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catherine_dalyai

Recommendations on pool bath access please!

last year

Here is a close up of our mudroom which is the entry point from our garage, friends entry into the house, and has access points to the laundry, back stairs, and kitchen. We want a pool bath that is also accessible to the mudroom for convenience. My question is for those with pools, do you find it more convenient to have direct access from the outside into the bathroom, or is it acceptable to go through the mudroom into the bathroom?? For reference we have 2 active boys with friends over frequently. We will not have a pool house. There is a nicer powder room on the other side of the 1st floor, but wanted this to be more utilitarian and easily accessible for the kids and when having gatherings.

Yes, outside access to the bathroom is convenient
No outside access to bathroom is necessary

Comments (14)

  • last year

    Not sure if the 1st photo posted

  • last year

    .

  • PRO
    last year


    The house looks like many of the spaces are larger than they need to be, as in inefficient space planning.

  • last year

    Thanks, Mark. That is exactly what I was thinking would be a better choice than having that exterior door to the bathroom. I am worried 2 doors beside each other from the patio may be strange besides that if you take a few steps through the mudroom, the bathroom is easily accessed from there. This will be our first time having a pool and wanted to be sure we wouldnt be missing out on an added convenience of direct outside access to it.

  • last year
    last modified: last year

    A direct door to the outside/pool can work for some, but for me it would just be one more door that I have to check at night to make sure it wasn't left unlocked.

    I would also try to get a window in the bathroom to get some natural light.

    Here is one of my secondary bathrooms that also serves as a pool bath.

    I have wood floors in the hallway, so if we have kids visiting, who might not dry off, I put down a large bathmat in the hallway.


  • PRO
    last year

    I think if you revisit the amount of space in the mud room, breakfast nook, main entry, master bathroom, master bedroom and perhaps other spaces you may find the house more convenient to pay for, as in not paying for inefficient space.

  • last year

    More problematic, the Mudroom has 7 doors/openings and an open stair, a "filler space" footprint/feel, and not a single window (door lites insufficient with a layout with so many corners). You have also introduced another exterior door to the courtyard right around the corner from the Breakfast door.

    Still working on these very specific details of a Powder Room within the Mudroom that could change once you have 2nd floor, elevations, and roof plan designs?

  • last year

    I have an updated sketch after deciding to have the pool bath accessed through the mudroom. Also the laundry was moved which eliminates some extra unusable square footage, and improves alignment of the doors.

  • PRO
    last year

    Great improvement on the new floor plan layout. It is very clean and functional now.

  • last year

    I'm glad you found a solution that works for you. It's nice that it includes a shower as Mark suggested, too.


    In our case, space constraints and other concerns dictated a different solution. We have a half bath that's accessed directly from the pool deck, with no door to the interior of the house. Since we already had three bathrooms in our design, including a convenient hall bathroom that serves as the guest/powder room, this suited us. The door has an automatically locking keypad lock, so I don't worry about it being left unlocked. That half bath came in handy when our landscaper and his crew were building a deck off my husband's workshop and a playground for our grandchildren. They didn't want to come indoors with dirty clothes/boots and the outside entrance was more convenient. While a shower in that bathroom would have been nice, an outdoor shower has worked well enough.

  • last year

    I still think you need to add a window in the bathroom. You could do a high awning window in the shower.

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    Stevenson Residence · More Info


  • PRO
    last year

    Wait a minute! Doesn't "Yes, outside access to the bathroom is convenient" and "No outside access to bathroom is necessary" say the same thing??

    You may have a future in writing proposals on ballots.

  • last year

    @Mark Bischak, Architect, lol! I read multiple times.