The powder room is very small and is sandwiched between the kitchen and living room. We cannot put it in the dining room nor the family room and don't want it to go in the kitchen. We considered an addition over the garage and that was pricey and would raise property taxes. I would love to have it in a master closet, but we have two small ones in there that barely fit our clothes. I even considered ripping out our huge corner tub in the master bath and putting the washer and dryer in there. The contractor explained that would involve a total remodel of that room and would be very expensive. I knew when we bought this house that this would be my one issue. I may just have to live with it :)

Putting a laundry closet in your living room will seriously affect the resale value, not to mention resale-ability, of your house.

I thought the OP was a joke, until I read the whole thing. :)

To the original poster: you need to just do what YOU want to do and not worry about others opinions. You don't even want to know what my opinion would be of putting the W&D in the living room.

As a mom with a young child, I can certainly see the benefits of moving your laundry area. My previous home had laundry in the basement and I hated it.

Of course, you wouldn't want the new laundry area to be an eyesore or focal point, but if you kept your hookups in the basement and made the main-floor laundry area something that could be removed or modified for another purpose, I wouldn't think it would hurt resale.

Washing machines belong in the basement when you stop to consider the costly damage they can do elsewhere. Kids grow up fast and need lots of exercise to keep them healthy, if you get my drift. Husbands too.

Add a laundry chute and a dumbwaiter or just the dumbwaiter.