Laundry Room - Little by Little

We've had a busy couple weeks.  The work we've done lately include planting the rain garden and starting to work on the laundry room. 

Even though we had about two weeks with no rain, as soon as I planted the rain garden we had two big storms.  We'll see how the plants do with so much water. 

The very exciting work though is the laundry room progress.  Our goal for this space is to make it a place where I won't dread doing laundry.  This includes paint, drywall, new floor, better lighting, better storage, and reconfiguring everything. 

Just as a reminder, this was the laundry room when we first saw the house - it was tiny, disgusting (look in that laundry tub!), dark, and scary.

Since we bought the house, the laundry room hasn't changed much.  It is still dark and disgusting but we made it over twice as big.  Still not a place you want to spend much time!

The first step was to remove everything - this took awhile.  Besides the washer, dryer, and cast iron laundry tubs, there was also the beer fridge and large sink/cabinets for beer brewing.  Once it was all removed, it was obvious how disgusting it really was. 

The floor was not at all level or flat so we poured some self leveling concrete.

Once that was cured, we painted the wall (even though most will be covered) and installed a vinyl floor that looks like hardwood.  It turned out really nice - I can't wait to finish everything else and get my dream laundry room!

Fortunately, some of the changes just require some time - the laundry tubs look like new after just a few coats of paint. 

We have some plumbing to reconfigure before we can put the appliances back but hopefully they'll be in place by the weekend.

Some other fun things we did included a picnic, Mother's Day, and getting the kids' portraits taken.

The kids keep enjoying playing in the turtle (we've been using it as a pool on hot days).

Some big news - Josh can walk!  He still prefers to crawl but he is definitely capable.

And last, Samantha had her last dance class - she had fun and got her exposed to taking instruction from another adult.  I got a short video of her - she saw me so stopped dancing like she was before though.

Hopefully next week we'll have a nicer laundry room to show (not finished of course!).