Getting 'er done {Part 2- the laundry room}
When the girls and I were in Nashville for Abby's last dance competition of season, Imagine Nationals, in late June, Donnie and Jacob stayed home. We communicated with the guys, of course, while we were gone. On Saturday, Donnie told me that he and Jacob were working on a project at the house but didn't say what it was. He wanted it to be a surprise for us. We had been talking about doing a number of small projects around the house; by age 14, our house is starting to show showing signs of wear and tear. I had a few guesses as to what they were doing but I wasn't ultimately correct with my guess for what they worked on at home.
Donnie told us we'd see the project when we arrived home. He meant just about literally when we arrived home. The project occurred in the laundry room which is the room that we walk into from our garage. I mentioned that in my last post about nationals that we didn't arrive home until after 4:00 am from Nashville. We'd driven the five hours from Nashville from home without stopping after not getting starting on the drive until almost 11:00 pm.
We walked into the house from the garage and immediately noticed an immaculate, painted scented room. The appearance of the laundry room didn't change too drastically based on what the project entailed. However, many small details changed and now the laundry room looks great again.
When we first moved into our house, the laundry room was about as basic as could be. The floor was linoleum and the walls were painted the same beige color that was painted throughout the house. We installed our no frills, white, top loading washing and dryer and we had ourselves a functional but not very pretty laundry room.
About two years after we moved into the house, we decided to update the laundry room. Donnie ripped out the linoleum and installed ceramic tile. We bought a new washer/ dryer set- one that looked better and had nicer features (at the least the washing machine has nicer features than our old one- specifically a hand wash setting (a misnomer but it is very gentle on our clothes, nonetheless)) that I use occasionally. We added cabinets to one wall for storage. We added a shoe cabinet to house our shoes. We added a beverage fridge. We added some decor to the walls and changed the light fixture. Lastly, Donnie installed wainscoting that we painted white and then Donnie added a series of hooks at the top of the wainscoting to be used for my purse, the kids' book bags, sport bags, coats, pool towels, etc. The laundry room looked great when we (really Donnie) finished updating the laundry room's look. We loved coming home to a nice looking room when entered the house through our garage.
Between years of heavy use and a bit of laziness/ lassitude regarding keeping the room looking its best, the laundry room ceased being a room that looked nice. Donnie decided to do something about that while we were gone in Nashville.
First off, Donnie and Jacob cleaned the grout in between the tiles really well. The grout was gross. I'd cleaned it before, of course, but it hadn't been done in a while and it looked bad. The rug that covered a portion of the floor was well past its prime so Donnie threw the rug out and ordered a new rug.
Over the years of heavy book bags being placed on the hooks, a portion of the wainscoting was starting to pull away from the wall. Also, the wainscoting had gotten scuff marks and dirt on it so it not only looked less than stellar in places, but it was also in danger of coming detached from the wall. Donnie took each hook off the wainscoting, gave the wainscoting a fresh coat of paint and then reinforced the wainscoting (somehow... something to do with lug nuts... he explained to me how he did it but I didn't follow the particulars) so it's firmly attached to the wall again and shouldn't come apart from the wall as readily as it did before.
Donnie also repainted the door leading from the laundry room to the garage. It is now a bright white blemish free looking door. Donnie touched up on the paint that is above the wainscoting. He threw out a ton of things (only one of which I wish he hadn't so he did very well overall) that I had been holding on to just because I wasn't sure if we needed them anymore or not- pieces of kids' old sports equipment, old odds and ends, etc.
To summarize- the room didn't change drastically in appearance. The walls remained the same color- they were just touched up. No new furniture or decor pieces were added to the room. But, structurally, the wainscoting has been very much improved. The biggest change with regard to "things" in the room is the new rug and the absence of some things that were thrown out.
One of the biggest changes we made was a commitment to keeping the room looking better. The new and improved laundry room was complete in June and we've done a really good job of putting our shoes in bins right away instead of letting them accumulate on the floor. We don't use the room as a dumping ground of sorts like we had gotten into the habit of doing. I glance at the laundry room multiple times a day and think how much I like looking at it and how glad I am that we are keeping up with making sure it looks nice and the floor and top of the washer and dryer stay clutter free. I'm grateful for the work that Donnie and Jacob did to Make the Laundry Room (Look) Great Again and I'm proud of all us keeping it looking nice.
Here is the new and improved laundry room. It still has a lot of things in it and likely will for a long time. But it's been cleaned up, freshened up, and sturdied up.
Same wall but standing near the door to the garage- so many shoe bins and shoes!! Each child has a cork board with pictures of him/ her on it.
Another shoe bin- I will replace all of the bins with nicer, bigger ones at some point. For now, these will suffice
The shoe cabinet (we normally have it closed- I opened it for the picture)
The shoe cabinet closed and water jug storage- plus more shoe bins!
Donnie told us we'd see the project when we arrived home. He meant just about literally when we arrived home. The project occurred in the laundry room which is the room that we walk into from our garage. I mentioned that in my last post about nationals that we didn't arrive home until after 4:00 am from Nashville. We'd driven the five hours from Nashville from home without stopping after not getting starting on the drive until almost 11:00 pm.
We walked into the house from the garage and immediately noticed an immaculate, painted scented room. The appearance of the laundry room didn't change too drastically based on what the project entailed. However, many small details changed and now the laundry room looks great again.
When we first moved into our house, the laundry room was about as basic as could be. The floor was linoleum and the walls were painted the same beige color that was painted throughout the house. We installed our no frills, white, top loading washing and dryer and we had ourselves a functional but not very pretty laundry room.
About two years after we moved into the house, we decided to update the laundry room. Donnie ripped out the linoleum and installed ceramic tile. We bought a new washer/ dryer set- one that looked better and had nicer features (at the least the washing machine has nicer features than our old one- specifically a hand wash setting (a misnomer but it is very gentle on our clothes, nonetheless)) that I use occasionally. We added cabinets to one wall for storage. We added a shoe cabinet to house our shoes. We added a beverage fridge. We added some decor to the walls and changed the light fixture. Lastly, Donnie installed wainscoting that we painted white and then Donnie added a series of hooks at the top of the wainscoting to be used for my purse, the kids' book bags, sport bags, coats, pool towels, etc. The laundry room looked great when we (really Donnie) finished updating the laundry room's look. We loved coming home to a nice looking room when entered the house through our garage.
Between years of heavy use and a bit of laziness/ lassitude regarding keeping the room looking its best, the laundry room ceased being a room that looked nice. Donnie decided to do something about that while we were gone in Nashville.
First off, Donnie and Jacob cleaned the grout in between the tiles really well. The grout was gross. I'd cleaned it before, of course, but it hadn't been done in a while and it looked bad. The rug that covered a portion of the floor was well past its prime so Donnie threw the rug out and ordered a new rug.
Over the years of heavy book bags being placed on the hooks, a portion of the wainscoting was starting to pull away from the wall. Also, the wainscoting had gotten scuff marks and dirt on it so it not only looked less than stellar in places, but it was also in danger of coming detached from the wall. Donnie took each hook off the wainscoting, gave the wainscoting a fresh coat of paint and then reinforced the wainscoting (somehow... something to do with lug nuts... he explained to me how he did it but I didn't follow the particulars) so it's firmly attached to the wall again and shouldn't come apart from the wall as readily as it did before.
Donnie also repainted the door leading from the laundry room to the garage. It is now a bright white blemish free looking door. Donnie touched up on the paint that is above the wainscoting. He threw out a ton of things (only one of which I wish he hadn't so he did very well overall) that I had been holding on to just because I wasn't sure if we needed them anymore or not- pieces of kids' old sports equipment, old odds and ends, etc.
To summarize- the room didn't change drastically in appearance. The walls remained the same color- they were just touched up. No new furniture or decor pieces were added to the room. But, structurally, the wainscoting has been very much improved. The biggest change with regard to "things" in the room is the new rug and the absence of some things that were thrown out.
One of the biggest changes we made was a commitment to keeping the room looking better. The new and improved laundry room was complete in June and we've done a really good job of putting our shoes in bins right away instead of letting them accumulate on the floor. We don't use the room as a dumping ground of sorts like we had gotten into the habit of doing. I glance at the laundry room multiple times a day and think how much I like looking at it and how glad I am that we are keeping up with making sure it looks nice and the floor and top of the washer and dryer stay clutter free. I'm grateful for the work that Donnie and Jacob did to Make the Laundry Room (Look) Great Again and I'm proud of all us keeping it looking nice.
Here is the new and improved laundry room. It still has a lot of things in it and likely will for a long time. But it's been cleaned up, freshened up, and sturdied up.
To the left- looking into the room from the kitchen- cabinets and the washer and dryer
looking at the room to the right
Same wall but standing near the door to the garage- so many shoe bins and shoes!! Each child has a cork board with pictures of him/ her on it.
The beverage fridge and...more storage, more hooks, more bags, etc. The beverage fridge is filled with water bottles and pop cans. It's convenient to grab a water bottle from the fridge when we're outside and need a drink or when we're heading out the garage door to get to our cars when we're about to travel.
Another shoe bin- I will replace all of the bins with nicer, bigger ones at some point. For now, these will suffice
The shoe cabinet (we normally have it closed- I opened it for the picture)
The shoe cabinet closed and water jug storage- plus more shoe bins!
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