By Anna Guido
Enquirer contributor

Harold Kelso's laundry room looks so good that it becomes entertainment space. It has a second dishwasher, microwave, warming drawer, mini-bar fridge, a large sink and storage. Photos by MEGGAN BOOKER/The Cincinnati Enquirer

Jill Will's empty-nest home in Edgewood has a spacious laundry room with a computer hookup and extra storage.

Harold and Chris Kelso do more than wash clothes in their laundry room. They do dishes, pay bills, bathe the dogs and stock household essentials.

"It's also great for entertaining," Chris Kelso said. "People will have hors d'oeuvres right in the middle of the laundry room - they don't even know it's the laundry room."

The Kelsos' century-old Hyde Park home was renovated in 1999 to include what is fast becoming the laundry room of today, featuring everything from a second dishwasher and granite-top desk, to a miniature dog shower and spacious solid-wood cabinets.

Ninety-five percent of respondents in a recent National Association of Home Builders consumer preference survey said they wanted laundry rooms to serve as a multipurpose work area.

The trend is catching on in Greater Cincinnati.

Neal Hendy of Neal's Remodeling in Green Township designed and built the Kelsos' new laundry room in conjunction with the couple's kitchen renovation.

Hendy said the laundry rooms he's done vary, from their location in the house to the amenities, with two prevailing factors - efficiency and organization.

"One client turned a first -floor laundry room into a mudroom and threw the laundry into the basement," he said. Their thinking was: "There's only so much room on the first floor; and if you're not going to have it all there, you may as well not have anything."

The two main reasons for building dog showers in laundry rooms, according to Hendy, are heightened awareness of pet allergies and an inclination to take better care of more elaborate homes and furnishings.

An extra large sink with a spray faucet met the Kelsos' needs for their two small dogs. Other homeowners install actual ceramic tile showers, only in a smaller scale.

Chris Kelso, who has a teen-age son and works full-time as executive director of a nonprofit education organization, said her laundry room's location adjacent to the high-traffic kitchen area lets her keep a handle on the chore daily to avoid spending an entire weekend day washing.

Door's open

Area builders say the shift to bigger, brighter and more versatile laundry rooms reflects overdue attention to a room used seven to nine hours a week.

Tim Hensley, president of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati, said he's built laundry rooms with all of the latest features - and even some homes with two laundry rooms.

Ashley Development in Edgewood has a custom home it markets to empty nesters that combines a laundry room and mudroom adjacent to the kitchen. A dog shower in this model is just outside the mudroom in the garage.

"In the last three to four years, we've definitely upped the (laundry room) specs," sales and marketing manager Jason Yeager said. "We're putting in the same cabinetry as in the kitchen, adding benches, desks, granite tops and lockers for golf bags."

But function isn't all that's pushing the trend. "It's an area of the house that's been neglected for so long and people are saying, 'Hey, this is where we come in every day,'" Yeager said.

Ten years ago, laundry rooms were a secondary feature of the home that buyers didn't want to give up square footage to improve, Yeager said.

Loveland builder John Hueber is following another trend to "get the laundry room near where the clothes are." He put a compact washer and dryer in the walk-in closet of his own master bedroom.

Necessary functions

Laundry rooms now are all about lifestyle changes, he said.

"Whether you're paying bills, doing laundry or getting out fresh toilet paper, it's all in that same area - it's sort of the command central station to run the house."

Ray and Jill Will, empty nesters who live in Edgewood, picked their new Ashley Development home in part because of a tiled mudroom with a double pantry that flows naturally into the laundry room.

"It's very efficient," Jill Will said. "We have the same granite and cabinetry we use in the kitchen. There's a desk there. I can do paperwork, pay bills. And it's very convenient."

In their last home, the couple had their laundry room in the basement. "Sometimes you'd have to climb three staircases to put laundry away," she said.

It's also an area where the couple's two golden retrievers, Buddy and Blarney, can be kept when the Wills are away, because of the tile floors and space.

"With a downsized home, every area is important," she said. "Storage is why we like this particular area."

The Wills' laundry room has lower and overhead storage, a sink and windows.

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