Steven Randel, Houzz Contributor

Laundry rooms rule. If you have the luxury of space, laundry rooms can be more than places to clean clothes; they can be welcoming, accessible places for more activities, such as caring for pets, sewing, doing DIY projects, wrapping packages, starting seedlings and more.

As with kitchens, there are a number of considerations and dimensions to be aware of when planning a multipurpose laundry room. Below are several functions and layouts to keep in mind.

How to have a spotless, beautifully organized laundry room

There are four primary areas and functions of laundry rooms:

Entry and prep. Install a laundry sink near the entry so you can sort, apply fabric treatments and soak stains if necessary.

Washing. It is good to have a countertop where you can place your sorted loads before putting them in the washing machine.

Drying. Youll also want another section of countertop for items that need to be line dried, as well as space to fold dried laundry.

Storage and ironing. Make sure you have enough room for a folded ironing board, which measures about 14 inches wide, 60 inches long and 3 inches thick (36 by 152 by 7 centimeters).

Nice extras. Of course, some people with large spaces want to use their laundry room as a craft or sewing area, mudroom or dog washing station. These are very specific to each of us; planning spaces with a little extra room for these functions lets individual habits dictate their use.

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Key Measurements For A Dream Laundry Room

If youput a bedroom in your basement, city safety codesrequire youto havean easy way to escape in case of a fire.

That usually means putting in a bigger window at an additional cost.

Sometimes, homeowners who wanted to avoid the cost of cutting a bigger hole in the cement, buying a new window and a putting in a bigger window well, would fudge.

They would tell city building and safety staffthe basement room they were remodeling was to be a sewing room, a den, a study -- anything but a bedroom.

So citystaff came up with a definition. If the room has either a closet or a bathroom, then it is a sleeping room and it needs a safe exit.

The definition has worked well for city inspectors dealing with people trying to avoid the cost of putting inan egresswindow.

But it became a bureaucratic nightmare for Laura Pales.

Pales played by the rules. She went to the city with the plans for her basement remodeling project putting in two bedrooms and a TV/rec room.

The city building and safety staff approved the plans. She paid $182 for the permit.

Butseveral weekslater, bureaucracy intervened.

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Hicks: Is it a bedroom or not?

ROSELLE A Roselle hotel recently received a makeover by remodeling its brand from Country Inn and Suites to Holiday Inn Express and Suites.

Owned by Pearlshire Capital Group, the hotel also will see a 24,000-square-foot banquet hall addition likely completed by spring 2015, thanks in part to an agreement with the village of Roselle that will help with construction costs.

In the spring, the Roselle Village Board of Trustees approved the establishment of a business district on the hotel property that will allow Pearlshire Capital Group to impose an added sales tax, up to 1 percent, to help pay off the cost of the hall's interior construction, according to village records.

We had a board that wanted to get involved and aggressive in recruiting business. That set the table for this agreement, said Patrick Watkins, the village's community development director.

The renovation of the hotel was a thorough one that included changing furniture, equipment, the color scheme, signage and lighting, said Rehan Zaid, Pearlshire Capital Group's director and principal.

It changed from a traditional look to a contemporary look, Zaid said. Holiday Inn Express is a more recognized brand and gives us more of a competitive edge to compete in the market. It helps us cater to our customer base with better services and amenities.

The hotel originally opened as a Country Inn and Suites hotel in 2008.

A grand reopening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the 101-room hotel took place July 24.

Roselle Mayor Gayle Smolinski announced the construction of the banquet hall at the ceremony, which was attended by 100 people. She said the banquet hall will be a nice complement to the hotel.

The ribbon cutting was wonderful," Smolinski said, adding the hotel owner did an excellent job of showing commitment to the community.

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Roselle hotel rebrands, plans to open banquet hall in spring

My life changed the day I visited a friend who had downsized into a charming home perched on the perimeter of a little lake on the outskirts of Kansas City, Mo.

I fell in love with the quiet community of small, unassuming homes built decades ago around a sleepy lake.

After commuting a few hours a day between our home and my store, I was ready for a close location where we could stay when in Kansas City. Within days, my husband Dan had found a little fixer-upper on the lake and, ready or not, we began our downsizing adventure.

If a smaller, easier home sounds like heaven to you, too, I have great news: Your new nest can be just as big on style as the larger home you're leaving behind. Here are five tips I'm following as we transition to our new home.

Modify to fit your needs

The flow of our lake home comfortably fit the sweet elderly woman we brought it from, but Dan and I knew it was not going to work so well for us and how we do life.

We connected with a good friend who is an architect and got to work figuring out how to modernize the home and add our own personality. The remodeling project has taken more than a year, and while I was ready to pull my hair out a few times, I'm glad we did it.

If you have a chance to remodel or build your smaller home, list the things you absolutely have to work around.

One of ours was books. We needed homes for Dan's gazillion volumes. So we lined the walls of the living room with bookshelves.

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5 tips for downsized home decorating

Gayle Plessner and her husband love their dogs, but the sound of the rain on the roof of their home in Westlake Village, a planned community on the border of Los Angeles, made them lament winter, the season of muddied paws, in 2012.

"I remember thinking that it would be great if we had a mud room for the dogs," Plessner said.

So when the couple decided to remodel their six-bedroom contemporary home in April 2013, Plessner turned a 10-by-12-foot room off the laundry room into a pet zone, adding a water-resistant polka-dot floor and a separate dog door with access to the backyard for Lucy, a 2-year-old golden retriever; Hermione, a 5-year-old pug; and Snoop, a 6-year-old Chihuahua mix.

Plessner was going to eliminate the bathtub in the bathroom adjoining the dogs' room but instead removed the glass shower doors and made the tub accessible to the dogs.

Designers say more dog owners are considering their pets' needs when building or remodeling their homes: asking for pooch-friendly spaces, ordering specialized cabinets for pet bowls and food, and adding canine-only showers and tubs.

"Pets and children are very important to our homeowners. So whether it's dogs or cats or gerbils or fish, we need to include them in the design process," Los Angeles architect Tim Barber said.

Marc Bekoff, author of "Why Dogs Hump and Bees Get Depressed," said pets want to feel at peace and safe. "Animals are smart and emotional, and people are now factoring that into a lot of things. And a place in the house where a dog can get away from it all is really important."

Whether with people or their environment, dogs also crave contact.

Pacific Palisades, Calif., resident Pam Fillo considered the need for contact when designing a breakfast nook in 2008. Taking her cue from a magazine article that featured a window-bench-style seat with a single carved opening for a pet, Fillo hired Barber's firm to design a built-in dining bench with three arched openings for her dogs. Each nook provides room for a dog bed.

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Pet projects pricey

Photo courtesy of All Decks and Improvement

This addition by All Decks and Improvement, when completed, housed a new master suite.

This is the first of four articles on building an addition to your home. Look for the next installment on July 17.

Summer is the season when things grow - your lawn, your garden - and possibly your house, too! Today, rather than "trading up," many people are opting to expand their present homes. And what better time for such a project than during this warmer, and often more relaxed, time of year?

PHOTO COURTESY OF thinkstock

More people today are choosing to add on to their present homes, rather than moving.

THE BENEFITS

Building an addition not only lets your family enjoy more elbow room now, but also may increase the future value of your home.

Additions have become popular these days because fewer homeowners are able to sell, said Fred Hirsch of Comfort Guard Contracting, Lodi. "People were holding onto their money because of the economy, but now they feel safer," he said. "They want to put it into their home and bring up the worth of the property."

"It is harder to sell a home today, so people are opting to add on to get more comfortable living space," agreed Ellen Tesauro, owner of All Decks and Improvement, Wayne. But she also cautioned, "You need to be careful - don't overspend on adding more rooms than are needed."

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Need more room? Time to add on!

CEDAR FALLS | The R.J. McElroy Trustees recently awarded a $200,000 matching grant to support the remodeling project of the Hartman Interpretive Center's east wing.

The Friends of Hartman Reserve, along with the Black Hawk County Conservation Board, last May announced plans to renovate a portion of the center, citing energy inefficiencies, structural elements that must be replaced and lack of programming space.

Plans specify a ground-level entrance for greater accessibility; a four-seasons room with a larger deck; a library; a restroom; and a separate classroom to allow educational programming indoors.

"The award is a tremendous endorsement of our plans to remodel the East Wing," said Connie Svoboda, development coordinator at Hartman.

Because it's a matching grant, donors from this point forward will see their contribution multiply dollar for dollar until the $200,000 is raised.

Svoboda said contributions to the capital campaign have been steady. She hopes the challenge from the McElroy Trust will accelerate progress toward the fundraising goal of $2.2 million.

Donations are tax-deductible.

Donors can go online at http://www.HartmanReserve.org to view plans and download a pledge form or contact Svoboda for an appointment.

Civic organizations can learn about the renovation by inviting members of the Friends of Hartman Reserve Board to speak. To schedule a visit, call (319) 277-2187.

Hartman Reserve Nature Center is at 657 Reserve Drive. The Interpretive Center is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. during the week and from 1 to 5 p.m. Sunday. Trails are open from sunrise to sundown daily.

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Hartman Reserve received McElroy Trust grant toward remodeling project

Adding sitting areas to a master suite is a great way to create a personal retreat.

Annie Schwemmer, Renovation Design Group

Home design is where art meets science, function meets beauty and a house becomes home. While the average homeowner can recognize a room that looks and feels good in real life, they can rarely feel what the architect has designed on paper. However, there is a method to the madness.

Part of the method of design is to understand how the homeowner will use a room. Take the master bedroom for example. Determining the size and elements of this room depends on how it will be used and how the residents will live in the space.

Do you need a big bedroom?

Big, spacious master bedrooms are good for people who plan to use their bedroom as a private getaway. When you have or create a large master bedroom, it is important to not waste the extra space. Create a mini living room with a seating area and a TV and/or fireplace. If relaxation is not your main goal, you can use the space to express your creativity with activities such as crafts, painting or practicing an instrument. The key is to individualize the space to offer a place to wind down after a long day. Large bedrooms such as these pair well with a bathroom and a closet to create the luxurious master suite. A typical master suite requires about 400 to 800 square feet and will cost about $150 per square foot for a remodel and about $220 per square foot for an addition.

The downside to a large master suite is the potential for clutter buildup. Make sure you stay organized by having a place to keep everything. A disorganized master suite will never qualify as a personal retreat.

Do you need a small bedroom?

Even though we design plenty of beautiful, spacious master suites, we still stand by our motto: Bigger isnt always better. Sometimes a small bedroom can be more restful and relaxing than a large master suite. The master suite can seem frivolous and wasteful to someone who doesnt plan to do anything but sleep there. A bedroom designed as a cozy sleeping nook really only needs space for a bed and a nightstand. A small but well-designed, bedroom can actually turn out to be more restful than a bigger bedroom and will stay cleaner.

Another plus to creating a smaller bedroom is that the square footage could be used in a different part of the house. If the bedroom isnt your priority, then you could create a design that steals a few feet from the bedroom to make a bigger living room.

Continued here:
Renovation Solutions: Understanding the master bedroom madness

After three months of remodeling, the Capital Hotel is reopening its flagship restaurant today, August 8, under the name of One Eleven at the Capital. More has changed about the place beyond the name One Eleven features a newly renovated dining room and an overhauled kitchen that reflect ChefJol Antunes' vision of a more contemporary, modern menu in a setting that is still elegant enough to be worthy of the legendary space it occupies.

I was fortunate enough to attend a tasting last night that featured dishes from One Eleven's dinner, dessert, and new bar menus and I've got to say, I was impressed. Dishes were simple, with attention paid to making sure each flavor worked together, and the high quality of ingredients was apparent in every bite.

The new place looks great. Ashley's always seemed a bit dark to me, but the new space is light and open, with a beautiful zinc bar greeting diners immediately as they enter the restaurant. Gone, too, is the partition that divided the dining area in half the new dining room is far more open, with a good flow and energy to it accentuated by a light color scheme and fresh artwork on the walls.

As for how the new restaurant concept will work, Antunes has scuttled the long-time prix fixe model in favor of a less rigid al la carte menu. The new lunch menu features dishes in the $15-$25 range, a price point that marketing director Chuck Magill said was intended to turn One Eleven into a place that downtown workers felt like they could eat at more than just once in a great while. The dinner menu, too, is intended to change the "special occasion only" reputation of Ashley's by keeping dishes in the $25-$45 range certainly in line with other high-end restaurants in town.

In addition to the new lunch and dinner menus, One Eleven will be featuring a revamped breakfast and brunch menu, trading in the white tablecloth dinner atmosphere for a more casual, open setting. Even better, a new coffee bar serving espresso and other coffee drinks is slated to turn the Capital's central lobby into a hub of activity, developing a caffeinated link between One Eleven and its across-lobby neighbor, the Capital Bar and Grill.

Moving into the appetizer menu, things got even better. The Maine Oysters Rockefeller were a revelation: a poached oyster resting under a blanket of luscious hollandaise that was the definition of decadent. This was followed by a small crab cake served over cole slaw (perfect flavor, with a nice contrast of textures) and a shot glass of asparagus soup that tasted better than any soup has a right to.

Following these excellent dishes, we were treated to a risotto with fresh green peas and black truffle that was one of the creamiest, best versions of the dish I've ever tried. A Berkshire pork cheek with pasta and chorizo had the pig-lovers at the table going crazy, but it was the Belle Evans Farm roast chicken that really blew me away one of the only times that I've actually liked the chicken better than the pork (although both were excellent).

Dessert brought a raspberry cheesecake that I predict will become a local favorite, a light, tender chocolate souflee, and a caramel popcorn and ice cream dish that was very unique. By this point, we were all groaning with our gluttony, but we managed to suffer through you know, in the name of journalism.

The name One Eleven represents a few things: it's the address of the hotel, the address of Stephens' headquarters, and it even hearkens back to the original Stephens offices at 111 Main Street. As the restaurant ramps up its new service model, I predict that One Eleven will represent something else: excellence in dining that will seldom be paralleled in the city. Chef Antunes is a star, and with this new opening, he's ready to start dazzling his way.

Excerpt from:
One Eleven at the Capital (formerly Ashley's) opens today

Barnes-Jewish Hospital officials are urging patients to bring no more than one guest to the emergency department while the hospital renovates the waiting room.

A temporary building has been placed outside the ER to serve as the temporary waiting room during the renovation, which is expected to be complete by mid-September, hospital officials report.

The renovation is expected to improve patient flow and create a more comfortable space for patients, the health system reports.

The Charles F. Knight Emergency and Trauma Center was built in 2002 and is a Level One trauma center with about 95,000 visits each year. This remodel is not part of the overall campus renewal project in the citys Central West End.

Barnes-Jewish Hospital is owned by BJC HealthCare, a nonprofit health care system with 12 area hospitals and $4 billion in revenue in 2013. BJC HealthCare is led by CEO Steve Lipstein.

Samantha Liss is a business reporter at the Post-Dispatch. Follow her on Twitter @samanthann and the business section @postdispatchbiz.

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Barnes-Jewish Hospital begins ER remodeling