Granny Clampet Does the Laundry, and Gets a Bath

[pulltostart]

Sandy,
You're correct about this neighborhood, although some of the houses here do have basements (the added space is great but the price is high - too much closet space is sacrificed for the basement stairs). All of the houses here have the identical floor plan and the "normal" arrangement was for the washer to be in the kitchen, the water heater (gas) was in the utility room, and the furnace (gas) was in the crawl space. I do not know if the homes with basements had the washer and water heater moved to the basement or not, I've never been inside one with a basement to know. Most of the residents here added a gas dryer in the utility room because gas was readily available and the electrical panel (fuses) was full. I have rearranged the kitchen so I now have the washer and the dryer in the kitchen.

lawrence

 

[danemodsandy]

Lawrence:

When I was growing up in Atlanta, the only houses built with "basements" were houses on sloping lots, creating a house one story high in front, and two in back, yielding what was called a "walk-out basement." Even then, the little "utility" room was still often present on the carport - my aunt's 1960s house in Fayetteville has this arrangement. The washer/dryer connections are still present in the utility room, but at some point, a second set of connections was added in the basement, where the washer and dryer are now.

You're absolutely right about basement stairs eating huge amounts of real estate in a house's floor plan. I now live in Iowa, where nearly every house has a basement, and the repercussions are serious indeed. The space for the basement stairs is almost always taken from the kitchen, and I have seen many a midcentury house here with insufficient room for dining as a result. My own little house's kitchen (and I do mean little house - one bedroom, and only 480 square feet), can accept a dining table no larger than 30 inches square, and no more than two chairs. My house is exceptionally small, true, but I know of two-bedroom houses that can't seat more than three in their eat-in kitchens.

I am hoping to find a basement-less house at some point - I'm getting old enough so that stairs' wear and tear on my knees is a problem, and I'm not really a fan of carting washing up and down either.

 

[mickeyd]

Lawrence,

That's a great story, I loved it, and I want to thank you. There's an old Easy in my basement just feet away from the very same valve of your nemesis. How many times have I been tempted, hovering and twisting like a Robin on a worm? Thanks to you, I will never yield to the temptation. God save us from the serpentine valves. Amen.