So my washer and dryer are in my "not yet a kitchen" and I don't have anywhere else to put

[Warpy]

2. Small, 2 dormer Cape Cod houses are pretty squashed upstairs

I know the beast really well. To make a laundry space, either an upstairs bathroom or one of the bedroom closets would have to be sacrificed. Putting a full dormer on the back of the house might buy enough room for a small laundry area, and this would likely be a lot less expensive than either an addition or a basement dug under the house and would help the resale value better than the latter.

In this case and without an attached garage, I'd just stack the damned things in the kitchen and call it a Euro style kitchen, since that's where most washers are there, at least in apartments.