Our laundry room

I'm kind of on a basement kick, eh?  I'm not sure I've ever shared our laundry room on the blog before....well, here it is.  

Ok, that is what this room looked like when we bought the house.  Flesh colored walls, weird phone, bright yellow painted pipes, ductwork and floor joists up top...

WHY?  But the real winner of this space was the horror-show floor.  It looked like some black rubber mats were thrown over a crime scene.  The red paint under those mats was still WET.  We got the mats up, let the room dry out, then took some scrapers and got to work on all the loose and flaking paint on this floor.  

There was green, red, gray, tan, every shade.  After painting the cinderblock walls white and the paneling aqua, we scraped all the yellow paint off the joists and ruined our necks in the process.  Then we scraped and sanded the floor until we felt comfy going over the it again with Behr Epoxy floor paint in Spanish Parador.  This all happened in 2008, right before we got our new piece of crap washer and dryer. 

The laundry room sat like that, looking 'acceptable' for years.  Then I finally decided to pretty it up.  Here is what that mishmash counter area looked like in early November....

And here is what it looks like after a couple coats of Rustoleum Oil Base White paint. That stuff is MAGIC!  I'd used it before with great results on our IKEA desk, and had great results again. Yes, it is still sticky and stanky.      

To cover the break where the old metal cabinets and the awkward countertop meet, I hung up this old bathroom hook thingy that my mom gave me years ago.  It was free, and fits perfectly!  Plus, it's great for hanging stuff to dry.  Mostly bras.  Yep, it's pretty much a bra drying rack.

I spent $45 on a new indoor outdoor rug from Overstock that looked pretty and happy, and I'm extremely glad I did.  It doesn't seem outdoor like, or plastic.  It is so nice!

I also made some little curtains for the gross windows using leftover fabric from upstairs projects, dowels and dowel caps from Hobby Lobby.  The entire project cost me $3 and really makes a difference.  Here is the finished laundry room today! 

I am so proud that I was able to make it look like this with some paint, some elbow grease, some cheap fabric, and a new rug.  We can't all have beautiful new cabinetry, tile, windows, etc...but even a crappy space like ours can look cute!  

I'm all about making the best of what I've got these days, so this project makes me feel good.  Now if only I could devise a way to have other people do my laundry for me.

PS - turns out I did share the 'old' laundry room before, back when I was much funnier at the start of my blogging journey, read it here!  I love seeing how my description of the room changed from then til now.  Ah, 2009 me...you were awesome.  

Our basement outhouse

We have a weird toilet room in our basement.  I know it's not uncommon, but it still always freaked me out and I never went in there, even though the toilet is pretty new and it works fine.  A couple weeks ago I decided to fix it up on a random week night.  

The 'room' is really just some wood planking that is to the floor on the left side, and raised up off the ground the other two walls.  Plus, some yahoo had cut a big hole in the wall that actually went to the floor.   At butt-level.

My goal was simple.  To make this outhouse more like an actual bathroom, and use only materials we already had in the house.  I decided the easiest way to fill in the heiny hole was to use some super thin tongue and groove planks we had laying around from an abandoned project.  I measured, got my materials together (which included wine, and my miter saw) and got to cutting.  

I'm not sure you should drink and use big saws, but I did it and all my digits survived.  Of course nothing happened, check out my concentration.  

The planks needed something to attach to on the bottom, I really didn't have the tools or resources (or patience, time, desire, the list goes on) to attach this 2x4 to the concrete, so it is just resting there with the planks to anchor it down.  

And here are the first few up.  Not bad!

To nail them into the 2x4, I had a very scientific method.  Shaun pushed on it from the other side while I nailed the planks.  When I got to the last one, I used almost the full length of the plank to fill in the entire open area.  

What you see here is a space that wasn't filled with a plank in between the original board and the new plank.  I don't have a table saw to rip these, so I just nailed another full one up to the other side, which is just a paint room and workshop, anyway.  It fills up the hole, you know?  The final step that night was to add a piece of trim to the meeting of 'old and new' and use leftover Behr Aqua Smoke (our master bedroom color) to paint everything.  

Then I hung a mirror I didn't have a place for.  Yay!

And I also hung a little framed photo I already had (seen behind me) and replaced this little gem: 

Oh yeah, previously, you had to turn the light 'on and off' by screwing the lightbulb in and out.  I don't pretend to know the wiring in this house.  I solved the issue by replacing the classic ceramic bare bulb fixture (which is sad, because it is cool) with a globe fixture that has a pull chain on it.  It works!  I'm an electrician!

I painted the inside of the door bright white to mirror the white cinderblock and break up all the aqua.  

And here is the final product!

That little piece holding the TP is on loan from my mom, my aunt made it and I think it's so cute! 

And on the outside, I hung up this little sign I found for $5 on Amazon.  I find it funny because it really is just a toilet inside. 

The outside doesn't look very inviting.....

But the inside isn't so bad!  I cleaned the heck out of that toilet, so I would be happy to take a ladylike pee in here now.  

I don't think I will spend the time to paint all the horrible yellow ductwork and outside of this outhouse, but as long as the inside isn't scary, I'm happy.  I did spend $9 on the light, $4 on the TP holder, $10 (with shipping) on the toilette sign, so I guess I failed at doing this fix up with only materials I had at home.  Oh well, it was worth it! 

Walkway is finished!

I can't believe we got it done ahead of schedule - one day shy of 3 weeks from start to finish.  It seemed impossible to get the puzzle finished with the stone that we had available, but we got it done. 

We do have a couple of stones in the middle that are a bit higher, but the shape of them was great, so we decided to work with them.  One important thing was making the stones perfectly level with the sidewalk, and the curb.  We did a great job with that!

Once we got halfway through, I stopped using the previous stones as my 'level' guideline, and instead moved the the curb and worked backwards.  This ensured that I was level with the curb, and I could adjust the middle of the walkway to match up with both sides. I was very happy that we got to use this enormous stone I bought, it had a big flat edge to use against the (wrecked) curb.  I was worried they would wait til we had this all done, then rip out the curb for repair...but it appears they don't give a crap! 

It would sure look a lot better if the curb was fixed, but at least my stones match up with the gap.  Once we got everything set, we placed (and leveled) a bunch of small stones into the bigger gaps, and swept in the polymeric sand.  A quick pass with the hose, and we happily called it 'done for now.'  If you haven't used polymeric sand before, it is wonderful!  It dries so hard, you have to chip it out....great for applications like this.  A big bucket from Home Depot was $20.

I got some grass seed down asap, and I'm happy to say that it's already growing!  I was worried it was a little too late in the season to plant it (put it down Sept 29), but luckily the weather has been cooperative.  

We are going to put a bit more sand in the low spots between the stones, and then I'm washing my hands of this project.  Happily, the inspector stopped by and gave us the stamp of approval.  More specifically, he wrote 'Replacement carriage walk is OK.'  Um, it is clearly better than 'OK.'  

This project cost us:

$85 for flagstone

$100 for leveling sand, traffic bond gravel, edgers (and stakes that come with)

$20 for polymeric sand

For about $200 and some physical labor, we got a walkway that fits with our house much better than new concrete.  I am happy!  My only tip for you is to avoid buying anything from Home Depot unless you absolutely have to.  We don't have a truck, so it's not easy for us to run to the stone yard for more sand, gravel, etc.  You will spend WAY more money buying that stuff bagged from Home Depot, always buy in bulk and buy MORE than you think you will need. Sand and gravel is cheap, give any extra away or find another use for it.  Many garden centers carry sand and gravel, too...so find a place to buy in bulk!    

I lost my battle

A couple weeks ago, I came home from work to find this. 

After begging the city inspector, my alderman, the mayor, and everyone else who would listen, nobody gave two shits about saving my walkway but me.  And rather than try to grind through the high edge or cut off the offending portion, I lamely decided that maybe they would forget about it and leave me alone.  Dumb.  I especially love how one of the concrete guys left their lunch plate in the hole.  

So, I hastily crafted a note to stick in the dirt that said DO NOT POUR CONCRETE IN HERE OR I WILL CLAW YOUR EYES OUT.  Or maybe it said, NO CONCRETE - WE ARE PLANTING GRASS.  One of the two.  Then, because I'm not a normal person, I didn't plant grass.  I did this.  

When my dad and I got the supplies back to our house, Shaun started unloading the truck, muttering about what a stupid idea this was, and that we should just plant grass.  

I cried in frustration because I knew it was going to suck to do all the work, but I just felt that my house DESERVED another flagstone walkway.  It was a part of this house, and I wanted to give it back.  So, after another run to get more gravel, we did this. 

Then I gave my baby foot long stakes to play with.  

Like the heaviest puzzle ever, we have been busting our butts with these stones.  So far, we have sunk $85 into replacement flagstones, and $80 in gravel, edgers, stakes, and sand.  Luckily, we have a nice supply of flagstone in our backyard, so we were able to 'shop at home' for this project.  At the end of one full day, this is the progress we made:

I WAS PLEASED.  Of course nothing is ever easy with this crap, the ground on the left side of the walk is much higher than the right, so we will have to chop some earth away to level it out.  We also have some very large gaps in between the stones, so we are going with sand in the joints rather than mortar to avoid cracks and things like that.  One plus side to doing all this work is the big sand box we had for a couple weekends!

The simple 'how to' we followed was:

Insert combination of 3/8 and 1/4 inch traffic bond gravel into hole until you feel you have enough.  This is very scientific.  

Tamp with hand tamper (we are cheap, but a rental works much better!)

Measure out 39-inch-wide walkway and stake edgers in place on top of gravel.

Add a layer of sand and start picking stones - we used the ones with the more uniform thickness and straightest edge on the sidewalk and curb ends.  Those are the ones the inspector will check for level. 

Add and take away sand until massive stones are level with previous ones. 

The END.

jk, we are not done yet.  Not even close.  But it is going to be worth it!

Closet in...progress?

I'm finally doing something with this closet room attached to our bedroom. I've started marking where the closet rods and shelves will be with blue and green tape.  My tape is NOT level and the exact measurements aren't set, but it is a start.  Figuring out how to plan the closet was a challenge due to the window being 10 inches from the long wall.  

Since I can't mount the rod to the wall on that side, I can't use traditional closet organizers, and I don't want to pay for a freestanding system, I am going to experiment with closet rod brackets that can be mounted to the wall slightly before the window, like this shelf/rod combo from Hardware Hut...   

I will need three brackets to support a rod on that 67 inch wall.  When the clothes are hanging, they will cover half of the window, but I consider that more protection from my neighbors seeing me naked.  Which I KNOW happens on the regular.  Good thing I'm working on my fitness these days!  Yeah right.  So, on the short wall opposite the window, I'm doing the same setup with the brackets to keep things consistent. 

The green tape represents the closet rods, and the blue tape represents the shelves.  The thing I'm slightly worried about is that clothes/hangers will stand out from the wall about 22 inches, so things are going to get tight in this 4' x 5.5' room!  I plan to find some chrome shelf supports for the two 26" shelves on the short wall.  On the little blank wall to the left in this pic, I'm probably just going to put some decorative hooks like the ones in our other closet.  

Of course the first thing I need to do in here is remove the offensive boob light.  Then I can paint the ceiling and walls, and start putting up the closet hardware.  That have yet to be purchased.  

I'm leaving the base trim for last because I'm not sure if I will build in some floor shelving for things like shoes.  If I'm being honest with myself, I will agonize about it, then never get around to it.  Classic me.  I also got my DIY Chandelier project started, but I'm forcing myself to get the important things done before adding any 'fancy' to the space.  

I think tomorrow is the night for me to remove the light and paint the ceiling.  It will be a miracle if I can get that little bit done!