hi mara! Unfortunately, I think laundry in the basement is the only option for this house unless we want to give up one of the second floor bedrooms (which I don't think makes sense and would entail WAY more intrusive construction than we want). I agree that it's not ideal, but it is what it is. I sketched out a couple of ideas for the basement space...would you mind taking a look? Here is the current basement overall. The door on the right by the toilet leads to the new part of the basement under our kitchen addition. That space is already finished and is what I'm calling potential guest room/man cave. It has outside egress through a pair of "Dorothy doors". So the way it is now you come down stairs from the breakfast room into an unfinished basement with a cement floor, low ductwork and rubble stone walls and wind your way past open laundry, furnace, a non-functioning toilet in a tiny wood enclosure to reach the nice finished space. It's a pretty odd setup. The black dots in the sketch are steel support beams. We had an HVAC guy out yesterday who can fix most of the ducting issues. Our thought is to drywall the whole left section of the basement, adding lots of lighting and tile or pergo floors. This will give us a 12' by 24' rec room (we currently have a smallish living room and no family room upstairs, so I think this space will be important to future buyers). The plan is to use the upper right quadrant of the space for the utility functions of the basement: laundry, bathroom, furnace room. Plumbing and gas lines are already there, so I think this makes sense. It also has to serve as the hallway to the new portion of the basement. My husband's beloved workshop would get drywall and a door, but would otherwise be untouched. Here is the idea that I think I like best so far. A stacking washer and dryer and the laundry sink would be behind double pocket doors. The pocket doors would open all the way and stow in the wall by the shower. There would be a cabinet with storage below and space to fold laundry just opposite the laundry. There could be an upper cabinet or open shelves above. Access to the storage closet (which will have pretty low headroom due to ducting) would be from the rec room. Here is the other idea that I'm also considering. The stacked washer/dryer and sink would be behind double doors that swing open on heavy-duty hinges. On the inside of the left door, I could hang my iron and ironing board. On the inside of the right door would be a fold-down table. The right door would open all the way against the wall backing up to the shower and the table (I think it could be about 3' by 2') would unfold into the hallway space. In this plan, the access to the storage closet would be across from the laundry. If I wanted to keep the washer and dryer side-by-side and still have a sink, I'd have to put the sink where the shower is in the sketches above. I think it makes more sense to stack machines, keep to a smaller laundry footprint, and have a full bath with shower. So what do you think? Are either of these pretty decent substitutes for a laundry room? Thanks so much for taking the time to look and to make it through all of my rambling!

leave 1.5 feet at ground-a tote or basket will be pulled OUT to you when you want item so you don't need full 2 feet...medium sized totes are nicer than huge oversized ones from my experience. I'd plan between shelf spacing at 15-18 inches as you will reach IN and organize,place and pull out,etc....need "hand room"- maybe 21 inches at one spot. At the top shelf allow 2 feet to ceiling....rarely used/out of season blankets in storage bags/etc.... very handy so make it bigger....you'll need a stepstool anyway...so allow for substantial storage there. Are you placing fixed positions....can't this be flexible/adjustable shelves.

Forum members, you are so knowledgeable I am asking here. We are building a linen closet out of some stolen bedroom space. We've got 38" width, 10' height, and 21" depth, and we're re-using the double doors from the pantry. I'm planning on wire shelves, the first shelf 24" from the floor, the rest spaced 12" apart. Does anyone have a suggestion for improvement? We currently have no linen or utility closet (who builds a house like that?) so this will house bed linens, towels, etc., but also reserve paper towels, tp, kleenex and our vacuum and steam mop and the bags, etc. for them. Please share your suggestions and photos! I will cross post in Kitchens as well.

Here is my existing floorplan. Master is at the left end of the house, then a hall to secondary bedroom and kitchen and the rest of the home is to the right of all of this with an open kitchen/DR/LR then two bedrooms and bath for our kids at the far right. What this house is missing is more garage space. There is only a 2 car garage and we want more garage and have a space we can turn into more garage labeled rec room here. This master and master bath were an addition by the prior owner. The second bedroom on this view is the old master. We want to turn the rec room into a side entry garage, entry from the left side. Above is the current floor plan. The current "rec room" is unusable due to not being heated and cooled. It is more of an enclosed patio than interior space. We have yard access to turn it to a garage. The existing rec room has a double door to the current master, a single door to the hall by the laundry room, and a current door to the "hobby room" which is a storage room with counters and shelved between the current garage and house. We enter the home through the garage then this "hobby room" that goes into the home via a butlers' pantry off the kitchen (labeled kitchen 2 on the plan) I did not design this home. If we make access from the new garage through the hobby room, it makes the same entry to the home from either garage. I am sure I want to make some type of new master closet using the double doors from the existing master. What I am not sure about is whether to make a long closet with two doors, the second opening to the hall by the laundry room. Or whether to make a new master closet, and then make a closet or walk way with from the garage to the laundry room hall. Or I could also do a closet only accessible from the laundry room. Comments on traffic flow etc with these options? Thanks for some fresh eyes and perspectives. Possible remodel floor plans: All work will be to code and we are aware of firewall requirements between home and garage. Thanks for any comments. lafdr