Granny had
TOL Maytags in at least one episode I can recall, because she was out by the swimming 'hole' boiling laundry and had to be told about the machines. I don't think she was much impressed.
A dear friend of mine in the 'States sells several homes a month. Even in this market. Asked her about women and laundry room locations a few weeks back and this was her answer.
The more kids, the more the woman wants a laundry room on the ground floor, preferably accessible directly from-to the garage and back yard. This one single point will outweigh even many many defects in the house or kill an otherwise perfect house sale.
Seniors definitely do not want one which requires going up or down steps.
My honey has shown me over 500 new and established homes over the last three years. The trend is definitely towards small laundry nooks on the upper floor where the bedrooms are with another space on the ground floor by the mud room in upper market housing and off the kitchen on the ground floor in the mid-range.
Only older homes and the least expensive newer homes have the laundry in the basement.
Of course, that is a climate where you have power failures several times a year and winter can get down and stay down below -20 (doesn't matter at that point whether F or C) for days at a time, all day.
Floor drains are still just not that common in the US for some reason, I know I had one hell of a fight trying to do one in the ground level kitchen four years ago when I put the washer and dryer upstairs after my mom couldn't do stairs anymore. The resistance from the entire US family ranged from 'why would anyone do THAT to, no, it would lessen the sales value of the house enormously.
Weird.
I was able to use a laser level to find the lowest spot in the kitchen (fortunately, under a built in cupboard), so one day when nobody was home was able to but in a drain there. It won't stop the floor from getting wet, but at worst, we are talking about less than an inch standing instead of several...
When we restored our 1872 condo here in Munich back in the 1990s, one of the very few 'modern' exceptions the condo owner's association granted/required was floor drains in the bathroom and the kitchen. Idea was new to me, but after my brand new Bauknecht (aha! now we begin to see the aversion) flooded, I sure was glad of it...didn't even get the gen-u-whine maple floor in the dining room wet.
TOL Maytags in at least one episode I can recall, because she was out by the swimming 'hole' boiling laundry and had to be told about the machines. I don't think she was much impressed.
A dear friend of mine in the 'States sells several homes a month. Even in this market. Asked her about women and laundry room locations a few weeks back and this was her answer.
The more kids, the more the woman wants a laundry room on the ground floor, preferably accessible directly from-to the garage and back yard. This one single point will outweigh even many many defects in the house or kill an otherwise perfect house sale.
Seniors definitely do not want one which requires going up or down steps.
My honey has shown me over 500 new and established homes over the last three years. The trend is definitely towards small laundry nooks on the upper floor where the bedrooms are with another space on the ground floor by the mud room in upper market housing and off the kitchen on the ground floor in the mid-range.
Only older homes and the least expensive newer homes have the laundry in the basement.
Of course, that is a climate where you have power failures several times a year and winter can get down and stay down below -20 (doesn't matter at that point whether F or C) for days at a time, all day.
Floor drains are still just not that common in the US for some reason, I know I had one hell of a fight trying to do one in the ground level kitchen four years ago when I put the washer and dryer upstairs after my mom couldn't do stairs anymore. The resistance from the entire US family ranged from 'why would anyone do THAT to, no, it would lessen the sales value of the house enormously.
Weird.
I was able to use a laser level to find the lowest spot in the kitchen (fortunately, under a built in cupboard), so one day when nobody was home was able to but in a drain there. It won't stop the floor from getting wet, but at worst, we are talking about less than an inch standing instead of several...
When we restored our 1872 condo here in Munich back in the 1990s, one of the very few 'modern' exceptions the condo owner's association granted/required was floor drains in the bathroom and the kitchen. Idea was new to me, but after my brand new Bauknecht (aha! now we begin to see the aversion) flooded, I sure was glad of it...didn't even get the gen-u-whine maple floor in the dining room wet.
