A little tweeking to the laundry room...

There weren’t too many “structural” changes to be made in this house. Most of the big stuff was done before we moved in but there are a few little things I have been tweeking since we move in,

One is the laundry room. I installed the window before we moved in (featured HERE) , new tops and sink, shelf above the washer and dryer, and replaced the light fixture. Since we moved in I have painted the cabinets, changed the hardware, and added a coffee bar (to be featured later!)

I don’t know who the moron was who thought 4’ was wide enough for the washer and dryer opening….

Why is this an issue?

And worse, I have been having issues with the dryer properly venting. Another moron ran the dryer duct under the slab of the house to the back yard, a good 40’. An absolute no-no. Why? Because the length is entirely too long for a normal dryer to push the warm damp air AND they can potentially (as mine has) take in ground water. So you end up with water in the duct and moist lint sticking to the inside of the duct. Which of course sets off your dryer and shuts it down repeatedly.

I can’t even periodically pull out my dryer to at least attempt to clear the duct work without first pulling out the SUPER heavy washing machine, then moving the dryer sideways.

Hence the problems with the narrow opening. (Thank God I don’t have a dryer with a drop down door!)

Serious pain in the rear and a problem I knew I was going to have to deal with..,..eventually.

What has been causing the serious case of procrastination is my knowledge of framing.

When you frame openings for doors and windows, you have to put a “header” above the opening….let me TRY to explain.

Normally walls have studs every 16” to carry the load of the ceiling weight. The header is to provide solid support over an opening. Now, you have to remember that a 2” x 4/6/8 is actually only 1 1/2” thick, so in order to make a “header” you sandwich two 2xs (usually 10” or 12”) and a 1/2” piece of plywood together…making a 3 1/2” thick header, the width of a 2x4 stud (because it is actually 1 1/2” x 3 1/2”). That header stretches the width of the opening and sits on a “trimmer stud,” which is attached to a “king stud.”

I suspected that when I removed the 8” of wall on the left to widen the opening, the header would be sitting on a trimmer stud, which meant I was going to have to take the entire header out and make and install a new one long enough for the new, larger opening. MAJOR pain in the rear because that meant removing all the sheetrock above the opening to the ceiling, install a new header, then repair and paint the new sheetrock.

The day came…the dryer was no longer getting it done and it was time.

I removed all the trim around the opening and cut out the wall on the left….

BY THE GRACE OF GOD the moron who framed the opening too small made the header too long!!!!!

I was able to slip a few studs in the wall under the header, trim the opening, paint and….

…WALLA. Problem easily solved with no major reconstruction or sheetrock mess.

Well, not “solved” per se….I’ve really only made it easier to clean the vent periodically (and open the door all the way.) The next big chore will be rerouting the dryer vent up the wall and across the attic. A much shorter distance and should solve my problem. But it is hot…super hot…and the attic is even worse. I have no desire to pass out and fall through the ceiling so this chore will wait until it is waaaay cooler in the attic.

Now, the downside….

…the flooring. When I removed the wall, I was left with this gap in the tile where they had tiled around the original framing bottom plate. Boo-hoo.,..now I might have to replace the floor tile in my laundry room! Of course I will have to conveniently forget that there is an entire box of this tile in the garage.

I want to replace the tile. I know this tile is original to the house because I used the exact same tile in my apartments 23 years ago…around the time this house was built.

So I want new…the question is do I NEED new. Or do I just replace the few pieces that need to be replaced.

Only time will tell. Knowing me I will wake up one day and take a hammer and crow bar to the tile….

But not today….today I am still recovering from getting my first Covid shot. I had Covid in December so I have used that as an excuse to not get the vaccine.

I am not a ”conspiracy theorist” and I rarely believe most of the crap posted on Facebook. And I certainly don’t believe this whole mess should have been politicized.

But this new variant has raised a few hairs on the back of my neck….and after having it and knowing how sick you can get, I decided to get the vaccine. We are also flying to Colorado in 8 weeks and at the rate things are going I worry that the airlines will require proof of vaccination to fly. I certainly don’t want to wait until the last minute.

So I got the shot….they say if you have had the virus the first shot will kick your butt. It did.

But I am much better and just about ready to take on another project. Hum…that floor is really starting to bug me….

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DIY and Cinderella...

At this moment I am sitting in my “all-season” room drinking my coffee and watching it rain.

Heaven.

There is so much I love about this house and honestly, I can’t t think of a thing I don’t. We have spent a great deal of time the past few weeks working outdoors and many of our neighbors have stopped to tell us how wonderful it is looking. (Probably more a testament to how badly the place looked to begin with.)

Making a home beautiful after years of neglect, for me, is like the Cinderella story. Abused, neglected, mistreated…until someone who cares comes along and waves a magic wand and makes everything beautiful again.

Simple analogy…seriously, who waves a magic wand and makes a home beautiful. Truth is, it takes a lot of work to turn an abused and neglected home or piece of furniture into something beautiful and useful.

My blog friend Cristina shared a chair she recently transformed. Abused, neglected, dated and something no one really wants in their home anymore was completely transformed into a piece of furniture fit for a ball!

A super simple project for someone like her and me and not so difficult that someone with minimal DIY skills couldn’t tackle. The hardest part would be the sanding and staining, but just a simple KSTP treatment (Kilz, sand, tack, paint (search on this site for examples) would completely transform this simple chair. How cute would it be paint lavender for a little girl’s room. Or bright royal blue for a little boy’s room. (Yes I am a “gender snob”…raised 4 kids like that and they are killing it…so get over it)

After sitting and watching it rain for a few hours I finally decided to tackle the trim and cabinets in the laundry room. As I mention I am painting all the trim a whiter-white…BM Chantilly Lace. Not so “yellow”…just a pure white.

I have drug my feet on the laundry room because I really dreaded painting the cabinets. But I did and they are now done. All except the new hardware and that should be here next week. The only other thing I want to do in that room now is replace the dated ceramic tile. That chore is WAAAAY down the bottom of the list.

Still waiting on the master bath windows. Built a dining table and bench for Brandon and Taylor’s new house…just waiting on the legs we ordered. Waiting on a few final touches before I FINALLY share my shop transformation. The glass for the pantry door should be here today. In other words, lots going on to share…just nothing quite ready.

Cinderella may have transformed with the wave of a wand…unfortunately most DIY projects take a little more time and patience. But the result is often the same…magical!

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ANOTHER laundry room makeover!

One nice thing about blogging is I can go back and know exactly when I did something…case in point, the laundry room.

Here I shared how the laundry room went from this….

…to this….

…in 2014.

I raised the cabinets to the ceiling and painted them. I painted the walls, stenciled the little birdie murals, installed a new light fixture, purged and added a little storage cart. Nothing earth shattering but enough to dress it up a tad.

The most dramatic thing I did to the laundry room was installing reed glass in the door. Here I share a tutorial on how I turned a plain ole’ hollow core door into a really awesome feature!

One thing I debated and am now glad I did not do…put a solid “top” across both the washer and dryer. I worried some day I might go back to a top load washer. Sure enough I did! The shelf is perfect and it is an element I kept!

The only other changes over the last few years was a little kitchen cabinet I removed in one of my kitchen makeovers and put in the laundry room and I moved the sewing machine to a little portable table.

When I painted the walls I was a tad frugal and used some paint I had on hand. I decided to go for broke and actually buy an entire gallon of custom color paint this time. Gasp! I wanted a soft “sagey/greenish” color so I did what I always do…headed to my favorite DIY store, picked up about 15 paint samples and brought them home. Took me all of 2 minutes to pick the perfect shade! Seriously, I think this is the perfect “sagey/green” color…I wish the photos did it justice!

THIS is the process I use for any “makeover”…whether a room or a piece of furniture. Find your inspiration, make a plan and execute the plan.

Inspiration came from cruising Pinterest. As I said in the first makeover, I don’t have the laundry room of my dreams but I have a space I want to be pretty and organized. I knew exactly what I wanted (the plan)…paint, storage, lighting and tile!

First step….PURGE! Empty out the entire space.

Yes, you are going to make a mess…there is just no way around it!!!

My goal is to NOT put back most of the stuff I take out. Now in my case, I am a pretty good “habitual purger” so I have very little “stuff”….but there are always things lurking that have been untouched for years and can go!!!

Next, remove the old light fixture, paint the ceiling (with a flashlight) and install a new fixture. It wasn’t that i disliked the old fixture, but it had fluorescent bulbs that got really hot and one of the three sockets evidently had a short or something because I could never get it to work right. I tried to change out the sockets in the fixture to accommodate LED bulbs, but the wiring was too short and I finally said “FORGET IT” and bought a new fixture.

Remove switch plates, shelving, and stuff on the walls.

Wipe everything down with a damp cloth….don’t paint over dirt!!!

Build storage shelving. I have lived here long enough to know what I need and how I want a space to function.

Caulk the new shelving.

Paint the trim, then walls.

A new shelf…I went with poplar sealed with a clear finish…no stain. I may or may not stain it or paint it in the future…for now, I like this look!

Then a debate. Do I or don’t I stick with my original “plan.”

So my original “plan” called for tile on the wall behind the washer and dryer. I really gravitate towards that look and every time I see a picture of it on Pinterest, I really love it. Yes, that would mean losing the birdies…

HOWEVER, as I have mentioned many times before, NOTHING is “timeless.” And I know me well enough to know that in 5-6-7 years I will not like whatever tile I pick out today…which means that sometime in the future I will have to remove the tile, repair sheetrock and do something else.

NOT something I look forward to. A huge reason why I didn’t put wallpaper in this house 20 years ago, even though it was still a “thing.” I had removed enough wallpaper in my years to know I never wanted to do it again.

So…no tile…for now! I painted the wall and added a little “farmhouse” mirror. The light fixture and the mirror add a touch of “farmhouse fad” without breaking the bank. This is a small room so the mirror is a huge plus!

The storage shelving is THE BOMB!

Love it…it is something I have wanted to do for years! And again, since I have lived in this house for 20 years, I knew exactly what I need. A place for doggy towels, some simple baskets for light bulbs and dust rags and plenty of room for my detergent stockpile! I designed the shelving so I would have the perfect spot for my sewing cart (See how I “upcycled” an old typewriter cart to make a portable sewing table HERE!) At the last minute I added a shelf above the sewing cart so I would have space for a sewing machine if I ever did away with the cart in the future…right now it holds my little coupon box.

Keep in mind that the cart between the washer and dryer I built on the last makeover holds a ton of stuff…dryer sheets, MORE detergent, the iron, spray starch, etc.

The back of the cubby is perfect for storing paints…remember, STORE YOUR TOUCH UP PAINT IN THE HOUSE!!!! Not in the garage or storage building!

Since I now only do laundry for two, my laundry room isn’t near as chaotic as it was when I was raising kids. But whether you do 8 loads a week or 30, there is NO reason to have a disorganized and blah laundry room. Get it organized. Make it a space that is beautiful…it won’t take the sting out of doing laundry but maybe it will make the experience a little more enjoyable.

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Bleaching in an HE washer...who knew?

I know I have been MIA but June was a crazy busy month and this month isn’t going to be any better!

This past week we traveled to New Braunfels, Texas for a little family reunion. Great fun visiting family, floating the Comal and Guadalupe Rivers and doing the “tourist” thing at the Alamo and on the River Walk in San Antonio!

I had a few major projects at the apartments the last few months!

We moved Katie out of her college apartment and all of her stuff is in storage waiting on her move to Delaware in a few weeks. She is there this week apartment hunting.

I’m not looking forward to driving over 22 hours in a big moving truck but after we get her settled we are headed to New York City for a few days! One of my all-time favorite places to visit and I have wanted to take Katie for years! We will take the train from Philadelphia to New York! Just too much fun!

Matt sold his “starter home” and will close on it and his new home this month…bigger house with a pool!

So…what do I want to share today.

Something that is LIFE CHANGING!!!!

Bleach loads with HE detergent.

As I have mention before, I love white bath towels, bath rugs, sheets, dish towels, and wash clothes…and of course I love my white cotton undies and Brian always wears white cotton t-shirts. My favorite thing about them all is the fact that I can bleach everything…clean and sanitary.

Right?

WRONG!

I noticed something weird when i went from a “regular” washing machine and detergent to a front load machine and HE detergent…the white towels and wash clothes always seemed to have “stains” that just never came out…makeup, coffee, chocolate…and the under arms of the white t-shirts always seemed “dingy” and never really “smelled” clean.

A few months ago we bought a new washing machine…we went from a front load to a top load…but it still uses HE detergent.

Side note: this is exactly why I didn’t put one of those nifty counters across the top of my machines when I remodeled my laundry room a few years ago…I THOUGHT I might eventually go back to a top load machine. Sure enough, I had my fill of front load washers. Maybe it was brand, but we had two machines that lasted about 4 years each. This time we went with a good ole’ “American made” brand…we will see how it holds up!

ANYWHO….a few weeks after we installed it i noticed it was making a weird knocking noise during the spin cycle…so I called and they sent out a repair person who promptly IDed the problem…the water hose was hitting the back of the machine during the spin cycle.

But the BIG news was that I found out WHY my whites didn’t seem to be getting as “white” and clean as I thought they should.

According to the repair guy, HE detergent and bleach DO NOT mix….basically if you mix bleach and HE detergent, the detergent will not “clean.”

Some machines dispense the bleach AFTER the wash…mine does not so I have basically been bleaching my whites, but not really washing them.

So now I wash my whites in hot water with the HE detergent….then I do a “rinse and spin” cycle with the bleach.

Adds a step to my bleach loads but it is well worth the effort!

Now, I want to qualify that this is what the repair guy told me. After a few months of testing his theory, I have come to the conclusion that there is merit to his madness.

My whites are whiter, the stains have disappeared and the t-shirt pits smell fresh and are no longer “dingy.”

So…there you go!

Hope this bit of information works for some of you…as I said, for me, it has been life-changing!