I have asked my architect for something similar minus the pantry--a multipurpose room basically.I gave him my ideas and what I want in the room and I am going to see what he comes up with on room size and where the room is located in the house. A few of my ideas and requests for the room: (Forgive the incomplete sentences). The lockers are not what they are cracked up to be. I have them now and they are a constant mess. I think I might put a few hooks inside a large coat closet instead and room for athletic gear. I also want lots of shoe storage (2 boys and a dh with too many athletic shoes). A place for my dog bed and bowls. A door to the outside (for dirty boys to use and doggy door). Washer/Dryer with plenty of room to hang damp clothes on hangars. Counter or island to fold. Floor space for piles of dirty laundry. Room should not be a pass through from anywhere. This room is the room I am most excited about. I have a tiny LR now and fold clothes on a formal dining room table in a room I never use. I sort clothes in my family room. I figure why not give up a room I never use and devote the space to a room I will actually use. If you are building from scratch...why not put your pantry in your kitchen rather than your LR? I have aHouzz idea book with tons of pics of LR multipurpose rooms. I'll share the link with you if you want to email me.

Enduring, as soon as I get the laundry rack up, I will post so you can see. I haven't figured out if it's possible to get the 6 rod rack, or if I have to settle for the 3 rod. As far as the seams, two of them I sewed by hand, first I tried glue that came out horrible, I'm sure I used to much and it bleed thru. I wound up using heat bond which worked out great. Gr8day, thanks for the kind words. I hated looking at the dryer vent made me cringe when guests came into my house from the pool into that room. Diane the rack is from Greenway. Thanks for the kind words, figured out the update cost 375, the fabric I purchased was regularly 50 /yard, I got it on sale for 10

If you are reasonably handy, yes, you can plumb a water softener. One issue is what type of piping (copper, PEX, CPVC, etc.) to use to make the connections. CPVC is probably the easiest, soldering copper takes a little skill but is doable (it's all in the prep work), and PEX requires tooling that you probably don't have and don't want to buy ($$$). You've run conduit as an electrician, so you should be able to transition to water-based conduit. lol! When you buy the softener, be sure to know what the pipe fittings/connections are going to be. Probably most accept threaded pipe or adapters, some are sweat-soldered. Plan for a bypass valve setup either on the softener or in the supply lines. Do the softeners come ready to install? Most don't, which requires one to assemble a few items and put the resin in the tank. It's not hard. You only need a twin tank softener if you will be using soft water in the middle of the night (when a typical softener regenerates). The computerized on-demand control valves can predict water usage and maintain enough reserve that you won't run out of soft water before the unit regenerates. Do get a softener that regenerates based on gallons of water used (demand type). It will save salt $$ in the long run. A good valve to consider is the Clack WS-1. Just google it for some softener vendors. It has a computer chip that does a lot of nice things for the softener. Fleck has a model to compete with the Clack (Fleck 7000??). A big issue is how big a softener do you need? Most softener vendors figure on 60 to 70 gallons of water usage per day per person. You will have to use some sort of adjustment factor to estimate your dog water usage (based on people). You probably want to bathe the dogs with soft water,but if you can replumb and use hard water for the dog drinking and kennel washdown water, I think you would be way ahead.

Thanks for the awesome advice ladies. I have been away from the forums..we were out of town dealing with family illness. ANyway, on a brighter note..back to the reno! Jeri: I am not familiar with the designated broom closet thingy. I would love to see it. I am having a closet set up for that in my kitchen area, too. FirstHouse: Any idea who it was that put the cubbies underneath? I'd love to see pictures. I can somewhat visualize since my current W/D is up on a pedestal but curious how useful they would be if I had to stand on my head to see in them. YKWIM? I am getting nervous abt the 3x3 space. I guess I never thought abt that! I am so thrilled to be getting it changed, I am blinded to the downsides... Jsweenc: Thank you for your thoughts...Where are u in NC? We r in CHarlotte...been here abt 5 years after being out in the midwest for most of our married life.DH is a USC alum/fan so we have the running.."real" Carolina discussion a lot! Of course, there really isn't any discussion since *we* know the answer! Anyway, you are very kind to play with my layout. That wall between the two rooms already exists. We had just planned to cut a hole in it for the door. The front part (where the powder room will go) is my current laundry room and the back part (cubbies) is a storage room that backs up to the laundry room. We are stealing that space from the garage if you will. The back wall is approx 10 ft wide. W/D are standard front loaders at 27" but GC said allow 30" for each one. Not a lot of space. It looks a lot bigger on paper!! We are moving our entrance to the house to back area from a door that is currently on the other side of the commode wall in the drawing. I am putting a coat closet there.So I will have additional storage for coats besides the ONE they are to put in the cubbie.(yeah, right...I'll need to do an inservice with the kids on that!) I am not married to closing everything off in cabinets. I am leaning toward wanting to close my laundry area off from the powder room with a pocket door though. I'd like to think my LR will be neat and clean but it really never is.I suffer from CHAOS which is an acronym for "Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome" because my house is always a mess.I feel like that back area will suffer the most even with additional storage. I thought about switching the kid's zone to the file drawer area but worried about the mess. I also have that window right in the middle. Both of those windows currently exist and moving them would require a lot of additional expense. I toyed with the idea of putting the powder room on the window side but figured it would make it dark down the hallway. That would free up cubbie space on the other side. I'd LOVE to hear what you guys think about all of this....My GC emailed me yesterday and wants to finalize things next week!!!!! Yikes....I'm getting a little panicky...