washer and dryer!!!

We moved the washer and dryer in last night. I painted the shelves and we started hauling appliances the minute the paint was dry. The appliances were covered with miscellaneous magnets and dryer lint. They just barely fit in the space -- I think there is about 1/8" of space left over. It is fantastic to be able to do laundry in the house. Even better, we can do hot water washes again (the garage only had cold water).

Tom had no trouble hooking up the water and gas and there were no leaks. He checked under the house and everything was fine there, but we have a lot of heat that is being wasted by venting directly outside. We are going to look into possibly filtering out the lint and directing the hot air back indoors (during the winter) It is very cold in the house and the new bathroom is the coldest part. Maybe some space heaters will do the trick? We had the A/C installed when we first bought the house, and they threw the heater in for free. Guess you get what you pay for. We would love something like a radiator or a pellet stove, but there's not much space. One thing is for sure: forced air is the worst possible way we could heat the house. The top foot of the room is toasty and the floor could probably double as an ice rink.

Meanwhile, I've just had the pleasure of doing a load of laundry without going outside. It is the coldest night of the year so I really appreciate it. Will add pictures when I can find the camera cord.

more progress on the laundry room

baseboard painted

shelves up

texture painted, cleaned up

Well the laundry room is getting close. I finished cleaned up all the mess from the texturing and masked off the floor trim. Meanwhile Tom nailed up the shelf rails and cut cedar to trim the space between the wall and ceiling. I used some paint from the garage which doesn't quite match but it's close enough for the space behind a washer and dryer. Tom cut shelves which I will have to paint before we move the appliances into place.

We are still trying what to do for the sliding door. What we want is something with translucent panels kind of like a shoji screen. There are some beautiful sliding doors on the market but they cost a small fortune. Ikea has a nice looking metal/translucent door that is inexpensive and lightweight; unfortunately it was discontinued and the local store was out of the size we need. But they have a larger door we can cut down to size. Either that or take another pass through the Habitat for Humanity store and see if there is anything usable. That or build it from scratch.

texturing and painting the laundry room

I finished taping, sanding, plastering etc. on the sheet rock.

At last I taped off the edges of the walls and put paper all around the ceiling.


The first bucket had just a small amount of paint left from the last room. It was so thick that I wound up spreading it with a putty knife and using the roller only for even texture. The new can of texture paint was plenty liquid, so it went faster after that. But paint splashed and splattered everywhere. I was prepared with old clothes, plastic gloves, goggles and a head scarf (I know from experience that sanded paint is hard to get out of your hair). It's not as even as I would like but it's good enough for the inside of a washer/dryer closet.

Tomorrow we'll be finishing up so hopefully we can move the appliances inside. Note to self in future: do sheet rock and texture painting before laying down floor and ceiling materials. Also get some kind of mortar spreading tool instead of trying to use a putty knife.