I’m feeling bad about the lack of activity on my blog, especially since I’ve had my new laundry room up and running for almost a month. September is super busy at work and in all honesty I find I don’t have much “gas in my tank” for much else during my down time. We have been plugging away at the finishing touches, but as for function – it is totally awesome! I can honestly say it has changed my life. I pop in loads every day or two and have absolutely no laundry building up. I used spend my entire weekend doing load after load and now it just seems to always be done – so thankful for this convenience.
We really wanted to transform this space at minimal cost and I have to say we have been pretty successful. I bought paint and we paid someone $100 to drill the hole for the dryer vent. Tim did all the plumbing and electrical and we managed to carry both appliances up ourselves (without too much difficulty I might add). The last steps to making the space functional involved some essential storage space and a counter. Originally we had planned to put in a sink, but after contemplating it, we decided we could always add one in later if we thought it was needed. To be honest, I don’t think it is something I will need and I knew it would take away some of the limited counter space, so we opted to wait.
Tim bought plain old 2 X 6’s for the counter for under $60. We had the screws and stain on hand, so there really weren’t additional costs. I know he spent several hours measuring, sanding, building and staining it, but I love the finished look. The dark stain looks great with the white/blue and ties in nicely to my dressing room/scrapbooking room which is the adjacent room. Projects like this are always harder than you initially expect because nothing is ever “square” in a 100 year old house. I am so proud of him and the great quality work he did. He did such nice work that my 10 year old appliances don’t even look half bad (although we do need to adjust them slightly as they aren’t quite level).
We picked up this Ikea cabinet through Kijiji for $60 (I think). It provides perfect storage for my vacuum, gift wrapping supplies and extra linen. As you can see, we still need to figure out the space below the counter top, install some shelves, the ironing board and a few other finishing details. We’ll continue to chip away and completing this project in the next few weeks, but at least it is up and running!
One of my favourite things about the laundry room is the awesome smell of freshness! I never even noticed this before because I always did “load and dash” when I had to do laundry in the basement. Now I love to linger in my new space and actually enjoy folding the clothes on the large counter top! It’s bright and pretty and smells great too! Feeling blessed.
