Thanks houssaon and rinqreation! Funny - hubby has the same 2 door hate! It sounds like I'm being outvoted on the shared ensuite idea. :) We've actually been set on both the configurations you suggested, we moved away from yours houssaon because we really wanted to keep a closed off office space (and hubby built the front deck and landing already for the door at the end of the hallway!). And I don't know why we shifted the door on the bedroom back to the same area, I think it was about having easy access to all the kids bedrooms. But maybe we should shift it back as you suggest rinqreation. Joice, the door at the end of the hallway is the front door, the entrance closest to the street, that you would come to first if you were a visitor. Not totally necessary, but we reinstated it before we decided we wanted the entrance up the stairs (middle bottom) which would be under a carport. Thanks for all your input!! It's really helpful to have some unattached opinions. I'm keen to hear from anyone else on the shared ensuite or 2 door hate question! :)

I don't think it would be able to work with the rest of the bathroom unfortunately. What did you decide to do?

Third vote for getting a professional involved, but i'll still offer my layman's suggestion given that you're just soliciting general ideas at this point. If it was my space, I'd switch the bathroom and the laundry room around, keeping just one of the walls currently enclosing the toilet. Its hard to estimate precise measurements from the drawing, so it may not be feasible, but here's what i mean

It all depends on what you want to do in your laundry and what in your bathroom I guess. I appreciate the fact that there might not be enough space to do this but I store outdoor shoes in the laundry and the dog's leash and cleaning stuff. I need room to sort the dirty laundry into piles before washing it. I keep the ironing board in there and I need a tub to wash things in and to do flowers in and to put the odd cloth that wiped up the cat sick before it gets rinsed and washed.. heaps of things other than just washing. Couldn't manage with a cupboard laundry ( piles of washing on the hall floor when using it) and think these kinds of laundry functions might not make a gorgeous lavendery bath or shower feel that luxurious. So I am for as big a laundry with tubs, cupboard and bench nearest the outside back entrance and yes washing line as poss. And a lovely fresh warm bathroom near the bedroom separate from the dirty clothes and boots and all that other stuff.