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

Snuggies, MacGyver and Blackout Wardens

Our family room is one of the last remaining rooms in the house that we haven’t done anything to. It’s the room we live in and it looks like it. It is where we watch movies, do school, work on homework, play video games; you know, everything.

Here is a picture of what I mean… I’m only showing you this because the room is picked up at the moment.

The lounge chair was supposed to be for my husband when we went camping. But the boys like sitting in it while watching movies so much that it has stayed there since Christmas…

This is the other half of the room and the desk where our youngest does school every day. The glare was so bad when the sun came out that he put up a “curtain” to block out the light. (I had already taken it down in this picture. Hence the giant ladder in the middle of the room.)

Yup! That is a blue Snuggie hanging over the window held up by a pencil on the right side. I won’t tell you how long I’ve let that hang there. But I finally had enough and took it down. I then learned how it was that he found something long enough to span the length of the entire window…

A stick and a broken walking stick stuck into a piece of PVC pipe. It’s a little bit MacGyver, but admittedly ingenious. Not attractive, but ingenious.

I should have made something a little more stylish but with the state of the room, I wasn’t feeling very motivated. So I went with a basic heavy black curtain made from some fabric in my stash.

It doesn’t exactly fit the window but it will keep the sun out of his eyes while he works on his geometry lessons… I’m pretty sure that it wouldn’t pass a WWII blackout inspection and I’d probably be fined 10 quid for that shoddy job. But it’s a darn sight better than the Snuggie/walking stick contraption.

I have so many ideas rolling around in my head for the room! Mostly an eclectic/retro/kitschy  Applebee’s restaurant kind of look with fun stuff hanging on the walls. It has tons of potential that is currently in a pile on the floor in front of the potentially awesome bar.

Someday I hope it will be my favorite room in the house!

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)

Soap Art

I found a quick and easy way to have Christmas soap dispensers without spending money on holiday ones each year…

Window clings!

I’m sure any old window clings would do but these were on sale and they worked great!

I was also able to match them to the bathrooms they are in.

guest bathroom

 

master bath

basement bath

Have fun finding the perfect window clings for your soap dispensers!

Christmas Open House

Every year we have an open house to kick off the Christmas season. This year was no exception but the cleaning and decorating seemed to be a bit more crazed after being away at the beach with family all of Thanksgiving weekend! But somehow it all got done… along with all the cooking and baking and preparations. Whew!

Oh, and the new Christmas tree we bought from the neighbors before they moved didn’t help matters one bit! They told me it was a 9-foot pre-lit tree. Well, it is 9 feet tall. And it did have lights on it… Sixteen strings of mini lights intricately wound into all of the branches and NOT ONE OF THEM WORKED!!! NOT ONE!

It took nearly 3 hours to untwist them all from the branches! Oh, and it didn’t have a stand and jimmy rigging a stand for a 9-foot tree ain’t easy. Thankfully I have an uber amazing and handy hubby!

Here are some shots of our decorations for 2012… Every year they turn out just a bit different than the year before.

Most of these pics were taken the day after the open house. Except for the one of the pile of shoes. You should have seen it an hour later… it was GINORMOUS!!!

 the new tree just before the party started

Stupid tree! ;o)

Yes, the pile did get bigger than that!

Kitchen…  mostly retro stuff, including my grandfather’s Christmas stocking

 

Living Room… now that the walls are orange there are no more reds! Reds are not good!

Upstairs… the master bedroom got a new look this year, a comforter for the bed!

  

Entryway… I wish there was something new here (ie- floors and stairs and wall color) but there isn’t. :o(

Basement bath… I was so worried how my decorations would look with the new paint job. Luckily it still looks great!

The nativity quilt got a new home in the hallway…

The family room has a new look this year mostly because of all the furniture swapping…

Hope you enjoyed seeing our house!  Don’t forget to take time to relax and enjoy all your decorations with your family and friends!