What is the other room between the bath and MBR? Is it master closet or a retreat of sorts? That room seems to be hogging a lot of space. What is the intended purpose of that room?

If you decide to rearrange both this room and BR together, you might be able to come up with a different plan.

I don't know anything about a Wisconsin Four Square or any expectations of how that lives. My first reaction is where is the master closet? - they can't really be serious - there must be something I am not seeing. I don't see a master closet and if you ever want to resell the house (or IMO live in it), you really are going to want a place to put your clothes. I see the tiny areas that could be used to hang clothes and if this was a 1500 sq foot 4 bedroom - I might swallow it. But since you can "afford" a vanity area and a generous tub, you should have the room for a real closet.

On another note - what do you intend to put in a 8x1 foot closet area in the 2nd bathroom? That is a lot of linens in an awkward space.

I agree with the first two comments above, and I'll add some more.

The tub windows are very close to the corners. That may make construction difficult and fitting appropriate trim impossible, especially in the case of the window touching the exterior inside corner

One pedestal sink for a large master bath seems really odd.

What is that roughly triangular space to the right of the dressing table?

Three foot two inches is very generous for the toilet. You could cut that down a bit and use the space in other ways.

Even a linen closet needs shelves deeper than one foot. And bypass doors need a little clearance so that they don't rub the shelves or their brackets. The trim carpenters will probably cut those one foot shelves down a couple of inches, leaving you with something like ten inch shelves.

A vanity normally has a mirror, not a window. Assuming the window is high on the wall, do you really need it? You have four windows in a master bath. That is a lot of expense and a lot of heat loss for Wisconsin.

The same criticism can be applied to the MBR. It would help to see the elevations along with the floor plan. Perhaps these windows make sense in the grand scheme, but without any more information, it's very difficult to make appropriate recommendations.

I can just echo the comments about the master closet/dressing area. I agree that it would help if you posted the entire layout, with wall dimensions.

As for the bath, you can't put a corner step there into the tub if you'd like to open the shower door.

In the meantime, I would shrink the hall bath by a foot and take up a bit of room from the closet on the bedroom (?) wall behind for a narrow but more functional linen closet. This gives you another foot in the master bath to play with and the hall bath loses none of it's functionality.

Do you need a giant vanity with 2 sinks in the hall bath? Speaking of the other bedroom, if that's what it is, does it need to be over 15' long and 15' wide?

I'd also eliminate the too-shallow hall closet if it can't be made deeper.

First, thanks for some honest feedback while we can still make floorplan changes. We're aiming for a long-term home that suits our lifestyle but would not make future buyers say, "They can't really be serious." I had to laugh and cringe, david_cary. We seem to be walking the knife's edge.

homey_bird, I'm afraid what you see here is the result of hours of stewing. We drafted the initial plan and want to work out all the specifics before we send it for bids. As everyone knows, one change affects so many things that we stay up late and our heads start spinning. We will seriously consider all feedback.

At the risk of TMI, I'll attach the original elevations and floorplans. This second floor plan doesn't include the deep tub or larger shower in the master bath. Trying to fit those items has been a problem. Creek_side and alabamanicole, thank you for your feedback and your interest in the bigger picture.

We've also been thinking about how we use the master bath. My dh likes to spend an hour locked in the bathroom each morning (?) so I would really enjoy a vanity in the hall dressing area. I don't think we would use two sinks in the master concurrently. I was hoping a vanity would help resale too if we put only one sink in the master.

So what is the room between the master bedroom and bath? Good question. A vanity which could also function as a seat for dressing, an east-facing window (view of the wetlands behind us), a small triangular closet, a longer reach-in closet, and some built in shelving. I've looked at our wardrobe and realized that we need half our closet space for hanging and half for shelved items (folded clothes, shoes, purses). The previous walk-in closet plan seemed too tight for a seat or vanity and the window was small in order to minimize damage to clothes. We are open to any suggestions to get an attractive, functional, reasonably priced dressing area.

The one foot deep storage in the bathroom is our attempt to get as much storage as possible in there for soaps, shampoos, toilet paper, towels, cleaning supplies etc. We could give the bathroom a foot from the closet area for deeper storage in the bath.

We assumed that the shower door would be 2-3 feet wide (out of five) so the bench could wrap around and we could still open the shower door. I'll attach a rough view from our home planning software that requires a lot of imagination. The tub is just 40 inches in diameter and would be positioned near the window with the internal seat facing toward the east window/view. The rest of the deck would be tiled so we could step on the bench, sit on the tile deck, and swing our legs over into the tub. That's the theory, anyhow.

We put in a pedestal sink to give us more room near the bath and to approximate art deco style. The window above it is a transom for more light at the sink. There is a mirrored medicine cabinet directly in front of the sink.

We have been partial to east facing windows (top of floor plan) because that is our view of a wetlands. The master bedroom also has transoms to the south (right of plan) because we have 1.5 story neighbors on that side and would like as much sunlight as possible.

Thanks for the comment about the toilet area and corner windows, creek_side. We can cut adjust those.

Please feel free to throw us a comment about anything else on the plan as well. Now's our chance to fix it.

Liz

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I think your main floor is a solid plan, except I don't think you need the stools at the island. With the banquet so close, I think the cabinet space would be more useful.

I think your original 2nd story plan is better, and should have room for the soaker tub. And if the expensive soaker tub gets cut in the budget process, you will have room to put in a regular tub. But you don't get your dressing table. What about a freestanding antique vanity in the main bedroom? Or a single sink in the bathroom and have a one side of the vanity with room under it for a stool or chair?

In the hall bath, if you turn those shelves by the tub toward the tub, you'll have a huge nook for shampoo, etc. right where you really need it. You can have space below the tub level facing the toiler for toilet paper, etc.

ARGHHH...I drew a new MBR model but it crashed just when it was done; so here it is now; I will describe it in words.

The new MBR plan looks much more efficient. And don't worry, you're not alone in feeling saturated after hours of brainstorming.

Now, since you are keen on taking advantage of view on the upper wall, I suggest some moving around of parts:

1. You could move both the tub/shower against upper wall ie wall where you get the view. For this if you need to move WC to the right by couple feet, you should be ok.

2. You don't need almost 7ft for WC. You can reduce it by 2 feet (or more?) and make the entrance into "inner room" a bit more centered.

3. In the empty space where you currently have lower end of the tub, you could have the 10' span of vanity. This will accommodate dual sinks + make up area.

The closet section would be mostly unchanged, apart from the fact that the big walk in would become a bit more shallow, and now you would get a regular 2' deep closet on the other side of walk in as well.

4. From the hall bath, flip the vanity and the current linen to the opposite wall and combine the new linen with smaller master closet. This will make the hall bath vanity face towards an empty wall.

Hope this is not too hard to read! I'll try to draw pictures one more time when I get time if it's not clear.

Alabamanicole, a freestanding vanity in the master bedroom is a good idea. Somehow I'd like to have that vanity option out of the bathroom for weekday mornings. I've been married for more than 10 years and some things don't change...like my husband's private time in the bathroom.

I'm still having trouble fitting the shower and bath in the original design (my second posting) because the allotted space is just 36 inches deep. My dh requests a larger shower--either 4 feet square or 3 by 5 feet. (We were planning on a Kohler shower receptor with tile above it since we've had leaky tile in the past.) And he would like to fit in the tub--minimum 5.5 foot long tub by 36 inches or 40 inch octagon soaker plus some deck. The Neptune acrylic soaker tub (no jets) is close to the cost of a regular acrylic tub but I'm sure the additional tile deck and wood bench will add up. If I add here, I have to find somewhere else to subtract cost.

I love your idea of shampoo shelving for the hall bathtub area. Then I remembered that we picked out an acrylic bath/shower unit for durability and low cost (three kids). If we did tile and a tub, we could take advantage of your idea...I will compare costs.

Homey_bird, add computer crashes to the list of aggravations. Thank you so much for your time, including the time to write out your thoughts after the computer crash. I had originally put the shower against the right upper wall, then moved it because I don't like walking on wet floor in my sock feet. If the bath were closest to the door and the shower second, the wet floor could be out of my way. I'll also try making the walk-in closet more shallow and adding a reach-in closet on the opposite wall. We lose the window in the closet area but I'll see how it looks. Thanks!

Liz

Ok, I luckily found time to sketch this again and I'm getting better at Google Sketchup so here I am.

In this, I've kept your shower as is. It is currently shown to be 4x4. Even without changing dimensions, you get almost 8ft for tub. I've shown that because I'm not sure which one you get and how much space you'd need for the steps etc. but hopefully this would be enough.

If you got too much space for the tub then extend the shower more :-)

I've also included approximate picture of hall bath to illustrate how you could flip the vanity over to another wall and combine the new linen with the "other" closet in your Master to make a bigger, 3ft deep closet.

Though, I'm not certain if 3ft is any better than 2 ft. If not then just divide them into two, accessible from opposite sides of the wall.

Basically you will need to re-arrange entrance into the bathroom slightly

Oops; hit "post" too soon. Few Corrections:

The last line should read:
"The entrance into MBR from Mbedroom is moved up the wall by 2ft or so (approximate depth of vanity cabinets which I believe is 24 inches or less)"

Correction: the tub does not have 8 ft; it would likely have ~6ft. But that would be sufficient.

WC is where it was before, but it's only 5 ft long instead of 7 ft as before. Same width, though other posters have commented that it's overkill (it's your call to decide if you want to make it narrower).

The vanity area should be enough to fit 2 sinks and a small make up table or bath storage.

The sketchup image is drawn to scale. Let me know if you want to have dimensions. I should have included them earlier but well...!

I vote for a sit down vanity and I think you could incorporate that into a dressing area. Actually having the vanity in front of a window is a great idea. Speaking from personal experience, I wouldn't think that most people would use a wall mounted mirror to apply make-up but rather a smaller (maybe lit) closeup mirror. In our rental, my DD and I share a vanity in our upstairs "everything" room. It is in front of a window and I'll never have it any other way. Even guests comment on how wonderful it is to get ready with the natural light coming in from the window. Of course this is sort of seasonal with the time changes making things dark early in the morning. IMO lamps give better light for a sit down vanity because it puts the light closer to your head instead of wall mounted higher up. Even sconces are usually too high for a sit down vanity. When we build I'm going to have a similar set up.

I think that you should look into building in some sort of closet system that consists of a lot of shelves. Then your vanity can be an extention of one of the shelves. You can even add drawers.

Homey_bird, thank you. I like how you've expanded the reach in closet and put in an amazing vanity. You've also given us more room for the tub. I am going to try this out in our computer program tonight. Thank you for showing us in pictures--it really helps.

Ncamy, I would love to have a window vanity with a small close up mirror and table lamp. I take off my glasses and can't see more than three inches in front of me. Our windows would be east facing and get light pretty early (except in January!). I've seen some closet systems that are attractive enough to put in a hallway. I'm going to check out prices this weekend.

I hope I can incorporate all these ideas in some form. I feel inspired again, thank you!

Liz