I too like Marilyn’s idea of the laundry room in the craft area, probably because I’m not crafty in the least. As for basement storage space, is there a basement in this house? Or are we talking “California basement”, i.e., the garage?
If you do move the powder room into the pantry, leave the door to it out in the foyer… not a big fan of bathrooms right off the kitchen.
If you do move the laundry room, then you don’t need a laundry chute, since you have the dumbwaiter right opposite it. Stuff from upstairs can be sent up and down the dumbwaiter to be laundered. Then again, if you really want to get fancy, you could put a small washer/dryer combo unit upstairs, under the counter in the small wet bar area. However, I think it’s probably too crowded for it in that area.
PS Love the upstairs! Looks like a great retreat/entertaining area.
Just spent more time analyzing plans. I swapped closet in back bdrm on main floor with craft room. Changed doors around. This allows me to put big window in craft room. Room could be for crafts and/or a computer homework room capable of having two stations or small office
Rearranged laundry so it has broom closet and a door to access storage under staircase.
Why not just have the space that is currently the closet in the back bedroom be a nook in the bedroom? That diagonal wall in the bedroom isn’t all that nice and the craft room will be the size of a small bathroom. I think it would be much nicer to have a little office nook off the bedroom than a very small craft room/ office. Even with a window it would be pretty claustrophobic in that tiny room. Or move the powder room down there. (I can’t remember where the powder room currently is, but I prefer a powder room a bit away from the main entertaining space.)
Not sure if you are interested in all these comments, but on the upstairs deck, I would definitely, definitely extend the deck to the area where the bar currently is and have that bar area be an outdoor kitchen. More deck area is 1000% more important than the bar inside.
Or, alternatively, forget about the bar and the outdoor kitchen and have access to the larger deck from both the family room and the master bedroom.
I’m not totally up on the orientation of this property. Which direction off the upstairs deck is the view?
The left side of 2nd story is south and captures the sunset and ocean views. Right side (master bdrm) captures views over Mission Bay and coastline to La Jolla. Those views are out NW corner of house but there are power lines coming down alley.
Crafter here. There is a room in our basement that would for for a craft room. I will not use it – I need windows. I don’t want artificial light messing with my color perception. How big is the craft room? I use S1’s old bedroom. It’s 10x10 and I could EASILY use twice the space. That;'s a luxury I’m not getting unless I’m living alone and have found a pot of $$! 
I wouldn’t want my guests going through my MBR to get to a deck. That’s where I throw all out junk when visitors come to visit!
I’m still trying to figure out where the second story will be. Will it be over the entire wing where the bedrooms are? Will it extend over the kitchen? I’m afraid i can’t quite make out from the drawings how the various elements fit together. For example, it is not clear to me where the garage is.
It sure would be nice if you could get a larger deck facing the view!
Silly me! I thought the outdoor kitchen would be on the patio level…in that nice flat yard!
That makes more sense. I was just meaning to say that I didn’t think that bar area was necessary inside upstairs.
Another vote for two baths instead of the jack and Jill. Take part of the craft area for the bathtub number two, and make an " office" niche from the hall with the rest or move laundry there.
Another day, another revision
I’ve loaded the changes I made today on the main floor as photos in our Flickr group. Going to work on the 2nd story this weekend. Spent a lot of time measuring things and thinking through all your suggestions. For some reason my agent is insisting on a craft room as a big selling point.
Hall Bath - I suddenly realized that I had total dead space where the closet is in the bedroom that is being converted to the stairs up to 2nd story. Unfortunately my carpenter had already plumbed in the toilet with my original design and I made him redo the whole toilet area. Created a separate water closet and moved toilet to exterior wall. Then we captured enough space to have a nice linen closet in the bathroom.
Powder Room - removed powder room from foyer and dining room and put it where walk in pantry was designed. Door to access powder room will be from the foyer/hall. It might be kind of weird because there is powder room/stairs / large hall bath as you go down the hall. Starting to think powder room might be over kill since hall bath is right there in hallway. Kept the original foyer coat closet that is currently being used for furnace
Added a 7’ row of pantry cabinets along eastern wall of kitchen to make up for removing walk in pantry.
There is more pantry type storage in hallway with dumbwaiter.
Laundry room - added a broom closet and a door to access large storage under stairway. However, I think the suggestions to have laundry closer to the stairs up from garage is a great idea… just have to figure it out
Craft room - craft room is switched over to prior back bedroom closet area on West exterior wall and squared out. It is now 8 feet wide and 6 feet deep. This allows for a window to be in the room. I definitely agree that crafts could be done in basement - there are high windows in the basement area. Maybe we will call this an office.
Bedroom closets - I really was not happy with how small the middle bedroom was so I created two 6’ long closets in both bedrooms so that I could remove the long closet in middle bedroom and give more sq ft to middle bedroom
Back bedroom - there is a ‘nook’ available in that bedroom already in the area where the corner windows are
Jack and Jill bathrooms. Keeping them for now because it saves 31 sq ft to share the shower.
One of the reasons that I don’t want to add the office area to the back bedroom is because that limits it to the person living in that bedroom.
The photos of the floor plan I loaded shows the garage layouts on same page. They are aligned to where they are below the floor.
Right now I would REALLY like to vault the kitchen ceiling. There is great architectural roof design above the kitchen. In fact, there are no structural roof trusses or anything. I have no idea why the original builder did not vault kitchen area, the angles are gorgeous. Because of this crazy desire, the 2nd story has to start at the back of the kitchen. This limits me to 36’ of length upstairs.
If you are going to push the second floor up 3-4 feet to get the best views, maybe that gives you enough headroom to do some kind of cool vaulting treatment.
What’s going to give you the most bang for the buck, a fully vaulted kitchen ceiling or a bigger second floor?
It’s kind of nice you can do stuff like that, since you don’t have to worry about 3’ snow loads.
Oooh, I really like the relocated craft room, a window makes it much more versatile. Homework room, office, many uses.
Eta, Oooh gets autocorrected to Pooh…as in Winnie the Floorplan?
Model Home Porn
For those of you that love looking at beautiful homes… I sent my sister out on a spy mission to a new development in San Clemente, CA. She sent pics and was drooling over everything in these model homes. I’ve been looking at their floor plans and it appears that butler pantries and craft rooms are big items (which she mentioned to me). However, these homes are in the 3,000 sq ft and 4,000 sq ft range so they have some extra space for these rooms.
Sea Summit in San Clemente
Exteriors are nicer than the average home. In fact, I think I will do a Juliet wrought iron balcony across back of master bedroom on 2nd story so that I can re-use the huge Anderson wood sliding door that was in the dining room. It’s kind of dirty but I think it will paint up really nice. And, the wrought iron Juliet balcony across back of house will add some design to the big box from the alley
Pay close attention to the ceilings. They have some beautiful wood tongue/groove ceilings with glossy white paint and some nice wood beams
I have ordered this vanity for the Hall Bath. I realize it has legs, but there are hardly any stylish vanities out there without legs.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Home-Decorators-Collection-Claxby-48-in-W-Vanity-Cabinet-in-Flagstone-Gray-CBSD48-FG/206487034
I like that vanity…it has simple but nice lines…and good storage…and a mop can fit under it!
I like it too, and I like the fact that it allows you to select your own countertop. Since the legs are all wood, I bet you can remove the leg levelers.
Nice! Best legged small vanity I’ve seen in this price range. Very good use of space with all those drawers!