Hmmm. Much to think about. Chipshot, my DH suggested a dumbwaiter at one point but I'm not sure if I have the room. I guess maybe I could put a small laundry basket on a platform. Currently my laundry room, like yours, is located in a tiny room off of the garage - which I hate! There is no room to fold, the room gets dirt trekked in from the garage where DH does all of his woodworking etc, not to mention unmentionables laying around in a room that my kids insist on bringing all there friends through! Anyway, I am planning on moving it all to the basement. My mind was made up when we moved one of our heaters to the attic, removing the ductwork that went from basement to attic leaving a big hole in the kids bathroom, that we are now renovating. Perfect opportunity to add a laundry chute - or perhaps a dumb waiter :-). I plan to put a linen closet in the space that was the wall surrounding the duct work, so my laundry chute will start inside that closet. By the way Chipshot, we are located in Fairfax VA. in the craziness of the DC suburbs, far from beautiful Charlottesville. Where you at UVA? As for 22 year olds, they are starting to get better again by then. I also have two daughters, 20 and 12, and I can tell you I am not looking forward to going through the teenage years again :). Enjoy your children while they are young, it really does go too fast : P. Sharon

I personally don't believe there is a right or wrong answer here. It boils down to personal preferences and how YOU do laundry. When we bought our house we did a complete gut and reno. My laundry was located in a large closet in my kitchen (large enough for cabinet with sink, stacked machines and another storage unit to the right). Everyone convinced me to keep it there - said it would be so convenient to have it on the main floor. Fast forward a few years and two small boys later ... I hated it. I was still working full time then so weekends were laundry days (that's when I could strip beds and such). I'd be walking over laundry in the kitchen ... yuck! A couple years ago we finished our basement and down it went (where I wanted it in the first place). My issue with having it upstairs with the bedrooms is size. Unless it could be a large room than can accommodate all I want in my laundry then the basement is the only logical place for it. My husband wears suits/dress shirts to work and I iron items like sheets, linens, etc ... An ironing board always seemed to be up in my kitchen. I also like to hang dry certain items so a drying rack had to be somewhere. Anyway, you get the picture. Down in the basement I have a large dedicated room. It has my machines, cabinets and a large laundry sink. I have a large table on castors in the middle of the room for folding, crafting, wrapping gifts. We installed two large Ikea Pax units to hold out of season items and craft/wrap supplies. I've got a wall mounted tv, comfy chair and my elliptical. It's a great space and I use it all the time (as laundry never seems to end). My kids use it too for messy projects or crafts like painting. Nice to not have the mess in the kitchen anymore. I do have to carry laundry up and down but heh ... I could use the exercise ;) I really don't mind considering the space I have to work in. I wouldn't trade it for a small laundry closet upstairs. Now ... a second set of machines on the bedroom level?? That's another question all together :) If you're doing a laundry room on an upper level, I would make it a water tight space with a drain (incase of floods). You certainly don't want to ruin your nice new home. Plus you would want to reinforce the floor to take the extra weight and vibrations (to ensure a quiet spin). Friends of mine built expensive custom homes and this is how they do the (large) laundry rooms on the bedroom level. They usually install Miele front loaders and they reinforce the floors and make them water proof. I read this on waterproofing: "The best way to prevent a leak from flooding the rest of the house is to build a curb across the laundry room's threshold, waterproof the floor area, and install a floor drain. Because the drain will normally be dry, it will require a trap primer, which diverts a dribble of water from the supply line to the drain to keep the trap full and prevent sewer gas from wafting into the living space. Additional safeguards include washing-machine drip pans and electronic shutoff valves that automatically stop the flow of water when they sense a leak."

Our laundry room was in the basement, and we also had a chute. I loved the laundry chute as I could make clothes disappear, although I HATED the pile of clothes it turned into in the basement. With this arrangement, I found: 1) I hated going into the basement to sort the clothes; 2) Hated going there for starting a load; 3) Hated going there to switch the load from the wash to the dryer; 4) Hated bringing up the clothes to fold them (because I sure wasn't going to fold them in the basement, which was very far away from the bedrooms; 5) Hated going back down there to do it all over again in 40 minutes. Because of my W/D being in the basement, I HATED laundry like I've never hated it before. Really, think about this. When you go to sell your house, it will be to your advantage to have a main floor laundry, assuming your bedrooms are on the same floor. Here's something else...most people think they want a big laundry room. I can tell you I had one, and it was a mess, always needing cleaning. I have NEVER needed a laundry sink, since if I'm soaking clothing, I do it in the washer. Soak, spin, rinse, spin. See how easy that was? Look at my Luna Laundry System. Not only will your clothes be sorted before you even do the laundry, it will be convenient! This was one of the best remodeling we've done to simplify our lives. Here is a link that might be useful: Luna Laundry System

A few updates and I will get some better pictures once i get everything moved out but i have the door into the bathroom cut in. I have been having trouble with Pella who we bought the door from which has put this on a 3 week hold so far as the issue still is not resolved. We are considering stacking the washer dryer. The location we were considering would be where the closest machine to the wall is. The plumbing in the wall was moved over to allow for the new door to the bath and I have some electrical lines that need installing for the new panel in the garage. Doing this while we have the walls open and since the electrical panels are below this. We have a few tiles we bought to see if we liked them but I am not sure i like any of them. I think if i were to pick it would be the darker 12x24. Any thoughts or opinions on tile, stacking of the machine or anything else here?