That it should come to this: The laundry room is now a status symbol.
Washers and dryers that once did their dirty work in dark basements — never, ever to be seen by guests — are now enjoying the surroundings and beauty treatments previously bestowed on grander rooms, such as kitchens.
“It’s the latest trend in mini-mansions,” says Roger Mankedick, vice president of sales and marketing for Palatine-based Concord Homes. “Being able to put significant square footage into a laundry room is a sign of affluence, and people building their dream homes are looking for such signs.”
But laundry facilities in condo units are just as important. “Quintessentially important,” emphasizes Leah Harriett of the Habitat Co., sales director for Kinzie Park in Chicago’s River West area. Along with other sales personnel for new high-rises, Harriett claims laundry space and appliance hookups are as essential as tubs or showers.
Laundry rooms are the latest signs of the good life, joining look-at-me three-car garages, gourmet kitchens, multiple walk-in closets, gigantic great rooms and sybaritic bathrooms. And, according to real estate agents and builders, since it has become a standard amenity rather than a luxurious upgrade, it’s a trend.
First, the appliances moved upstairs — from the baements of single-family homes or from the public facilities in condo buildings. Once in place, they hid side-by-side behind closed double-doors. Now, many of those beloved lifesavers are coming out of the closet, as it were, and laundry rooms are being treated with a new respect, the kind of reverence Grandma once held for the parlor that was always pristine, befitting a possible surprise visit by members of the Ladies Social Circle or a mother-in-law.
Calling laundry rooms a status thing doesn’t necessarily mean that people brag about their fabulous laundry facilities (though some do) or make a point of showing them off with brio as they do with their fabulous kitchens or their fabulous bathrooms (though some do).
It also doesn’t mean that these cleanliness centers are only in million-dollar homes. Several models with large laundry rooms that were displayed in last month’s Parade of Homes in Sugar Grove were in the $350,000 vicinity. Three of Concord Homes’ models in West Chicago with great big laundry rooms are base-priced from around $293,500 to $325,500.
Status does mean, however, that the once homely and lonely appliances, now king and queen of their own domain, are being ensconced in bedroom-sized spaces with handsome cabinets, granite counters, a deep sink or two and maybe even a shower-type stall with hanging space for wet clothing.
It also means that the space set aside for doing laundry has become a significant selling point.
A condo without space and hookups for laundry appliances can kill a potential sale. The same applies to single-family homes that have laundry facilities on the wrong floor or, horror of horrors, homes or units with space for the equipment, but not enough for an ironing board.
It’s in this sense that laundry facilities within residences have become status symbols: They are unqualified musts for the majority of today’s home buyers.
In a perfect world, dishes, cars, clothes, people and pets would not get dirty. But they do. The point is to get them/us clean as efficiently, easily and enjoyably as possible. Would anyone buy a new living space without a dishwasher? In a pleasant kitchen? Without a tub and shower–or two? Unthinkable.
After living in a four-room (two-bedroom) home with laundry equipment in the basement (“horrible”), Christopher and Mara Cooney certainly didn’t have status on their minds as they planned their new home in west suburban Lisle. “We wanted a livable home–it had to have space and be a place where we’d never say, `Don’t touch this or that,’ ” said Mara. “We didn’t want to live like that.”
The Cooneys mapped out everything they needed and wanted. For reasons that will become obvious, the kitchen with ample dining area topped their priority list, though the laundry room was a close second, followed by Christopher’s office and the playroom. After that, in no particular order, came family and dining rooms; first-floor master bath, bedroom and sitting room; five upstairs bedrooms and a basement that will have theater, bath, steam and workout rooms. (A living room–“useless,” they said–was never considered.)
Reason enough for both space and top-notch laundering facilities: Christopher and Mara are the parents of Mac, 3, Sam, 2, and 9-month-old Emma. “We hope to have five or six children,” said Mara, adding, “the fourth is on the way.”
Yet, she said, the laundry is really “their room,” referring to yellow Labrador Tucker and playmate Dixon, a Chesapeake Bay retriever. “That’s where they live.”
Outfitted by Abruzzo Kitchen and Bath Studio in Elmwood Park, the 13-by-15-foot dog house/laundry includes an enclosed tub/shower for Tucker and Dixon “and whoever comes in dirty–the kids, Chris …”; a wall of closets, four top lockers above another four lockers, cabinets, counters, a large island, washer, dryer, sink and doors to the garage, the dogpen and the house.
“We’re happy with it,” says the wry-humored Mara Cooney. Ditto for the stackable washer and dryer on the second floor “for the kids’ stuff.”
Mind-boggling laundry rooms in single-family homes are certainly growing in popularity but for many, just having space enough for a drying rack and/or a sink, a counter for folding and space to keep the ironing board up are worth stealing space from an adjacent room.
Perhaps surprising in a service-oriented, casual-day, permanent-press era, the desire and requests for this extra bit of real estate crosses gender and age. A sophisticated, late 30s Lincoln Parker, a mature bachelor with an off-Michigan Avenue condo, a suburban senior and a young bride have all talked of the ironing-board space in terms akin to dream-come-true; just having in-unit appliances fulfills many a wish list.
Planning on having a large family could mean that Annie Kortan won’t have too much time for ironing; nevertheless, she was sold on the Provence model at Concord at Cornerstone Lakes in West Chicago when she laid eyes on the nearly 28-by-16-foot family room and the adjacent laundry room, a rather grand 15- by 9-feet, lined with upper and lower cabinets, counters and closets.
But, the home she and husband David, a doctor, and their first child will move into next April will have less counter space because she, too, wants to keep her ironing board open, ever at the ready.
For others, the laundry’s location within the home is almost as important as their home’s location on the block or in the community.
Soccer Moms opt for laundry/multipurpose rooms on the first floor where they spend most of their time, while two-income couples prefer the facilities on the second floor because “it’s a night-time activity,” according to Kevin Kazimer, business director for Bloodgood Sharp Buster Architects & Planners of Palatine. Washers/dryers are in basements when upstairs space is tight, he says.
Lifestyle is what determines the upstairs/downstairs dilemma, says Seymour Turner, general manager of Airoom Inc., Lincolnwood. “Wherever people can balance two activities at once is optimum,” he notes. “Doing a load while preparing meals or monitoring the children makes the kitchen/laundry good neighbors.” Being upstairs with the bedrooms, baths and closets means no carrying stuff up and down stairs.
Jim White, president of Downers Grove-based Blakely Custom Homes said visitors to his Kathleen model on display during the recent Parade of Homes favored second-floor laundry rooms by a ratio of 3 to 1. “They said it’s better to have it where the bedrooms are,” said White, adding that no matter where it was, everybody liked the idea of having a laundry room with extra space and cabinets, rather than having only the appliances.
White said he designed the Kathleen with his own family in mind: both parents working, boys aged 8 and 10 and a daughter, 13.
“The older two can help with the laundry when they don’t have to carry stuff up and down and even more important, you can close it off,” he says. And, that’s what you can’t do in a laundry room that serves as a mud room. “Everybody tramps through it with their muddy boots and wet clothes and then they drop them off in the kitchen.”
So, with the laundry upstairs, White gave the Kathleen a first-floor back entry with a walk-in closet and a bench–making it the transition outdoors-to-in drop-off spot.
Like the Cooneys, families with several children want their laundries to be multi-purpose: mud room; gardening room; storage space for kids’ football shoulder pads and other sports gear. Dave Heigl, kitchen designer with CabinetWerks Ltd., a division of Orren Pickell Builders of Bannockburn, designed a laundry room called “a family work shop” with appliances, package-wrapping table, computer station, incoming storage area and outgoing drycleaning area, plus a pull-out 3-by-4 1/2-foot counter for additional work surface. Who said laundry rooms are a waste of space?
A trio of agents with Koenig & Strey Realtors have great stories to support the stature of today’s laundry rooms, though they’re not about to divulge names.
Sheila Brooks tells of a family building a new home in Libertyville’s Canterbury subdivision that created “Mom’s office and family activity center” in what was to be a 15-by-15 dining room. Included are washer/dryer, 20 feet of counter space, toy box, planning desk, space for the kids’ varied school projects.
Nancy Nugent, who specializes in Gold Coast properties, has a buyer who converted a third bedroom to a laundry room, a won’t-give-it-up amenity for a couple with one child moving from a big suburban home to a high-end city high-rise.
Then, in an only-in-Lake-Forest phenom, Jean Anderson of Lake Forest-West Koenig & Strey, tells of a homeowner who didn’t waste time on the where-to-put-it decision. She’s installing two laundry rooms in her new home–one up, one down. The question is: Does each one have its own laundress?
