DH is completely opposed to a central vac, which is fine.

Since he does all the vacuuming and cleans the filters weekly, I guess that's his choice.

vent in the floor It's called a dustpan inlet, a common option on central vacuums. I suppose you could have that and nothing else connected a central vacuum.

Nice to hear that you don't have to do the laundry with a washboard and bucket. By all means, install a drain and containment area for the washer. (It's mandatory here.) Typical 2x10 floor joists @16" centers should be sufficient structure. Vibration absorbing pads under the washer will reduce the rock 'n roll.

2nd floor laundry here - in room next to nursery. The house does not shake - we did get a front loader model that has a good self balancing system. You mention top loader - those are even less prone to shaking. I really would consider front loaders for about 100 reasons particularly if you do a lot of laundry. Some myths (or old facts) of front loaders are no longer true - like shaking or excessively long cycles.

Have the husband give me a call on that central vac matter. I do believe it is my wife's favorite feature of our house (and that is saying a lot). Tell us his issues so we can shoot them down one by one......

But yes you can do a shop vac to a vacpan but you have to come up with the relay since the switch in a vacpac is low voltage. That isn't hard or expensive but it isn't plug and play. Since there is nothing else attached, you could put in a high voltage switch on the wall and leave the vacpan open all the time. I guess that is plug and play - easiest if you have unfinished space under where you want the vacpan. The high voltage switch at usual level would actually be preferable since the vacpan is a little tricky to turn on and off - not hard but a bit harder than flipping a light switch.

Hi
You sound like me. I have 6 kids (4 girls and 2 boys). I designed my own house and have been waiting 2 years to build it. We have a house that needs to sell first. I am very excited about having a 2nd floor laundry with 2 sets of w/d. One thing I'm doing is trying to give our kids all their own rooms, or at the very least only 2 having to share. In our current house, it has been hard with them sharing. Maybe it's the age gaps, I don't know.

frozenelves8 - how far apart are your kids? Mine are all close in age. The oldest (son) is 7 1/2, then 4 girls - 3 of whom were born in 25 months), a 2yo, and baby #6 (unknown gender) due in the next few weeks. We are hoping to break ground in March. We fell in love with the Life Magazine 1999 Dream House and Sarah Susanka's Not-so-Big principles and have been planning this project for nearly that entire time. We have adapted the plans to meet the needs for our growing family and like to joke that we are building the bigger "not-so-big" house for our "not-so-small" family! We have planned a dorm style suite for the girls (space above the garage) that includes a big bedroom with 6 built-in bed nooks that can each be closed off with a curtain. There are two nooks side-by side built into dormers, with a large floor space in the middle. They will share a walk-in closet which will also have dressers (which just happens to be located immediately adjacent to the 2nd floor laundry, since I imagine they will be generating the largest amt of dirty clothes! The bath will have 2 toilets, 2 showers, and 2-4 sinks...we are still working out the specifics of that. As the plans stand, my son will have his own room for now with bunk beds, and share a Jack and Jill style bath with the guest room. If baby #6 is a boy, he will probably eventually go in there - once he is not nursing around the clock and moves out of the nursery (our walk-in closet). We are Catholic and both young (mid 30's) so have potential for more kids. We will have a first floor guest space (though not a dedicated room - it will be a Murphy bed in our "away" room (office, computer, library) and the potential to finish off the basement down the road for an in-law suite, or older teen bedroom. Our primary living area on the first floor (DR, LR, kitchen) is all one open space (with lowered ceilings and floor changes to delineate different areas) except for the closed off away room, and the "back hall" to the garage which will house a pantry and sizable mudroom. We designed the house to maximize the family living spaces, but included several "get away" areas, like a window seat nook on the switchback stair landing. It's nice to hear from other big families. There are a few on here. It's a very daunting task to build ANY time, I'm sure, but especially so when you are on a fixed budget, have very unique needs, and may not have champagne and caviar tastes, but want certain higher quality and not builder grade finishes.

Anyways...good luck with your project. I look forward to hearing more about it.

I have a second floor laundry. I must say I get less done with it there as I must Make myself go upstairs to do a load versus say, going out the mudroom door throwing in a load...I also do not have the house shake but I hate the new TL washers. Wish I kept my oldfashioned full of water with agitator kenmore... I don't have a floor drain, I never had a problem previously...

I know this is an old thread, but did you ever start your build. I had baby number 7 after I posted here originally and then just started coming back to GW to do some house research.