Lesson 216: Holes in My House

This morning my laundry closet looked like this. We returned from Summer Conference on Saturday with a trash bags full of dirty clothes, rested for a day, and then, (Mark) got to work with the washing.

As he was finishing up, our 25 year old dryer died on its very last go around.

And so when the builders showed up this morning to knock holes into my house, there were clothes of all shapes and sizes, as well as the rest of the contents of this little closet, everywhere.

Oh how I am looking forward to a new room!

So, here's the problem. Currently, our laundry closet sits between two doors that go in and out of our house, one to the carport, the other to the backyard. This shot is taken from the kitchen.

In order for guests to use the restroom, they have to come through the kitchen, through one of our living spaces, down the hall, and into the bathroom at the end, which unfortunately is the bathroom attached to the Master Bedroom.

Yes, college students have been using my bathroom.

Luckily, behind the laundry closet, with access through a door in the carport, is a large storage closet. The space is bricked into the house and everything.

I'm sure you can imagine where this is going.

Goodbye small laundry closet and dingy storage shed. Hello laundry room and half-bath!

The plan has been in the works for months, but today, our guys finally showed up and started making moves. I could not be more excited!

At the end of day one, it now looks like this. (Sorry, I couldn't step back far enough to get a decent shot.)

Our house is a mess. The laundry is still everywhere. We're all a little whiney. There's plastic hung in parts of our house. Our carport is a disaster. Shoes are a necessity.

But, I am finally beginning to see an end to the madness in sight. There will be walls. And a hardworking floor. A cabinet for storing baskets, a counter to fold clothes, a closet to organize cleaning supplies. There will be places for drying clothes, hanging coats, and hiding dirty shoes.

And there will be a bathroom for my guests to use. A pretty bathroom.

And it won't be the same one I use.


Lesson Learned: Sometimes in order to organize the mess, you have first have to make a bigger mess.

Lesson 211: Visualization

In order to understand the laundry room, I must be the laundry room. 

Well, be in the laundry room anyway.

So much to do is such a small place.

I'm thinking it's going to feel a bit different when there are, you know, walls.

But after all these days of looking at minuscule drawings on my laptop, I'd say this ghetto walkthrough was extremely beneficial.

Alright guys, I'm ready!


Lesson Learned: Paper, tape, and an appropriate sized rug is all it took to help this renovation start to take shape.


* Linked up at Living Well Spending Less

Lesson 210: My New Granite

This is the first of what I can only imagine will be numerous blog posts concerning a small bathroom / laundry room addition in our new house.

As far as a huge introductory post to the whole project, this is not it. In all honesty, I needed to figure out a way to get a few pictures onto a Pinterest inspiration board without the use of an iphone.

So, y'all got this today and not much else.

You can find the Pinterest board here. It's still pretty sparse.

For now, this is the piece of granite I purchased as a remnant for a countertop.

More to come.


Lesson Learned: Permanent design choices make me tired.

Lesson 208: Weekend Projects

Mark and I are convinced that we are better people once spring comes. We spend more time outside, eat healthier, and sleep harder. Our improved selves also have more energy for projects, which makes us hungrier for real food and deep slumber.

It's a good cycle.

This weekend we got at it, both inside the house and out.

Mark was busy building our new compost pile.

Replanting the blueberry bushes from Clover.

(How sad is this new view ... )

And fashioning a fire pit.

I made my first attempts with Annie Sloan.

And took a hammer to some awful tile in our second bathroom.

You know, just to see what would happen.

(Don't worry. The toilet is going. Also, no comments about my hammer grip.)

I honestly have no idea what the kids did all weekend. Butterfly wings, airplanes, and shovels were definitely involved, but who knows what games they were playing.

All I know is they were busy.

And happy.

And hungry.

And tired.

The good kind of tired.

And that my friends is why spring is the best.


Lesson Learned: Use a clean brush when painting furniture if you don't want tiny white specks stuck in your finished product.


*Linked up at Living Well Spending Less