Thou Shalt Not Covet: Part 1

Some of you may remember that we started a renovation of the basement utility/laundry/sewing room around Thanksgiving time last year. The project dragged on amidst fits and starts and various delays until, at last, it is finished. Actually it was finished a few weeks ago, but I have procrastinated taking the pictures of it, and how boring would a blog about a remodel be without pics, so... that's why I've taken so long to get this up. Besides the fact that my very important and busy life has interfered, and also the fact that I just forgot because I was enjoying doing laundry in my new room so much. Okay, maybe not.

But all that is past now. And here they are.

Disclaimer: If you are the sort of weak minded person (like me) that covets cool things that other people have, you may not want to read this series of posts, because after seeing the finished product, you're gonna be most unhappy with your own laundry room. And that can get expensive. You have been warned.

First, the before pictures:

This was the east wall, aka "The Ironing Area" before. No sheetrock, wires hanging out all over, paint cans stacked up on the floor, and a pitiful single light bulb on the ceiling. A piece of surplus carpet covered the bare concrete floor.

Here's a shot of the south and west walls. Notice the food storage boxes from the church cannery that support the $30 laminate countertop from Home Depot that served as a nice spacious, but ugly folding table. It was not always as cluttered as it is in this photo, but quite often I only had the use of half of it. Stuff just seems to collect on a horizontal surface of it's own accord. I'm sure that's a Law of Nature. Or something. The light brown sewing cabinet in front of the washer was not normally there either. (I forgot to take the before photos before we started moving stuff around. Silly me.)

The stark concrete wall behind the washer and dryer was completely wasted space, and depressing to look at. The cheapie plastic washtub was stained from 5 years of washing out craft painting brushes, and couldn't be used to soak clothes for fear of ruining them. A makeshift shelf made from a 2x12 board held the detergent, etc.

It was an ugly, unfinished, cluttered room, but I didn't really notice it all that much until I got the new washer and dryer. You know how it goes...


They were so shiny and new and - dare I apply the word to an appliance - BEAUTIFUL, that the rest of the room looked like Armageddon by comparison. And that is how the time and money pit known as remodeling was set in motion.

To Be Continued....