I am working on designing storage room addition to my house in Tucson, Arizona with the end intent to have it be easily convertible into a workshop in the near future and bedroom in the far future. I myself work in the building electrical design field, and I have a family friend who is an architect who I am working with as questions arise through the design process. Right now, things are at the feasibility and cost estimate phase with there being one large issue that I naively assumed before starting the initial design. The addition will add a pseudo-enclosed Arizona room onto the existing master bedroom. It will have a operable 24"x48" skylight and 36”x80” door to the outside. The existing master bedroom has a 72”x80” wide sliding glass door located roughly in the middle of a 156”x93” bearing wall that currently opens into a screened in Arizona room. Because of the size of the addition, the existing master bedroom will have to be brought up to code which is not an issue mechanically or electrically. My problem arises from the fact that the architect is saying I will need to add an egress window in the existing master bedroom to bring it up to current building code. My thought is that by removing the existing sliding glass door and/or widening the opening, the master bedroom and Arizona room could be considered the same habitable space. Unfortunately, I have not found anything in the IRC that explains what exactly constitutes the separation of spaces. The closest I have found is R303.2 where any room shall be considered as portion of an adjoining room when at least one-half of the area of the common wall is open and unobstructed and provides an opening of not less than one-tenth of the floor area of the interior room but not less than 25 square feet (2.3 m²); however, this only deals with light and ventilation as I interpret the code and not egress requirements. The Tucson Developmental Code amendments are of no help either. I have attached 2 screen prints to help clarify what I am trying to ask. Can someone tell me if there is a clear legal definition of what a room actually is? Or is this more an answer that varies depending on the plan reviewer/inspector? Thanks.
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