Washer Dryer Makeover

The laundry room is finally done and it looks brilliant and ginormous! I love the way it turned out!

Well, I guess it’s not completely done… I still have to paint the back door. But there isn’t a giant pile of crap stuff from the room in the middle of the room anymore so it seems done to me! ;o)

But my favorite part of the room has to be my washer/dryer! I have always wanted a red washer and dryer. Now thanks to 4 cans of spray paint and two packs of sparkly red stickers I’ve got ‘em!

The washing machine body slips right off the rest of the washer and makes for a very easy paint job.

The dryer was a little trickier. We just unscrewed the top control panel off and let it hang behind the dryer. Then I just paper and taped off everything I didn’t want red, which was the entire control panel, lint catcher door and back.

My husband was not ok with me painted the control panel red and writing in the words. I was not ok with having a white control panel on a red appliance.

But my Facebook followers came to my rescue with the idea of just adding decals to the panel. I went right to the craft store, found these fun sparkly stickers and went to work…. It was the perfect solution that made both me and my hubby happy! :o)

    

 

I also realized that I needed a way to hang my towel because now my fun “wash” and “dry” words were where I had wanted the towel rack to be…

Now what to do??? Then it came to me… Metal towel rack + metal washer = magnets!

One 1/2” neodymium magnet in each corner did the trick!

Looking for a fancy new look for your tired old washer and dryer??? Spray paint comes in a plethora of colors! Find your favorite and give it a shot!

Dollar Tree Inspiration

Our master bathroom is in DESPERATE need of a remodel! And I mean a total makeover… new dry wall, shower, vanity, the whole kit and kaboodle! It’s not happening any time soon but I love to think about it and make plans in my head of what it will someday look like.

For years this sheet of paper has been the inspiration of all those plans. Shades of robin’s egg blue with chocolate brown, squared accessories.

It all seemed so simple and ready to go until I stopped at the Dollar Tree and found these wall decals…

I’m not sure what I’ll do with them yet, but they were only a dollar! ;o) So I got a few of them, including this one:

Now everything is complicated! I love this! I can totally see our master bathroom with this as the inspiration. A lovely periwinkle blue on the walls, white accents and chrome accessories!

The silly thing is I’ll probably find yet another inspiration before the whole thing happens… LOL

Washing Machine Makeover

Well, it was probably more than just a makeover… I really debated on how honest I wanted to be about this job because it is a bit embarrassing. But the more I thought about it, the more I figured I probably wasn’t alone. On the other hand, I’m not posting the really honest pictures. ;o)

Our poor old washer has been a champ! 4 states, 5 moves and more loads of laundry than I can even imagine… But the past couple of years, it’s been leaving what seems to be bits of dark colored or light colored lint on our clothes. Not the kind you can just take off with a lint brush or run through the dryer.  Then the laundry started coming out of the wash smelling HORRIBLE!

I was beginning to think that it was my homemade laundry detergent that I’ve been using for about 5 years now. I couldn’t imagine how that was possible, but I was running out of ideas. So I broke down and bought my first bottle of laundry detergent since May 2008. It didn’t help…

Then we started asking for advice. Two days after we asked some friends about it, they read an article in their local newspaper about our very problem. The culprit??? Cold water and gunk built up in your washer. The solution??? A thorough cleaning. And I mean THOROUGH!

My first shock was when we pulled the washer out to the patio! We’ve never lived anywhere more than 2 years, so I don’t think about pulling out appliances to clean behind. Yeah, I probably should do that more often than every 8 years.

This was taken after I did some cleaning. It looks pretty good! I will NOT be posting pictures of behind the dryer!!! Let’s just say this floor looked clean enough to eat off of in comparison. I know mold is just part of living in the PNW, but really??? Ugh!!!

After we started taking pieces apart, we discovered that this was most definitely our problem. Yuck!

We also knew that if we were really going to get the sucker clean, it was going to have to come more apart than this… and it was going to need a pressure washer.

  Taking apart a washer isn’t too hard if you have the right tools. And it sure makes it easier to clean. Putting one back together is an entirely different matter.

But while it was apart, it seemed the ideal time to fulfill my dream of having a red washer and dryer! So I picked up a couple of cans of royal red spray paint and went to town.

My husband was skeptical about the whole thing and he was definitely not supportive of painting the dial panel. So I didn’t… But I want to!

While everything was pulled away from the wall, I figured it was as good a time as any to paint that wall and put up the new trim. It was next in line anyway… With all I have going on right now, I must have been crazy. But it’s done now.

With the washer painted, the walls painted, the trim up and the new outlets installed, it was time to put the washer back together and see if she worked. My genius hubby got it all back together (it wasn’t easy) and turned on the water to see what she’d do. He forgot to hook up the drain. Luckily he didn’t wait too long to get it off. But the stack of beach towels gave us our first load. ;o)

Pretty much right away, we knew something wasn’t right. I think it was the very loud thumping noise and the fact that it stopped REALLY fast from the spin cycle! We began to fear we might have to call in a professional. But my hubby came through, discovered the problem and got it fixed as good as new!

See what I mean about the dial panel… What do you think?

There is still a lot of work to be done in the laundry room but that will just have to wait. For now I just have to catch up on the mountains of dirty clothes! :o)

One Wall & One Shelf

After a super long hiatus on our home improvement projects, I am slowly trying to finish up my already started but not even close to being completed laundry room. It’s going to be a long project but making some progress helps a lot! And just not having a huge pile of junk that used to be on my pantry shelf in the middle of the floor made a big difference! :o)

I painted the shelf,  put everything back on it, put up new floor trim and, most importantly, painted the first of the walls in their new green!

It is going to look so great! Hoping to start the back wall around the window tomorrow!!! (Pretty sure it’s mostly wishful thinking but I’m trying to stay positive here… LOL)

Home Improvement On Hold

It is funny how things that seem so important one minute, seem so not important later on. When we made the decision to make 2012 the home project year, I was so excited! All those little things that never seemed to get accomplished were finally going to happen.

Then our oldest son graduated from high school, and reality set in…

At the end of the upcoming school year our two oldest will both be graduated from high school and college with their AA degrees. Our youngest son will finish his last year of homeschooling before starting the Running Start program at our local community college.

What??? How did this happen so fast???

Suddenly we realized what was really important. We are not going to have too many more years left with our kids at home! Before we know it they will move out, have busy lives of their own and won’t have time for family vacations.

All those silly little projects around the house will still be there long after they’re gone.

So we’re making the most of our summer and spending time together and making memories. After all… that’s what’s really important!

Canning Shelf

My laundry remodel is a work in progress. A VERY SLOW work in progress but it’s coming along. My newest project is the canning shelf my hubby built me a few years back…

This is what it looked like last fall, full of all my lovely cans of food!

Here’s what it looks like after it’s makeover…

Not nearly as many canned goods anymore! That’s what happens when you have three teenage sons… but it sure does look pretty!

I covered up the gap at the top with a curtain made of this fun chicken print!

I covered up the stuff stored underneath with a coordinating curtain.

I LOVE the way it looks! Just wish I wasn’t taking FOREVER to finish!!!

Office/Guestroom

This week I painted my hubby’s office/guestroom while he was on Spring break from teaching. It really needed a bit of color…

As usual, I took these shots after I started prepping to paint. It didn’t look quite this bad before we painted. ;o)

The color turned out very nice but we were quite nervous that we wouldn’t have enough to finish the job. I used EVERY LAST BIT of paint in the can and covered it all! Whew!

 

The NEW Beach Bathroom

Our basement bathroom (aka: the boys’ bathroom, the basement bathroom or the bowling alley bathroom) just got a makeover. Man, did it need it! It was one of the first, and last, rooms I painted when we moved in almost 7 years ago. And I’ve wanted to re-do it almost ever since…

I wish I had better “before” pictures, but I always forget to take them or remember too late. Ugh! I always just jump right into a project without thinking. Here are a few I found or took after I’d prepped to paint:

You can see why we called it the “bowling alley” bathroom. It is just a long skinny room with nothing in it! BORING!!!

It was decorated with a nautical theme in reds and blues. It was cute and fine for a season, but I was ready for a change.

We were given three lovely cans of paint by my friend Megan and I was determined to make them work! There wasn’t much of any one color though. Thanks to my friend, Jo, I was empowered to go with all three…

I put up a chair rail to divide the two colors and put the lighter color on the bottom. Three walls are a lighter shade (the same color of our bedroom) and the wall above the sink is a bit darker. I went with oil rubbed bronze accents.

I love how it draws the room in rather than having that “goes on forever” look!

   towel hooks for the boys

I just couldn’t let the shower curtain go…

I also decided to paint all the trim and cabinets. I love the dark ORB hardware on the light paint!

As you can see, I decided to keep the nautical/beach theme. I wanted to use some of my youngest son’s photography in one of our rooms. Some of his best pictures are from the beach. So I ordered some prints, bought 7 frames for $23 bucks at Michael’s (Yippee!) and put them up. He doesn’t like all of the ones I chose, but I think they are all beautiful! (He would want you to know that… LOL)

Next up… getting rid of the AWFUL shower and countertop! But I think it’s going to be a while. :o/

  I already have the tile for the shower and the coordinating formica all picked out… It’s going to be stunning!