The Goodbye Tour: The Laundry Room

Continuing through the house on our little good-bye tour...next stop: laundry room.  A lot of the content of this post is a re-run from this one back in 2012 (apparently I did occasionally post finished room pictures instead of just progress shots back then), but I've updated it a bit and added some new photos.

Our downstairs bathroom was originally the master bedroom of the house.  When the previous owner became too ill to go upstairs, her bedroom was moved to the den and plumbing and a handicapped-accessible bathroom was built.

The washing machine (which was not sold with the house) had apparently been in the kitchen (where we later added a peninsula), and she did not have a dryer.

Justin was a little nervous, given the state of the entire house, that I wanted to renovate the only live-able room in the house.  Since it was converted within the last 5 years or so, it was a nice space.  The paint was nicely done (albeit not in my choice of color!), the fixtures were new, working, and didn't have years of caked on grime.  Longtime readers of the blog will know that all of these perks were not found throughout the rest of the house!

However, I knew that I wanted to have the washer and dryer accessible on the first floor and not have to install them in the basement, and the amount of space in the bathroom was really unnecessary.  We apparently don't have any pictures that show the full scale of the room, but here's a collection of before shots to give you an idea.

 

We spent several months doing laundry in a laundromat until the glorious day when the plumbing was revamped for a washer/dryer in the place of the old vanity.  (Remember that announcement, here).  In one of our biggest Craigslist successes, a woman drove from over an hour away to pay us $100 for the removed vanity.  

I stole the medicine cabinet for the upstairs bathroom, leaving us with a hole in the wall for much longer than anticipated.  My decorating and organization left a lot to be desired (but we were frying bigger fish at the time, like finishing the upstairs):

Then, I finally decided that it was time to make some things happen.  With 48 hours (or some other ridiculously short time frame) between that point and the pending arrival of my parents and siblings, I decided that I would finish the bathroom before they arrived to surprise them with the progress.  I think I finished the drywall repairs, painted the ceiling, and did half of the first coat (again, the huge size of the room and immense amount of cutting in took me by surprise) before the doorbell rang.  So, guess how my family spent a big part of their Ithaca vacation :)  (Thanks, guys!!)

Mom, helping to paint (and clearly acting on a dare from my dangerous-with-a-paintbrush sister in this shot!)

Maura and Colin, installing the sticky tiles I love - as a surprise for me while I was at work one day!

I revamped the cabinet that had been hanging in the kitchen and hung it here for cleaning supply storage

A new pedestal sink (on the previously empty wall), a mirror, new accessories and a new shower curtain, and now's now:

  

 

Project review:

- Removed vanity & added washer/dryer and new pedestal sink

- New paint

- New floor tile

- New shower curtain/mirror/towel bars/etc

- Added refurbished shelves/cabinets

Before, after, and one last look:

Restoring order

I recently discovered that there are few things as relaxing (big disclaimer - FOR ME!) than folding laundry.  This came as much as a surprise to me as it might be to all of you who are now wondering if I'm serious and/or sane.  I've always pretty much enjoyed doing laundry (as in, loading the machine - pretty hands-free compared to lots of other homemaking chores).  But for most of my laundry-doing life, I would take everything out of the dryer or off the line and pile up 4 or 5 clean loads in the baskets, which would then sit upstairs for several days until I got really sick of Justin asking me every morning if I had seen the X colored polo shirt.

A few months ago, I realized that I could improve the process by imposing on myself a rule that I must fold things directly out of the dryer.  I am therefore incentivized to fold it because I have natural incentive to empty the laundry machine in order to start the next load (which therefore reduces the dirty pile on the floor).

And somewhere in adopting this practice, I've fallen in love with the folding.  I noticed one evening, as I made neat little stacks of dish towels and cloth napkins (my favorite things to fold are those of which we have many consistently sized things) and a lot of my stress seemed to melt away.  As soon as I noticed, I started analyzing and wondering why such a repetitive task was relaxing.  It's not a particularly rushed (or rush-able) process.  And it restores order.  You start with a smelly, wet pile of dish rags and towels, and a run through two machines and you're making neat little stacks that are clean and fresh-smelling.

It's probably just me who feels a sense of relaxation looking at a nice stack of freshly-laundered t-shirts.
(and teeny-tiny toddler training pants!)

I was also recently struck with the realization that my daily routine (organize/clean something, organize/clean whatever Anna got into while I was organizing the first thing, repeat) fits pretty well with this whole "finding former glory" thing.  But I haven't been treating it that way.  I view "cleaning" as a fairly negative chore that I theoretically want done but don't practically enjoy.  But we all know that I LOVE taking something messy/broken/ugly and making it better.  So I've just stopped calling it "cleaning."  For the past few days, I've gone about my day thinking about my job as "restoring order to our home."  I'm making our rooms beautiful again when I clear away the clutter and the dirt.

Maybe if you're not me (aka, an overly analytical person who spends the majority of her day with someone still learning to speak in multiple word phrases) this just seems like silly semantics, but it has made a big difference to me.  "Restoring order" feels like a less rushed process, and it seems like something that is a more noble goal than focusing on "cleaning."  I can easily connect wanting to have an ordered home with our family goals, but just chasing cleanliness somehow feels more frivolous or worldly.  I'm struggling to find the words to explain the difference, and it probably just has to do with the definitions I conjure up for each of those phrases.  Either way, the point is that calling my work something that is in line with my goals and wishes for our family is a lot more effective in inspiring me to do it, to do it well, and to find the joy in the process.

I've also realized that I (surprisingly) enjoy spending an hour or two picking up and cleaning up - and restoring order - in the evening after Anna goes to bed.  I used to think of this time as my "off time" when I deserved to be doing something relaxing, but I'm often too tired to do the sewing or reading I think I want to do, and instead find myself frustrated at the time I'm spending online.  Somehow, within the last week, an evening of leisurely (light) housework has become my preferred way of spending an evening, and having taken some downtime in the afternoon instead, I'm up for the work (although still not for a more thinking-heavy activity like sewing).  Perhaps its the feeling of having the house back to a (mostly) ordered state when we come downstairs in the morning, but more likely it's the freedom of doing the tasks at a moderate pace, without the knowledge that other work is being created in the meantime.

Example 1: Why laundry is more relaxing at night.

Since we only use the downstairs shower when we have guests, it is a bit of a storage closet otherwise.

Someone found (and discovered how to open) the Easter bin that was stashed there earlier this week.

We can probably chalk this post up to late-night ramblings of an over-thinker, but perhaps there's someone else up there who needs the nudge to know it's OK to redefine your work, to think of it in other terms or in ways that are motivating and inspiring, and to give yourself the freedom to redefine what you consider the "norms" of when and how to do things.  Or maybe you just want to call me crazy for admitting to the Internet how much I like stacks of folded shirts.

The tale of two shelves

Once upon a time, there was a shelf.  It hung over the kitchen sink when Emily & Justin bought their house - in fact, it was the only "upper cabinet" in the whole house.

During an early demolition, Justin took the shelf off the wall and planned to throw it in the growing pile for the dump.  Emily begged Justin to save the shelf.  He looked at her with the same crazy look he gave when she wanted to renovate the only "nice" room in the house.  (He's an equal opportunity skeptic when it comes to proposed renovations that intend to redo either really nice - or, in this case - really, really awful things).

Emily was determined that the sad little cabinet would have a future in their home, even though it spent several months in drywall dust exile, and then even longer in back-porch prison.  The dust and the outdoor weather made the sad little cabinet look even worse, and even Emily's mother (and her least likely skeptic) said "just throw that thing away!  Buy a new cabinet!"

But Emily prevailed.  And skeptics are no longer skeptical.

It still has the rough edges of a cabinet with a story, but that's because it IS a cabinet with a story.

And it has the dignified duty of hiding all of the cleaning products and laundry supplies - a job it does quite well!

This shelf isn't the only one in the laundry room rescued from a former life in the kitchen.  I'll tell this tale in the more-normal first person :)

Remember when our original kitchen didn't have any upper cabinets (other than the aforementioned ugly-white-shelf, which Justin promptly removed)?  And then my dad bought & installed a nice shelf that helped to free up a bit of the counter top?  (Notice in the background of this picture, the sloppy white paint outline of the other old shelf, which was apparently painted in place).

This shelf, too, was destined for a place in the laundry room.  The light wood, which had matched in the kitchen, was out of place in the decor of the laundry room.  So I turned to the glue gun and staple gun and made a trip to Jo-Anns.  Half of yard of fabric and 15 minutes of gluing and stapling, the shelf was ready for a new home!

My remaining plan for the laundry room is in regards to the light fixtures. You know I can't leave anything as-is :)  I have new glass shades for them (from the clearance rack at Lowes), as well as a bottle of spray paint waiting for a kind non-pregnant helper to cover up that shiny silver.  The fixtures themselves will be oil rubbed bronze (to match the brackets on the shelf), and the shades are a muted golden color with little brown specks.

Anybody else out there a revamp-a-holic?

The laundry list

The first time that we toured our house, I stood in the behemoth downstairs bathroom with our realtor, discussing options for converting it into a laundry/bath combo.  Previously, the house had no dryer, and the washer hook-up was in the kitchen.  As you can tell from the before and after (below), I had better ideas than a washing machine for the middle of the kitchen:

I also knew that I wanted to have the washer and dryer accessible on the first floor and not have to install them in the basement.  The downstairs bathroom was the perfect candidate because it already has water access (check!) and it's a HUGE room.  It was previously the master bedroom; converted to a handicap-accessible bathroom when the previous owner could no longer go upstairs.

Since it was converted within the last 5 years or so, it was a nice space.  The paint was nicely done (albeit not in my choice of color!), the fixtures were new, working, and didn't have years of caked on grime.  Longtime readers of the blog will know that all of these perks were not found throughout the rest of the house!

This room was - by far - the nicest room in the house when we bought it.  Naturally, my immediate plans to revamp it had Justin a little nervous.  At this point, the rest of the house was more or less falling apart, and, as he said "you want to tear apart the only nice space we have!"  Guilty as charged.  

For a while, we did leave it as is, and made trips to the laundromat (until at least this time last year) before we purchased a washer and dryer and had the plumbing revamped to fit a washer & dryer.  (Remember that announcement, here).

I stole the medicine cabinet for the upstairs bathroom, leaving us with a hole in the wall for much longer than anticipated.  My decorating and organization left a lot to be desired (but we were frying bigger fish at the time, like finishing the upstairs):

Then, last summer, I finally decided that it was time to make some things happen.  With 48 hours (or some other ridiculously short time frame) between that point and the pending arrival of my parents & siblings, I decided that I would finish the bathroom before they arrived to surprise them with the progress.  I think I finished the drywall repairs, painted the ceiling, and did half of the first coat (again, the huge size of the room and immense amount of cutting in took me by surprise) before the doorbell rang.  So, guess how my family spent a big part of their Ithaca vacation :)  (Thanks, guys!!)

Mom, helping to paint (and clearly acting on a dare from my dangerous-with-a-paintbrush sister in this shot!)

Maura and Colin, installing the sticky tiles I love - as a surprise for me while I was at work one day!

After new paint, new hardware, new floors, and some decor, I think it's looking a lot more spiffy (and organized, not to mention functional!)

This post is getting rather long, so I'll revisit some of the details in this room tomorrow.  I'm particularly proud of the brown cabinet and the rescue from its previous life...so stay tuned!