I was wondering about that “unused space” in the new foyer, between the closet and the laundry room. I was figuring you could have a coat rack, shoe rack, nice piece of furniture there, etc. If you’d rather have a longer closet to hide all that stuff in, your plan sounds great!
My carpenter is in the throes of window framing, and the contractor for the kitchen redo was over today with an electrician and a plumber to talk strategy. Getting very dusty and very exciting! Cabinets are leaving the factory on Feb 9 which means they’ll likely get here right on Mardi Gras day. Good luck with that Mr. Trucker!
notrichenough, you are on to something. Also, you could then put the laundry room first in the hall next to the kitchen.
The shared bath stays the same but just moves further down the hall. Same everything they just switch places.
My regular floors are old oak floor boards and the stairs are solid oak treads. I don’t think it’s normal for stairs to be identical to floors. You should be able to get a real wood that matches your laminate.
@notrichenough I’m not bothered by the laundry - it’s behind a door after all. If it had double doors facing the living room, you could have room for a small folding area or just laundry storage next to the washing machines, but I can see you’d rather have a wall for art work or whatever in the living room. I think there might be a way to rearrange bathrooms, closets and laundry so that your laundry has more useful space. But it’s all definitely a big improvement.
NRE - do you really need 3 bedrooms on that floor? I would try convert bedroom 1 (closest to the kitchen) to a hall bath and separate laundry room, and use the space that houses hall bath, MB, and laundry room to create a bigger WIC and a bigger master bath with enclosed toilet and dual vanity. After all, the master of the house deserves the best space! 
Thought about this, but that bathroom also will serve the rest of the first floor, so I wanted it as close to the living areas as possible. Plus, it provides a nice buffer between the master bath, so I don’t have to hear people using the bathroom.
Need? I don’t know… at times. I like having 3 bedrooms, and I think it makes a big difference for re-sale. Not that we have plans to sell it, but you never know.
It will probably do double duty as an office.
If you plan on being in the space for a while, make it yours. Screw the resale. That’s what we are doing!
I found a roll of the original blueprints (from 1980) for our house. The second story had a grandeur design! It was one 1,200 sft (!) master suite, including a large bedroom complete with a working office area, six closets/dressing room, a deck, and a two-room bathroom that had “tub room” with a door leading onto that deck. Must have been the mysterious “hot tub” on the breaker panel. Amazing! The second owner turned it into a 3-bedroom, hall, and MB run of the mill design. I kind of want that grandeur back! 
“Thought about this, but that bathroom also will serve the rest of the first floor, so I wanted it as close to the living areas as possible. Plus, it provides a nice buffer between the master bath, so I don’t have to hear people using the bathroom.”
I agree!
I was a person who always said forget resale, that I was getting carried out sideways. I’m backtracking. You just cannot tell the future and what your county may or may not dump on you, forcing a never-being-sold into a how-quickly-can I sell before the market drops 50%.
Real estate is so local though, so maybe 2 bedrooms do sell in other areas. I’d be leery here of not having 3 bedrooms.
Isn’t there a whole ground floor for additional living space?
Man cave. 
I anticipate having multiple guests or guests with kids often enough that the 3rd bedroom will get a lot of use.
Ahh… the man cave.
Yes, if the bathroom is also a guest bath–works great.
Hi there - can I intrude to ask a WWYD type question?
We bought crappy Home Despot laundry room cabinets 10 years ago and after about 5 years the frame separated on all of them (you do get what you pay for).
I got a local guy to come do an estimate on putting in new, quality cabinets. His estimate is for about $2k and for the actual cabinets, he linked to an online company’s cabinets. So it’s $500 just for shipping!!
My question is: wouldn’t you expect a local contractor to have a good source of local supplies? This just boggles my mind - that a quarter of the bid is shipping?!
I’m thinking we just go to Lowe’s or whatever and not buy the bargain basement level cabinets this time, then get this guy to install them. I simply can’t fathom an online company having that much better quality.
Our cabinets were sort of “online.” The company does not have a shop here, just a small display at a local cabinetry store. That said, they were custom made in a shop in another state according to the specs and shipped here.
Are the online cabinets you are considering made of plywood or particle board? If the latter, do not even consider them for installation in places where they can be exposed to moisture.
@Gatormama a few years ago we completely redid our kitchen. I first went to a big box store and got an estimate - they couldn’t do a non conventional island to fit our space so it would have added some labor to make their cabinets fit. Next I went to a custom cabinet shop that has a factory in town. Had them bid like for like, added some bells and whistles and the price was within $500 -FOR THE WHOLE KITCHEN! . Dont’ be afraid to ask a local cabinet shop for a price - quality is amazing and I love every inch of the kitchen.
They appear to be plywood.
Here’s the link, @BunsenBurner
https://www.bestonlinecabinets.com/rta-kitchen-cabinets/white-shaker.html
Yeah, you’re probably right, @threebeans…but…sigh… I just want the flippin’ cabinets in already. (I have lived with a horrific lack of storage space, a wall with a huge gap in it where one cabinet fell off, flanked by cockeyed barely-hanging-on remnants, for years now).
It’s a laundry room. I have zero soul invested in this room. I wanted to invest zero time too
These look like decent quality RTA boxes (meaning the guy gets to put them together - is he charging for this labor?). I am surprised that it would cost $500 to ship them… They don’t openly say where they make them. China?