Baby monitor

We have been doing some renovations, and will soon be moving our bed down to the very basement level of our 4 level split, so that each of the kids can have their own rooms (which are on the top level). I have made some changes, such as installing smoke detectors in all their rooms, and carbon monoxide detectors on all levels of the house, new locks for upstairs doors to the exterior that do not involve the keyed deadbolts we used to haveetc, but the one thing that is still bothering me is I am concerned about not being able to hear the kids calling out to me in the night. I have been thinking about getting a baby monitor to keep in the bathroom (most central location upstairs with a plug no plugs in the hall, and all kids sleep with their doors closed) Any suggestions about one that will look kind of sophisticated in the bathroom, that will have a good range, and what I am really looking for, is one where the base actually plugs right into the wall, so there will not be a lot of cord laying around on the fairly small bathroom counter. Also, a neat feature would be if it would work both ways - ie like a walkie talkie, so I could listen, but also talk up to the kids...hmmmmm now that I read all of that, maybe I need to design my own monitor and make big $$$ TIA for any suggestions

I have the fisher price monitor. Not anything spectacular but it works well. My only thought about having the monitor in the bathroom, is you will be able to here everything that goes on in your bathroom loud and clear in your room. My friends have a 3 story house, they all sleep upstairs but the TV is all the way down stairs. She has a fisher price monitor in the youngest's room and when downstairs you can hear calling/talking from all their kids in their upstairs rooms.

My brother and SIL just bought phones that have handsets that can be used as room monitors. I'm not sure which kind they have, but they're pretty sleek-looking - black instead of "baby monitor white", etc. I don't know of all the features but since it's a phone I'm sure you can talk to the kids...? Probably has an intercom/2-way-radio feature, I guess.

we have safety 1st monitors, and they work very well. what's important is not so much the brand (they all use common parts made by other companies) but that they operate at 900MHz. that gives a pretty clear signal. but if you use 900MHz cordless phones in your house, they *may* interfere (but not necessarily). our monitor even works all the way out into the yard, if i'm working out in the yard while DD1 is napping.