Upstairs Laundry Room

[MrsK]

Yes! The pipes are already there, so that’s the expensive/ hard part. Would you try to keep the downstairs hook ups in case someone wanted to move it back? I am just asking - I don’t think actually think anyone would want to.


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I hope the pipes are already there. I’m not sure if they are on the same wall as the upstairs alcove. The idea of breaking through downstairs walls to route the pipes as part of an upstairs renovation makes me feel a little queazy.

I’d keep the downstairs hook ups and make the downstairs into a mud room with a slop sink and small stackable washer/dryer unit for kitchen linens and guest laundry.



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[JDAZ11]

Upstairs Laundry Room

I love that idea. I kind of think the pipes just have to be close - not necessarily in the exact spot you want the hookups. From what I remember, it was a huge problem when someone wanted the laundry on like the other side of the hall or something. That gets expensive, but I mean not impossible either. Where is the closest bathroom?

In our old house they must have added the pipes in. They put a powder room under the first floor stairs and then the laundry was just above that. Usually it had to be next to or above pipes. I doubt they would rip things out downstairs, but I don’t know.

I think it sounds like a life changing amazing thing though. Lol.


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[MrsK]

I love that idea. I kind of think the pipes just have to be close - not necessarily in the exact spot you want the hookups. From what I remember, it was a huge problem when someone wanted the laundry on like the other side of the hall or something. That gets expensive, but I mean not impossible either. Where is the closest bathroom?

In our old house they must have added the pipes in. They put a powder room under the first floor stairs and then the laundry was just above that. Usually it had to be next to or above pipes. I doubt they would rip things out downstairs, but I don’t know.

I think it sounds like a life changing amazing thing though. Lol.


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There are upstairs bathrooms, each with one room between them and the odd room. There is one off the kitchen too. I think the odd room is over the kitchen but not adjacent to any of the bathrooms.


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[L.Jane]

I love having an upstairs laundry. I have to set a timer on my phone to remember to change the laundry no matter where I am in the house. I would love love love to have a mudroom on the first floor. That's my biggest regret about this house. My upstairs laundry is the size of your downstairs and if I could have the pictures you posted of the laundry room you are imagining upstairs I would love that even more. If its feasible, I would so go for it.

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

I'd call a plumber/contractor out to give you an idea of the difficulty/ease of running the pipes. It may be a lot of walls or floors you're ripping up. It doesn't mean it's not worth it, just would be good to know the feasibility before setting your mind on one path.

I so so badly wanted to change the location of our laundry hookups in our NC house and it was adjacent to a kitchen and a bathroom and it still would have been super expensive because something about pipe size, etc. and the sealed crawl space.

[MrsK]

I'd call a plumber/contractor out to give you an idea of the difficulty/ease of running the pipes. It may be a lot of walls or floors you're ripping up. It doesn't mean it's not worth it, just would be good to know the feasibility before setting your mind on one path.

I so so badly wanted to change the location of our laundry hookups in our NC house and it was adjacent to a kitchen and a bathroom and it still would have been super expensive because something about pipe size, etc. and the sealed crawl space.

Yeah. I was thinking about that too. The decorator says that she does drawings first, then consults the contractor, and then revises the drawings based on his advice. I'd rather consult with a contractor before doing a first set of drawings.

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[JDAZ11]

Yeah. I was thinking about that too. The decorator says that she does drawings first, then consults the contractor, and then revises the drawings based on his advice. I'd rather consult with a contractor before doing a first set of drawings.

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Yeah. I agree with you. I think contractor/plumber is a better start. Even just a consultation (they usually will do them for free - we had both a contractor and an architect come meet us twice at houses we have been interested in renovating and quickly told us the costs of what we wanted to do would be. Do you have the building plans? (They can do it without them, but it just helps if they can see them).






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[Betty Seymour]

A laundry room upstairs would be ideal for me.

[Cam]

I'm also thinking that if I reduce the size of the odd room and DON'T make it a laundry, then I'm just reducing the number of rooms in the house. While the odd room is otherwise useless, it would look like one less room on paper when it is time to sell the house.

One of the other renovations we are considering is to finish a utility closet off of our basement guestroom. It already has a window so a closet would make it officially a bedroom.

If we finish the basement bedroom, increase the size of K1's room making it comparable to the other bedrooms, put in an upstairs laundry, and add a main floor mudroom, I'd think the value of the house would increase, right? We hope to stay in the house another 15 years so I want to enjoy it but I'm still thinking about resale value. I'd want to recoup some of the costs.

You all know that my house is almost entirely furnished via "look at this great thing I found at a thrift store/antique shop/flea market/garage sale." So, the thought of spending $50k on renovations makes me queasy.

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This is a wonderful idea. regarding the cost, if you think it will all be worth it then go for it.

[MrsK]

So, the contractor was here today. I’ve been eating my feelings ever since. However, I’ve also been told that many of the new homes being constructed around my development are being built with an upstairs laundry. It sounds like at some point, not having the laundry upstairs could be an impediment to selling the home.

So, here is the project.


PHASE 1:
Move a wall from the back of K1’s closet and square off the closet which intrudes into the odd room. This protrusion gives the room it’s odd shape. It also makes K1’s closet an impractical shape and tiny. Doing this would increase his closet space by about 3sq ft and would make my odd room more usable for any purpose. So, this should happen even if we decide not to proceed with any of the remainder of the project.

Change the entry way of the odd room to one 36” doorway rather than the double doorway that is there now. This would make more usable wall space in the odd room. We would have one proper door on the room which would also take up less space than a double door.

Add molding and paint new walls.

Add overhead lighting to the odd room including one ceiling fan with light and 4 recess lights. The room has no overhead lighting now and has poor air circulation.

PHASE 2:
TEAR UP THE FLOOR IN PART OF THE ODD ROOM, THE LENGTH OF K1’S ROOM, AND IN THE BOYS’ BATHROOM so plumbing could be brought over to the odd room for the washer. The contractor says this would be less expensive and less intrusive than bringing the plumbing from the kitchen or downstairs laundry. (Insert panic attack here.)

Open the wall adjoining K1’s room to add soundproofing, installation, plumbing and venting.

Put a hole in the exterior wall for venting.

Build in cabinets/shelving and frame out doorway to the laundry area. The doorway could be fitted with folding doors. This would allow future buyers to convert the room back into an office or whatnot, using the laundry area as a closet, if they choose not to have laundry upstairs. This would also, technically, convert the odd room into another bedroom because, in our county, a “bedroom” is defined as a room with a window and closet. Apparently, the fact that it is only accessible through another bedroom is irrelevant. The contractor was super-excited about this possibility.

Restore the floors in the odd room, K1’s room, and the bathroom. (The contractor assures me that the cost of new tile in the bathroom would be nominal and the tile there is cracked anyway so maybe not a bad idea.)

PHASE 3:
The original flooring project for our upstairs that got us thinking of the laundry project. The decorator wants to do this as Phase 2 but it doesn’t make sense to me given that we have to tear up the floor in K1’s room. We could possibly lay carpet in the odd room/now laundry and K1’s room until we are ready to do the flooring. The flooring is 1,200 sq feet of LVT. OUR WHOLE FAMILY WOULD HAVE TO VACATE OUR 2ND FLOOR FOR 10-12 DAYS TO GET THIS DONE. (Insert second panic attack here.). I’m panicked about this aspect but, in truth, we have plenty of room on our first floor and in our basement. I could probably even bring some of the kids’ mattresses down to the basement for them to sleep on.





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[spotty_dog]

Sounds like a huge project, but if it's in the budget and will improve your quality of life, then may the odds be ever in your favor!!

I hear you about the "vacating bedrooms" inconvenience. I don't even want to think about our project to refinish the second floor hardwoods, because that will mean moving kids out of bedrooms and all that entails. Sigh. It's so temporary though. After living through this 3+ month remodel/repair, it's a lot less intimidating.

I've seen people choose to live on subfloor while they were between flooring projects. You can even paint the subfloor prettily if you really want to. We lived on subfloor for a few weeks and it wasn't a big deal (but admittedly that was not in bedroom areas.) I don't know about the expense of laying carpet for, what, a matter of months?

Anyway, have fun!

[MrsK]

I don’t know how long it would be between the laundry installation and flooring. Depending on the cost, we may have to wait up to a year.

Living on the subfloor isn’t an option. The flooring people want us to vacate the 2nd floor so they can pile up all the furniture in one room or another throughout the project and not have to put it back until they are done. We have some very heavy furniture, especially in our master bedroom. Putting it back every evening would impede the progress of their job and likely double the time that they will need to work.


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[spotty_dog]

Why would putting the furniture even back be an option? I think I'm missing something. (Heck, I still have furniture that hasn't come back in my house after we had our hardwood put in 3 months ago...it's scheduled to be reset Monday! Whoo!) FWIW, our contractor made it sound like the standard procedure for furniture was to rent a POD storage unit to leave in the driveway, and load the items into it for the duration. Rather than having to climb over beds to get to your dining table, that might be worth looking into?

Oh, maybe it wasn't clear, I was responding to the part where you said "We could possibly lay carpet in the odd room/now laundry and K1’s room until we are ready to do the flooring." I guess if you're talking about a year, that makes sense. But if you're talking about a few months, and what's torn up is just "part" of the odd room and "the length" of K1's room, then I guess I'm numb to living in construction...I'd just be walking on plywood between projects.

[MrsK]

Upstairs Laundry Room

They would have to put the beds back in everyone’s rooms at night and move furniture out of the corridors so we could get around. If we are sleeping elsewhere, they can just leave everything piled up wherever they’ve left it while working. The POD option doesn’t work because they are balking at the idea of moving my 1,000 lb, 7ft long dresser. There is no way we are taking that down/up stairs. We have antique, solid oak furnishings in the master bedroom that weigh a ton. My daughter has an iron trundle bed in her room, the boys’ furniture is also solid wood.

They want to pile it all in one room and then place it back when they are done with all the rooms. Then upstairs would be uninhabitable but our main floor and finished basement would be untouched. It’s not ideal but not impossible either. We have two large sofas not the main floor (each about the size of an xl twin), we have a queen sized bed in our basement guest room, and there is lots of floor space in the basement too if we want to put a mattress down there for the kids. There is also a bathroom with a shower in the basement.

I think I’m mainly freaking out about the timeline and the cost. When the decorator talked about doing it in phases, I assumed there would be time to save money between phases. Phases that are months apart. But now she’s talking phases that are weeks or days apart so we’d be paying everything at once. Then there are add ones like replacing our existing washer with a quieter one and so forth.

At this point, I think the flooring for areas that are not affected by the laundry room renovation can be viewed as a separate project. I mean, I don’t *need* to change the flooring in my closet or my daughter’s room in conjunction with this project. Crazy thing is that this whole project started with flooring.


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[MrsK]

Sooo, DrK got sick of me dragging my feet and emailed the decorator himself. Long story short, renovations start in two weeks. (And DrK leaves his job in 4 weeks.). I’m literally dizzy.

For one thing, we have met some of the newest buyers in our neighborhood and several of them are converting their odd rooms into upstairs laundry. Before we can install hard flooring on our 2nd floor, we need to pull the trigger on the upstairs laundry. Given how popular it’s become for homes in our neighborhood, we certainly didn’t want to make it impossible for future owners to do it by putting in flooring that is hard to remove.

And, in all honesty, I would probably never feel secure enough to spend $$$ and live with renovations for a month. That being said, I really thing this could have waited until we were more certain of Andrew’s employment.

Speaking of flooring, am I making a mistake to put LVT on my 2nd floor?


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