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mrspete

Master bath, laundry, pool access area

mrspete
11 years ago

I've realized that a great deal of WHY we want to build a house is that we want the functional parts of the house to be tailor-made to OUR NEEDS, and I care more about the "working parts" of the house than the living room (which is simple, in comparison). Please look over this sketch and give any feedback you may have.

Important to note: We're preparing to build our retirement house. It'll just be the two of us most of the time. We'll have two bedrooms /one bath upstairs for guests and grandchildren. The house will be a 1.5 story farmhouse /Cape Cod /Southern house. Casual, set on 40 acres.

My thoughts:

Pros:
- Simple footprint for the bathroom, yet it provides space necessary for a walker, if needed in the future. Wheelchair? Uncertain.
- The plan covers hubby's two requirements: 1) huge no-door shower with a seat. 2) TV viewable from the tub -- will mount on the wall between the shower and the toilet room.
- I'm generally anti-toilet-in-a-closet, but I like the idea of this room serving as our toilet AND a half-bath accessible to the main house and the pool area. We have NO PROBLEM with guests using "our" toilet, and skipping a true half-bath is a huge money saver.
- This gives us a LARGE half-bath /master toilet area instead of two skimpy small toilet areas . . . pool guests would find the half-bath large enough for changing clothes comfortably.
- Pool guests have easy access to half bath . . . without coming into living room /onto hardwood floors. The whole bath /laundry area will be tile.
- Pool guests can drop off towels as they come through the laundry room.
- Half bath is also easily accessible from the house, yet it's not visible from any of the rooms.
- Plenty of storage in the laundry room for pool towels /space for guests to leave clothes while swimming. Might do baskests or hooks for guest clothes.
- Ample closet space for the two of us and linens (didn't include a linen closet in the bathroom.
- Washer /dryer convenient to master bedroom closet.
- The bed is oriented correctly; that is, a person walking into the bedroom approaches the foot of the bed. Thus, no one has to walk around the bed to get to his side, no one has to walk around the bed to get to the bathroom.

Cons:
- Prime corner space is given to the closet, but it makes the closet convenient to both the bath and the laundry room . . . and we'll have a big window over the tub, perhaps a transom window over the vanity in the bath. No problem with windows in the laundry room. This leaves only the half-bath windowless. I don't like that, but it may be the only way. We could use an opaque glass door, which would allow in light but block view.
- THREE entrances to the master bath. That sounds horrible, but I think it'll flow well and give us flexibility.
- Excessive doorways?

Comments (4)

  • dekeoboe
    11 years ago

    We have NO PROBLEM with guests using "our" toilet, But how will your guests feel? I would feel uncomfortable using someone's master bath. Also, it is a bit odd that when guest come in from the pool they are looking directly into the master bedroom.

    If you plan on having a front load washer, you need to put the washer on the left of the dryer.

  • niteshadepromises
    11 years ago

    I think it would help a ton if you added door swing into the equation. With everything open as you've drawn it, it looks fine on paper. But you start adding doors which would be necessary for sure in this situation it starts to get kind of awkward. Make sure you take into account size of door and swing. Whats going to be blocked by the swing? Are you ok with that? Pocket doors would make this more doable I think, but then you have to consider with this many pocket doors what consequences they'd have (can't have electrical or plumbing in their spaces is my understanding) and are they even an option. Its also hard to really constructively criticize without dimension in the equation..is that hallway 3 ft or 6 ft? There is no telling on your drawing.

  • mrspete
    Original Author
    11 years ago

    From a guest's point of view, the half-bath will be no different from any other half-bath. I don't see why guests would object to using the master bath toilet.

    Yes, I drew the washer/dryer order without any thought. I do have a front-load washer now, and I'm not sure whether I'd buy one again or not. Fortunately, I don't have to make that decision today.

    You're right that I need to consider door swing. I do think doors may be the weak point here. I'm not a big fan of pocket doors, though I wouldn't completely rule them out.

    The hallway is 4' wide. One block per square foot.

    Thanks for the thoughts.

  • theballs
    11 years ago

    Can you show the rest of the floorplan? It seems quite difficult to critique without knowing what the rest of the floor looks like.

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