/bottom of all stairwells and use low-profile plug-in GE LED nightlights with sensors.

A little more detail to my previous suggestion:

That's what I gave her above: ) I like it too the entry that way and a less narrow effect

Whatever!! With closets, window seat

Sorry, messy and late last night

nhb22 Thanks for your input and your house looks beautiful. If I’m understanding your drawing the way your door opens does not put the first footstep at the top step. That’s where my concern is.

Lori - Correct. It was my brothers bedroom, in my childhood home, that had the same set-up as yours. The bathroom was across the hall just as yours is. The only difference was that the staircase was opened with a railing on the opposite side and the hallway was much wider. See drawing.

I still had a concern about my own set-up, and wanted to share my building experience. When you walk out of the bedroom, and step right, the stairs are there. Below is a better photo of my set-up. Although it has worked fine, I do like what has been proposed for your issue. Good luck!!!

nhb22 Thank you again for taking the time to share. Placement of the door has been changed. I’ll have to come back once the house is done and post pics to show the changes.