The changes they made and tell Anne about - putting an umbrella stand by the front door, instead of the butler's pantry, and the installation of a laundry-door - are both changes that make things easier for the servants.

"The wonder was, how any family upon earth could bear with the inconvenience of it ... so long!" (ch 14)

Well, that's because it wasn't inconvenient to Sir Walter and Elizabeth, just their servants, who don't count, of course.