Solving Laundry’s Ups N’ Downs
Hello,
In blogging now only for a few weeks, I must say this whole thing still is a bit of a mystery to me. I have been writing/posting, but my gut tells me these postings are maybe just a tad (or a lot) too long. If you agree or disagree, please don’t be afraid to leave a comment.
I was thinking today about the ideal location and the ideal features of the ideal laundry room. As in my last blog, so much of what we each expect in a home is just because we are creatures of habit. It takes someone to be the first to introduce some new twist in home design before it can catch on and (if the new twist makes sense or is attractive enough) before it can become a “norm” of the industry. For example, how did we ever go from having ranches with all of the bedrooms on the same side of the home to today’s “norm” of having the master secluded on one side and the other bedrooms on the other side of the home? This split bedroom is so common that no one gives it a second thought. As I said in my previous posting, who ever decided that instead of opening the doors on a traditional closet, we should “walk-into” the closet? For years the “norm” in doing laundry was to have the machines in the basement. Who was the first to think of bringing the laundry up to the first floor? Microwave range hoods, laminate flooring, private toilet rooms in a master bath, I could go on and on.
For the past few years, one idea that has been sputtering up the “norm” ladder erratically, is the 2nd floor laundry room. If you have a 2-story or a master on first floor/other bedrooms upstairs design, the upstairs laundry is getting quite popular. Years ago, I knew someone who had a luxury lake house and had the laundry upstairs. I was just breaking into the home design and building business and this idea immediately intrigued me. So , I asked how that family, or to be more precise, the Mother (she did all the laundry for that family of 4 boys), how she felt about having her laundry upstairs?
She did not particularly like it. Keep in mind, today, I design and build a lot of 2nd floor laundry rooms. ( If you are a ranch person, stay tuned) . She explained the drawbacks to her was that yes, while the dirty clothes ARE generated upstairs (assuming all bedrooms are upstairs), she spends little of her non-sleeping hours upstairs. Therefore having to do laundry upstairs means having to be constantly climbing stairs to do the various phases of the laundry routine. Imagine the routine. Put the clothes in. Go downstairs to work or relax. Go upstairs a 2nd time to take the laundry out of the washer and put them into the dryer. Go downstairs to relax or work. Go upstairs again to see if the wash is dry. Oops, it still needs 10 more minutes. Go downstairs again to relax or work. Go upstairs to take the laundry out of the dryer and put it away. The door bell rings or the cookies are done and once again you must go downstairs unexpectedly only to immediately go back upstairs to finish putting the clothes away. Now, you finally can go downstairs to relax or work (mostly relax after all of this).
On the plus side, Mom probably saved money by not needing to buy a treadmill! Now imagine Mom is going to bed and when she had the laundry on the first floor, she would have always put a load into the washer first. Or, in the morning, Mom gets up first and used to decide to do a load of wash. When the laundry is near the bedrooms, she now needs to consider delaying putting those clothes into the wash in fear of waking up the rest of the house. When it was downstairs, she could do the wash without regaurd to a sleeping family.
If you have been reading any of my blogs, you know I think great home design comes from evaluating the pluses and minuses of a particular design challenge then methodically getting past those problems by using a little creative problem solving. The problem with an upstairs laundry is , firstly, noise. Secondly, needing to make trips upstairs to do the laundry. Third, potential water overflowing may mean flooding a lot of the home if an accident was to happen.
We can surely (and easily) really only adequately solve two of the three problems. The flooding is easily solved by opting to put a pan with drain under the washer. This is a mini -shower floor in it’s appearance with a drain in the pan’s floor middle area.
The privacy issue can be solved by using a heavy dose of creative placement in the design of where the laundry will be located upstairs. The laundry could be placed in a location that is far away from the bedroom’s bed walls and then it could be sound (and even vibration) insulated.
As for solving the multiple trips, short of installing a stair lift or elevator, there is no easy answer to this one. One solution may be to have a staircase that goes up half way from floor 1 to floor 2 then has a flat transition landing. At that landing, the stairs then change directions and continues up the 2nd half of the flight of stairs. The laundry room could be located to enter NOT on either the first or second floors but rather on this landing between the levels.
The up and down routine becomes even more of a hassle if you have the master on the first floor and have some family members sleeping upstairs. For this, I do have a new “wild idea“ I am aching to share with you which will also work wonderfully for you many ranch people. It is an idea so simple, that like the first guy to invent the walk-in closet idea, you may find the solution at first odd but then (hopefully) agree it may be exactly what every house should(and someday might) have, that makes old laundry room ideas obsolete. Think outside the box and see tomorrow’s blog entry. As I started this blog today, I am trying to cut-back on my length so I will cover these further laundry “wild Ideas” to make your life easier, tomorrow.
An hour ago, one of Miracle’s long time staffers informed me he had received an offer on one of our Jackson spec homes we are just roughing. The roof just went on this home today! I hope we can accept this offer because I know these good people have grand kids living right next door to this home. I can only believe this will be such a blessing to this family and serve to enrich folk’s lives (makes me smile to think about improving living for folks any way I can). About 5 minutes ago, another long time Miracle staffer came in and had just signed a contract to build a home for some nice folks in Palmira. I have not yet put this new name to a face but I can’t wait to meet them. It is unusual that I have not met someone we are building for before we get this far, but praise God they apparently have an adequate degree of trust in us, without me having had the honor to meet them first. I will do all I can to be worthy of their trust. I hope we never forget that, as a builder, we are having a huge honor thrust upon us each time someone selects us to build their home. Oops! here goes that sales-sounding stuff again. Sorry.
I do have a special announcement to share with you blog readers tomorrow. Until then….
Blessings,
Tom Hignite
