You could put it in the wall (under the blue electrical box} on the first step or in the door. All the homes I know or lived in the basement door opens to the first step down. . The height will be close to the same what ever way you go. . If a cat is able to walk up and down steps then their will be no problem for the cat to get through the cat hole. We always had the cat hole in the door, we didn't have a wall next to the steps that would look good with a hole in it. Not a bad idea putting it in the laundry room like you show it. Our cat holes were shaped in a cat's head.

We had the stair designer come by today, and it was a great meeting. I think the last time he was here we caught him on a bad day but this time he was really helpful, taking the time to answer all my questions and walk me through the design logic behind various aspects of his drawing. It helped that I came prepared with a better understanding of stair ergonomics and code thanks to those who have taken the time to share their thoughts with me on this thread. The end result is that we have made some minor tweaks and improvements to the plan, I'm getting what I want out of it, and I understand exactly why each of the various choices have been made. Key highlights: 1. We are doing away with the top 20" landing which @res2architect and @3onthetree objected to, and converting upper stairs to four equal 11.25" deep steps. The stairs will begin right when you open the door from the kitchen, but that door opens in to the kitchen (i.e. does not swing over the stairs) and in any case we plan to remove it in a few years once we're done the toddler phase and just have an open doorway there. I thought the point about the odd stride pattern from kitchen to backyard was an important one, especially as that's where we'll come in and out of the backyard, often carrying dishes and food to bbq and so on. The upper portion of the stairs are also the piece that guests will use the most so it will be good to minimize the quirks there. 2. We are going to have the stair railings built to be removable -- @Sandra Guistwhite sort of what you were suggesting (thanks, that was thoughtful). Not hinged or anything, just something that can be unbolted and taken off if we ever need to bring a sofa through or replace the washing machine, or if we really need much wider access to the under-stairs area for a project. 3. We are going to place the bottom newel post on the second step up from the lower landing and begin the handrail there to allow slightly better access to the under-stair area. This (and only this) part of the design is in fact a deviation from contemporary Ontario building code but since we don't have an inspector coming in we can get away with it, and I can see from some googling that it's a pretty common design that doesn't seem particularly risky. In fact, I only realized today this is how our other main staircase is designed, and my parent's staircase is the same, so I presume it was the norm in a previous era. At the end of it all, I think we'll have stairs which would alarm many Houzzers who are accustomed to a different type of housing stock and set of codes, but which will be relatively safe and work well for our needs and our quirky space. The stair designer told me today that he's done several sets of stairs in our immediate neighbourhood and designs like this are very often necessary. It turns out lots of people are putting in winder steps in high end contemporary renovations around here out of necessity. I do want to thank everyone who took the time to think about this and share their comments, even if the main thrust of many of them was "wow, you are/ your house is insane". I'll be sure to come back and post a photo when it's all done so you can see how it's turned out, even if it does end up horrifying some of you. I have a thick skin and can take it, and I do feel confident we're proceeding with the plan that's right for us and our house. I'm excited to see this come together!

How often is the door open? What issue is it causing when it blocks the hallway? My basement door blocks a hallway, but the linen closet in the other hallway opens outward and blocks that hallway. The thing is that they are not often open and aren't left open. Maybe put an auto close on the basement door so that it can't be left open and your problem will go away. I am thinking about my sister's homes and both of their basement doors block a hallway inside their home. Their homes are not really all that old. (10 years/ 30 years vs my 70 year old home). I would not want a pocket door at the basement. I have a pocket door in my current home, my parents had pocket doors in their home and years ago I had an apartment where the only bathroom in the apt had a pocket door. None of the pocket doors were ever closed with the exception of the bathroom, and that was only closed when a guest used it or a guest was in the home when I used it. I didn't fuss with it when I didn't have to.

Duplicate post.