buying a largish family home with no utility.

[budgetsbonus]

I re opened a thread from early 2016 but now think it might be better to start a new one for your valued advice!

We like a detached house on a largish new build estate. One problem with it it that it has a 3/4 year old high spec kitchen diner (guessing about £30-35K, which for me very expensive) and no utility room. It literally has a single built in washing machine.

we currently dont have a utility room and wanted one as it wuold be somewhere to hide the airing rails when they are loaded with wet clothes and the weather is too bad for outdoor drying. of course that would have relied on a big enough one to hold a couple of drying rails.

It looks as though the utility room was removed. Looking at sold prices, nearly every single other house on that estate would have one apart from a few of the medium detached "family executive" , the size down from the one we might be interested in buying. as its a new build has the usual low ceilings and a way out the back door so no real room for ceiling hung one. it would have only held washer, tumble and three upper cabinets.

I can see why its been done, the utility room took up floor space to make a square room an awkward shape and taking away a lot of the sun from the rear of the house.

i dont have dogs or any pets, so no need for a place for their food and things. there are so many cupboards away from sink, induction hob and food prep area for things like laundry.

Just thinking about practicalities, if my child had a wee wee accident, i wouldnt rinse those pants in the kitchen sink - i'd use the downstairs loo. If i had a utility, i wouldn't use that sink either. i'd like to keep toilet waste in toilet sinks.

it has a kitchen dinner with breakfast bar, space for a large table and loads of cupboard space, a couple of those are full length, i presume to hold mops/steamers etc.

there is another separate formal dining area and 2 more separate living rooms.

we would be planning to stay there for a about 15 years at least. dh and i are thinking we'd let this kitchen run its course and then re-jig in the year 2032!!!!

another possibility is to make a stud wall in the detached garage which has a side door about 6 ft away, put plumbing in etc.

any thoughts? are we mad to consider this? do i need one? supposing we sell on in 7 years and dont re-jog to create utility again?

I'm open to opinions and wont shout or ignore anyone who I disagree with.

My lovely big utility room is the thing I miss most about my old house. The Sheila's Maid, the downstairs loo, the dog basket, the mucky boots, all the cupboard space for exH useless bits and pieces (as well as the occasional useful one..)

The washing machine out of the way, all the coats and school bags...
Somewhere cold to put food and drink at parties / Christmas etc

[sigh] I don't have one at all right now and I really, really, miss it.

We have a utility corner in our kitchen with washing machine and tumble drier. Could you remove a cupboard and fit in a tumble drier instead.
Re kids wee accidents, I just threw them straight in the washing machine if it was empty or into a nappy bag until it was available. No need to rinse first, wee is mostly water anyway!

phoned agent today and house almost has sale agreed! guess an amazing house in right location minus utility didnt put others off!
thanks for the replies, reading laundry set ups is very useful!

We got a tumble dryer 2 years ago & I keep it in a brick outhouse which is attatched to the garage but not the house so I have to go out to access it. I have shelves to store all my spare laundry products & washing baskets & It keeps everything out of the way.

Almost has sale agreed is estate agent speak for give us a high offer quickly. They just talk that way. Ours had an offer on but we got it for less than that offer because that offer was probably dodgy anyway

Those of you who have upstairs laundry rooms - can you tell me what you have in it?

We don't have a utility room either and I'm going to be converting the box bedroom this year to a laundry room/linen store but am not sure what I really need up there, if you know what I mean.

If you've got an upstairs laundry room; don't you have to lug wet stuff down to hang out to dry in decent weather? Or do you put everything in the dryer?

Elspeth
I have a stacked washer (one that takes an 11kg load - its fab) and dryer. Lots of plastic shelving for stacking clean laundry. A laundry maid (hanging thing with a pulley) on the ceiling and a heated airer. A small sink that it only really used for emptying the water from tumble dryer, since it isn't vented.
Could do without a sink otherwise as it is only ever used for that. I also keep the upstairs vacuum cleaner and cleaning products in there, and DH keeps ironing board permanently up in the corner.

In my laundry, I have the washer and dryer with counter over them for baskets and overhead cupboards. I keep spare bedding and cleaning products in them.
No sink (we didn't have room for one and ours is right next to the bathroom) but it might have been useful.
Also keep the steam iron and ironing board in there.

Honestly, most of the washing does go in the dryer these days, we're a big family and it saves me a lot of time. However, the things that can't go in the dryer are hung on wall mounted folding airers which have been very useful, I leave the window open when I use them.

If it's not too far from the washer, I'd convert the study into a laundry cum "craft" room. Assuming you have kids, it would be a good place for them to paint and draw (or even hide with their homework form busier living areas), or for you to sew, or whatever suits your family (or, if you did move again a few years down the line) would make it marketable to people with little imagination.

I don't have a utility room and would love one.