A Progressing Dumbwaiter
Standing in the kitchen looking down to the framework of the soon-to-be dumbwaiter, a lost feature being resurrected.
Standing in the kitchen looking up. The flooring and joists have been removed, so the dumbwaiter can service the second floor, something it never did originally. To the right is the extant laundry chute. It, too, will soon go down to the basement. To the left are the 1894 dumbwaiter shaft boards. The new boards will match.
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Exciting progress!
I may have missed an earlier post discussing it, but how will the new second-floor dumbwaiter access be configured? It sounds ideal for late-night roomservice from the on-site chef in the basement 😀
Both of our houses (current circa 1926, and previous circa 1913) have had laundry chutes, and we’d miss it sorely if we ever move to a home without one!
Howdy, Seth!
The access to the dumbwaiter in the basement and first-floor will be on the east wall.
On the second-floor access will be via the west wall (inside the utility closet).
This isn’t unusual.
Ah, very nice! The first-floor doorway to our current laundry chute is inside a closet.
Ross, I am so excited!
That’s marvelous that the dumbwaiter will be restored! Laundry chute as well!
This is sublime!
Uh, who is going to work the dumbwaiter? If you’re in the kitchen sending it up and down, who is receiving? If you’re receiving, who is sending this to you? It’s big enough for trays of food or bags of tools but what about suitcases, so you don’t have to carry those up and down the stairs.
I live alone so I think of these sorts of things. Of course, my house is also all on one floor so no dumbwaiter for me. But I wouldn’t mind a regular waiter. As well as a cook, maid, gardener, butler and maybe even a chauffeur.
Living in a big house, I think that a dumbwaiter would be a wonderful thing to have, I only wish that we had someplace that we could put one in. We don’t generally eat upstairs unless someone is sick, but as we are getting older, the option of preparing food, putting it in and sending it up where it will be waiting when we get up there sounds great! And it could be used for other things besides food, too…
Hi, Mike!
I will use the dumbwaiter to bring clothes from the basement laundry room to up to the second-floor. Also, I will use it to haul lights up/down!
My house is not only single floor but small so a tray from the kitchen would probably be faster than a horizontal dumbwaiter, plus it would have to do a 90 degree turn to get to the bedrooms.
Carrying the laundry up to the second floor using the dumb waiter would certainly be a plus. I have to carry my parent’s laundry up to the second floor occasionally when I visit. They save it for me. They have a stair chair so sometimes I put it on the chair and send it up so I get the dumbwaiter thing.
Not so sure about a laundry chute. I would fear my clothes would get caught somehow on the way down and I’d have no way to get them back. Unfortunately my washer is in the detached garage so I would need a laundry conveyor belt stretching from the house horizontally across the patio to the garage. I’m not sure that’s a thing. Plus it would present all sorts of other problems like security and weatherproofing. I’m sure Rube Goldberg could come up with something.
Can’t wait to see it all done! So exciting! 🙂
My old knees would very much like a dumbwaiter. And a laundry chute. Actually, a slide to the basement would be fun, but I can’t talk my husband into installing one.
A slide to the basement and then a ski-lift by up to the top. If he won’t do the slide, ask about a zip-line.
Hahaha No slide? Yes zipline. Talk about compromise.
Dumbwaiter and a laundry chute! You are a lucky man. What a great idea, the dumbwaiter carrying laundry baskets to the second floor. Very convenient.
My aunt installed one for moving all her canned food jars from her kitchen on the first floor down to the basement. In the basement she used a small wagon/lawn cart to move the jars over to her shelves. This saved her back and allowed for so much more use of the basement in so many ways. Having the wagon and the use of a clothes basket or a plastic milk crate made for efficient and safe transfers.. Ross you will never regret all the work you are doing to get this installed!