Post by gogreengowhite on Apr 2, 2015 17:50:07 GMT -5
My husband and I have been talking about a huge addition to our house the would be $xxxk. It would get a master suite with huge bathroom and laundry upstairs (currently in the basement)
We were talking today and realized we really want laundry on the main floor since that is where we spend 90% of our awake time at home.
How much would you pay and would you give up garage space for main floor laundry?
Ours is on the main level, but so is our master. Ds is upstairs, though. I like it. I do laundry whole im in the main part of the house. I fold it while watching tv. We have laundry baskets that i put it in to take to its respective locations.
I prefer laundry on the same floor as the bedrooms. If there are bedrooms on multiple floors, I'd want the laundry to be wherever the majority of the laundry comes from (so probably the kids' rooms?). I hate having to carry laundry up and down stairs.
I had a main floor laundry and hated it. Moved it to the basement and added a laundry chute. Maybe it's because my house is small and I wanted the floorspace? I also wanted the noise and mess in unfinished space that I don't care about (probably also related to small house). I would pay $0 to add on space for a laundry. Not worth it for me. But I freaking love my chute. LOVE.
Ohhhhh, a laundry chute. That would be awesome if I could get it from 2 stories up.
Post by UnderProtest on Apr 2, 2015 19:41:15 GMT -5
I have a main floor laundry and I HATE it. I so wish it was near the bedrooms and I'm on that likes to watch tv while folding. It might be that one of the kids rooms is four flights of stairs away from the kitchen/family room. Put it near the bedrooms!!!
Post by gogreengowhite on Apr 2, 2015 21:19:10 GMT -5
Okay, now I've thought it through, taking up main floor space (there's not a ton) really wouldn't be worth it.
I started looking at other homes in our neighborhood and it will be cheaper to do the addition, maybe in two years after the kids are out of daycare we can go that route.
I believe in laundry as close to the bedrooms as possible. Although growing up we had a laundry chute and it was awesome, except when my 9 year old devil self wanted to throw my 5 year old brother down it.
Post by delawarejen on Apr 2, 2015 21:59:15 GMT -5
I have my laundry on the 2nd floor. It's fantastic. Unfortunately this isn't a good idea with plaster ceilings as it has cracked the 1st floor ceiling from the vibration, but I'm assuming you have drywall and won't have this problem.
Growing up we had a laundry chute. I think my brothers liked to throw toys down it, my mom would find them in the wash sometimes.
Now that I have it in the basement, I'd take anything but that, really. It's not awful, but it can be a pain after a while. Between main floor upstairs, though, I'd prefer main floor.
At least my butt's getting some toning? That's what I tell myself...
Post by doctorsbaby on Apr 2, 2015 23:24:12 GMT -5
We currently have main floor laundry and I miss having it on the same floor as the bedrooms. It's a pain to drag laundry down stairs & back up once it's clean. We end up with so much more stuff piled in the laundry room than when it was on the 2nd floor.
The house I grew up in has the addition on it (over the garage) and it opened up a ton of space for our family growing up - my parents did a giant master suite with dressing area, walk in closet, master bath, and then a linen closet and home office. You could sneak the new laundry in that type of a layout and never have to lug baskets up and down the stairs!
The house I grew up in has the addition on it (over the garage) and it opened up a ton of space for our family growing up - my parents did a giant master suite with dressing area, walk in closet, master bath, and then a linen closet and home office. You could sneak the new laundry in that type of a layout and never have to lug baskets up and down the stairs!
This is exactly the addition we have been discussing. We are just trying to figure out if we can stomach the huge price tag. However, we love our neighborhood and probably will be here for the long haul, so why not?
I'm a big fan of laundry/mud room entries off the garage. So you enter from the garage into a room that functions as a mudroom, but also includes a washer, dryer, and a big, deep utility sink. I find it's awesome when we've been doing messy stuff out in the garage/yard, because our mucky clothes can go directly into the wash right there, and we don't track whatever any further into the house.
It's also great for handling the mess after DH has come in from the field. Pretty much everything he takes with him has to go thru either the washer/dryer, or get scrubbed in the sink.
I am sitting on the sofa right now dreading going upstairs to fold laundry. I really miss having our laundry right off the great room. It was so much easier to get it folded, which is what takes the most time, but also easier to remember to change it through the day. I would love to have a laundry/mud room off the back door, next to the kitchen/ family room, where everything could get dumped when people come in the door and the kids shoes, bags, and sports stuff could live.
Unfortunately, the style here is to build new homes with the washer upstairs, and few homes have garages (we have a "carage", which is like a carport with three somewhat enclosed sides, but even that is uncommon.
How big is your garage? Does it have room for a decent sized laundry/mud room, or would it just be more of a closet with just room for a washer and dryer and maybe a utility sink? Would the garage still have room for bikes and other necessary tools commonly needed in your area? If so, I would definitely put it there. If not, I would not spend the money to put it there and would incorporate it either into your master suite or somewhere on the bedroom floor.
I have laundry on the main floor and I prefer that for a lot of reasons. I never liked having laundry in the basement, but that was because I have always lived in old houses with old, dirty/creepy basements. I have no interest in having laundry on the second floor near the bedrooms, because again, with old houses this seems like a liability waiting to happen as far as a possible leak, cracking plaster walls and ceilings...no thank you. Lastly, we seem to generate a lot of muddy and dirty laundry between all of our outdoor activities, lawn and garden work, and the dog. I love being able to just walk in from outside and throw that stuff right in the wash rather than trekking it through the whole house.
In an ideal world, I'd have a nice little mudroom entrance with laundry right there. But alas, where it is now is still most practical for us. I don't know how much I'd pay to relocate laundry, but I like it on the main floor best.
I've been looking at a lot of floor plans lately since we are toying with the idea of building. I'm torn between a main floor and second floor laundry. On one hand, it would be so nice to have it on the 2nd floor with the bedrooms where most of the laundry is generated. On the other hand it would be nice to have it on the main floor so I could throw in a load while I'm making dinner, etc. The biggest thing is that I usually hang the laundry outside to dry when the weather is nice (about 4-5 months of the year here) and for that purpose, it would be better to have laundry on the main floor.
We have washer/dryer hookups on both levels, but we only have a W/D on the first floor now. It's in a laundry room off the kitchen. The master bedroom is on the first floor; kids' bedrooms are on the second floor. The previous owners had a W/D on both levels because they had an aging parent using an upstairs bedroom, and the laundry was set up off that bedroom to give her a little suite. My son is now in that bedroom, and I don't want a W/D in his closet.
In our last house had the laundry room on the second floor with all the bedrooms. It was nice, but I don't really miss it. We just fold the laundry in our bedroom on the first floor front of TV, then the two older kids take their clean clothes upstairs and put them away. The baby's clothes are the only ones I carry upstairs myself.
Our current floor plan doesn't allow for laundry by the garage but we plan to move it up from the basement to the hall bath on the main level in the next couple of years. We bought a ranch so everything could be on one floor so we can live here until we go into the home.
Previous owners had already built a little laundry room in the garage. We love it because it is next to the family room, so easy to rotate without much thought.
We live in a mild climate, so it is NBD for us to park in the driveway. If I lived in more extreme weather I wouldn't want to give up the space!
My laundry is in the basement and it SUCKS. I have an older home from 1940 with kind of steep steps and I have to bring the laundry down two flights of stairs. I would much prefer to have my laundry on the same level as my bedrooms, just so I didn't have to haul it. If that wasn't possible, I would prefer on the main level over the basement.
What I woudln't want is my laundry in the garage - but that's because I have a detached single car garage that I couldn't even get to for half the winter because I was too lazy to shovel a path through snowpocalypse.
I have basement laundry and I plan on moving it to the first floor. I would never in a million years put it on the second floor due to weight and water issues.
My mom has hookups in the basement, but a previous owner converted a really small breakfast room into a laundry room, which is really nice. She has a 1 story house.
Post by peachdragon on Apr 3, 2015 20:59:41 GMT -5
I don't understand the love of having a laundry room on the second floor. I like it on my main floor, because that is where I am when the machines are running. I wouldn't love having to run upstairs every time I needed to change the loads. I only do laundry once a week (3-4 loads), so maybe that's different than others.