Coal chutes are one thing, but have you ever seen an entire coal furnace? Ray Bradbury meets Jules Verne. Newel posts often had compartments inside, traditionally the deed to the house was kept there. I love odd little rooms and closets with sloped ceilings tucked up under the eaves. My aunt's old farmhouse has plenty of these, along with plumbing for gas lamps and gas wall heaters and a small upstairs room that is completely walled off, accessible only through a removable panel inside a bathroom cabinet. There is another small door (about 2' by 3') in the hall that opens up to reveal...a narrow chasm and the back side of the chimney (there is no longer a fireplace, making it even weirder). Perhaps it once offered some measure of radiant heat to the upstairs? Downstairs, the pocket doors have absolutely gorgeous, embellished cast-iron hardware up inside the wall that you can only see with a flashlight, standing on a ladder. It seems that tiny doors communicating bedroom closets are not uncommon. My dream house, a 1934 bungalow that I've been coveting for the past 10 years, has this feature. The 1888 Victorian I grew up in had a servant's staircase that originally had three doors downstairs--one to the parlor, one to outside, and one to the kitchen. My dad closed off what remained of these doors during the initial remodel, so there was a stairway that went nowhere. We used it for storage, including a trap door on the bottom landing that lifted up to reveal a 4'x4' compartment about 18" deep.

Hi Melanie I feel your pain! I apologize in advance for this being really long, but I got so excited to see someone who is dealing with a similar situation, I just had to share : ) Presently, we are trying to make our kitchen laundry area work better for us. I have had my laundry room in the basement...with/without a laundry chute and in the kitchen where it presently resides. I will try to break my experience down for you: Laundry room in basement with laundry chute = big mountain of laundry, out of site out of mind, got moldy, ruined clothes, could be scary heavy sometimes bringing large baskets up and down the stairs, especially with my bad back. Plus, when I would be downstairs trying to tackle my mountain of laundry, I could hear my children upstairs getting into trouble, etc. and it was hard to make sure that both were being taken care of properly. I usually erred on the side of the children and had to wash late at night when they were asleep, or naptime. Laundry room in basement with no laundry chute = ditto the above. Laundry in kitchen = convenient, but out there for everyone to see at times. You can multi task much better without having to leave your kids, lunch time, cooking, etc. The main downside (for us) is that it spills over into the kitchen and can look messy at times, in addition, it can be a little bit noisy in our family room nearby, but that can be a plus because I can hear when a load is done, etc. I liked how one person said that muddy clothes, wet swim suits, etc, can be put in the wash as soon as the kids/adults come in...this is TRUE! We are in the process of remodeling our kitchen and wanted to try and move the laundry down a hall where our bedrooms are, but the plumbing was inconvenient and we would lose half of our master closet. I also thought about the fact that I like to do my laundry at all hours and it could disturb my sleeping family if it were located at the end of our hall. We also have a hall closet, but it was out of the question too for the same reasons you described, plus ours was too small. So back to the kitchen we went. When we bought our house I was so happy to have my laundry room upstairs (a deal maker for me), but a friend of mine said "Wow, your laundry area is right here in your kitchen...well, I guess it will force you to keep up with your laundry". I didn't get it at the time, but I only feel the pain when someone comes over unexpectantly (In reality, my friends really don't care..I think I stress about it more than they do) or our bi-fold doors don't close all of the way (one is broken). It will be nice to have this remedied. A good thing I see in your plan is that you have some room for the laundry to pile out a bit (let's be honest, it happens!) and it is not right in your food prep area. Mine is like that too...my counters, stove, etc are on the other side of the room. I never have issues with my laundry and food mixing. You shouldn't really have too much trouble with people trampling all over your clothes either. I have five boys and lots of laundry...and I am not diligent to do it everyday. Our big sorter is in my master bedroom and the boys each have sorters in their rooms, so we bring it to the laundry area a load (or room sorter) at a time, or at other times, I get it all and sort it out right there on the floor and have piles for some of the day, but that is usually only for a day. It's done by the evening. I can fit a three compartment sorter in the laundry area if I must get it off the floor, but it is not easy to reach, so I don't use it too often. Also, if you're ADD like me (LOL) and are easily distracted, having the laundry in your kitchen is a reminder that it needs to get done, put away, etc. I also homeschool, so having it in the hub of all my daily activity is good. In conclusion, the only modification that we will be adding to our laundry room is bringing the front wall out about a foot. That's all that we could get, and, just like you, we thought through every scenario, but nothing else would work sensibly with our home layout. I really did not want to go back down do the basement. Bringing out the wall a foot will allow me to close the front door on it, the area could accommodate a washer and dryer side by side, but I got stackables so that I could gain some utility area, but they don't allow me to close the bi fold doors. All I want is to be able to close the door on it and hide my mess if I need to. Bottom line: If you don't mind the occasional pile(s) of clothes on the floor, washer/dryer noise, and laundry paraphernalia, a kitchen laundry room should be wonderful for you : ) The icing on the cake would be to find a nice hidden closet/cabinet/garage to store your baskets and laundry stuff when you are not using it. I have nowhere to store my empty baskets. But hopefully the additional space we gain in our remodel will solve that problem. Sorry for my "long windedness", but I know it can be so stressful trying to find solutions. Laundry is a big part of our lives and convenience and function are so important.

Wow, thanks to the spammer this morning that brought this tread back to the front page! After I made the initial postings, several weeks ago, I had to ask my husband again about the basement digging story. Cause it sure sounded a bit like "yes, I walked to school 6 miles every day-uphill both ways!" What DH says is that his dad and aunt used a horse and a slip to dig that basement (whatever a slip looks like?). His dad would have been in his teens and aunt in her late teens or early 20's I believe. The soapstone along the sink wall is now in. I cut the counter for this location too. DH gave me lots of suggestions, guidance, and man power. This part of the stone is not as consistent in character as the other pieces. The stone transitions into a harder stone at the sink and to the left. It will do. I had a lot of fearful thinking about tackling this project and I had grown men refuse my request for help. Though my brave dear BIL offered to help, we just couldn't coordinate a time. I had a local stone fabricator come in and cut the hole for my over-mount single bowl stainless steel sink. Here is the counter in place: Dorado Soapstone in Colorado cut the lengths for me and made the center cut at the sink. I glued it with 5 minute epoxy with my DH help. It took way longer than 5 minutes to dry, try hours. I was concerned that I'd messed the ratios up when I mixed the epoxy: Plumber hooked up DW, sink, & faucet. The plumbing was done while I was at work. When I got home and walked in, I exclaimed. . . "Whoa, that's a big one!" Later when DH came in and I repeated my shocked observation. He said he thought the same thing but wasn't going to say anything. Ain't he sweet? He then reassured me that he would claim he picked it out if anyone made a comment. I told him he could take the credit. It is so nice to get back to near normal in the kitchen. I have my friend/carpenter coming to put up new casing around the doors this week or next. Originally I was going to reuse the old fir trim with a plan to fill the nicks and dings, refreshing the surface for painting. Four sets of door casings are needed. One set was too worn out so we salvaged a set from an old house that sits on "Ruben's" farm. The house was a cute simple stucco bungalow that Ruben Oakleaf lived in. It's now decrepit and falling into the basement. Ruben was a bachelor farmer. I will have to remember to take a picture of the place. My late FIL bought the farm years ago to add to the family farm. Ruben had died. FIL kept the house, in case any of the kids wanted to live in the house. Well years passed, no one moved in, and the house decayed. I had always thought about salvaging the wood trim from that house. Now, 22 years later, DH & I took out 2 sets of door casings to use in the kitchen. I don't know why we even bothered. The raccoons moved in some time ago and made a big mess of everything and I'm sure there are other critters making Ruben's house their own. So, while contemplating my approach in refurbishing the trim pieces, I could only ignore the facts for so long. . . about 20 minutes. Other GW'rs are probably quicker studies. Anyway, while considering these casings I became disgusted, went up to the house, and proclaimed to DH "I'm getting Al to put up new woodwork!". The thought of raccoons having lived with this trim and doing whatever they do, was just too much for my sense of hygiene, style, and my new kitchen...what had I been thinking! DH lovingly agreed to this new plan. So there you have it, an update. I would like to share another kitchen picture with you. It is a picture of the brooder house that my GMIL & then MIL used for baby chicks. MIL turned it into a play house for her girls in the later 50's or early 60's. Then of course there were remodeling efforts when the first grandkids came along in the 80's: Inside is the kitchen: and here are the cupboards behind that hog panel (thank God for spell check, I can't spell "panal"): I will continue this thread when I get the fab new door trimmings up. Thanks so much for your interest and kind comments. How'd she get in here?!

We are in the middle of a "refresh", and I have to admit that I'm finding myself wishing that we had just basically gutted and started from scratch with a kitchen designer leading the way on all of it. Mostly because for what it's costing in the end, doing it that way probably wouldn't have been that much more expensive (isn't that how it always works out). Specifically, so that I could have had higher quality cabinetry with big lower drawers instead of cabinets. BUT, I'm quite certain that I'll be thrilled when we're done. It's more that we're at the 'starting to see it, but still a ways to go" phase.