My parents house used to have basement access through the garage only. She didn't like that.

They put a regualar staircase right in the living room. It's open w/ banisters. That space used to be a laundry room closet. Now they have the laundry room in the basement.

Now that she is getting older she wishes it was set up like before because she doesn't like going up and down the stairs to do laundry.

My parents house used to have basement access through the garage only.

Reminds me of a renovated home I was in. Once in the beautifully redone basement, including a chef's kitchen (the owner was a chef) stairs led up to a 20x20 family room with a wall of glass doors to the backyard.

But I couldn't figure out where the room was. Till I realized it was originally the double garage, which on the outside still had double doors to the front. The conversion violated zoning, so was camouflaged.

You could maybe put a trap door over the spiral staircase? So that when you weren't using it you'd have that space clear. I'm considering this myself so lmk if you come up with something