Renovation Reveals

It’s finally time to show some before and after pictures of our recent (last month) chaos remodeling and renovation projects. I will readily admit that these are likely to be far more exciting to me than they are to you, so just gird your loins and prepare to be underwhelmed. Or not. Your choice. 

So a little bit of back story first. Our home was built in 1963 and although we are technically the third owners, we are only the second family to live here. We’ve been here a few months short of 20 years. 

The original laundry room has remained untouched with the exception of an upgraded floor drain in 2008 and the addition of a tile floor the following year. The wall behind the washer and dryer had big cut-out holes for (presumably) different pipes and vents and clean-outs and whatnot over the years. The cats could’ve gotten through to the unfinished, drafty under-the-house section there had they tried, which to our knowledge they never did. Or if they did, they’re not talking….

So, let’s begin.

Laundry Room Before:

Laundry Room After: 

I took a long time to decide on the color, vacillating between aquas and blues. In the end I went with a light blue, which I’m thrilled with. It feels so fresh and clean. These photos make it look a bit paler than it is, but it is neither subtle nor overwhelming.

We added a low shelf that I can actually reach to wipe down, as well as an upper cabinet for laundry supply storage. The lower cabinet houses a laundry basket and is taller so that I have lots of horizontal space for sorting and folding. 

It was so fun to have room to add a few laundry and beach-themed decorations.

And this clean solution to the former mess behind the machines just makes my heart so happy. I feel as though this room, the last one to be touched by renovation in this house, is finally part of the current century!

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The Linen Closet

Our hall is a central hall off of which opens three bedrooms, one bathroom and three hall closets. The three closets were all tiny: a standard coat closet which we’ve always used as a cleaning closet with space for brooms, mops and shelves of cleaning products, light bulbs, etc. The second closet also has a hanging rack which we use for off-season outerwear. It was expanded in 2009 a couple feet outwards to allow room to store our vacuum and carpet cleaner. That post is here.

The linen closet had shelves that were a mere 11.5” wide. That’s a hard pill to swallow for any modern homeowner, but especially so for a quilter. Ever since we ripped out the hall carpeting and restored the hardwood floors in our 2017 living room remodel, the linen closet doors could barely hang properly because of bulging contents inside! 

Before:

During:

After:

Room for quilts and all the things!

An extra five or six inches in shelf width makes an enormous difference. It was not a cheap solution, but again, brings the home into the current century.

So that’s the completed projects in a nutshell. Today we finally bought a new split adjustable bed that will be delivered in mid-May. That will give me time to shop for sheets and things. It also has me thinking that perhaps this year is the time to start a bucket-list quilt for this bed: a Storm at Sea and Snail’s Trail hybrid king size quilt. It will likely be a slow, long-term project.  I’ve decided that when we have our Utah Shop hop this year, I’ll be on the hunt for just the right batiks in blues, purples and aquas.  I’m not getting any younger.

Three Ring Circus

It’s been one of THOSE weeks here at our house. We haven’t slowed down all week. The weather here has gone from cold and sunny to warm and sunny, with high temps expected in the seventies all weekend. Anyway, I’m going to spare you most of the details, but let me just hit the highlights.

On Monday we visited our dear friend Terri, had lunch and exchanged Christmas and birthday gifts. It’s been way too long between visits! It was absolutely a heartwarming day. That evening, Bruce’s brother Marv in Arizona called and said one of his Utah friends died and Marv wondered if he could stay here so he could attend the wake. He didn’t know when yet, but would let us know. Monday and Tuesday were busy days with construction going on in our hall (linen closet expansion) and laundry room (total redo). I also had WW, plus we ran errands. On Wednesday I painted the laundry room while our contractor Jeff worked on the closet and shelving. That evening at 6:30 pm, Marv called to say he was 3.5 hours away. WHAT?!?!  All the construction tools and equipment plus the removed doors were staged in the guest room! Poor Jeff had to come back (good thing he’s family) and move all his construction stuff to another room so Marv would have a place to sleep. Hmmmf!  I was not happy with Marv.

On Thursday morning, Cousin Kim and I went to a local quilt shop’s March Madness sale, and I bought about 25 yards of fabric to donate to Quilts for Kids. It’s staying in the bag and it’s not even going to see my stash. I did get one 4-yard cut of floral fabric for myself too, hehe. In the afternoon, Bruce and I had our eye exams. We both only had minor tweaks to our prescriptions. At Costco we ordered the eyeglasses and my new frames will be blue and green! We filled up the tank with gas and took out a mortgage to pay for it. Just kidding! It was pricey ($4.549 per gallon), but we drive a hybrid and it’s not really that painful. Friday we spent with Bruce’s daughter Emily, her husband and our delightful grands - lunch and playing and garden tours and walking and summer plans. It was great. 

Somewhere in all that, I grabbed a few minutes here and there to sew. 

18 Bowties, 4.5”

Bear Paws at 6”, 9” and 12” (finished size)

The current remodeling will finish up next week some time. I’m busy cleaning (there’s dust everywhere!), and shopping for cabinet knobs and decor. Jeff is also installing new wide baseboards in the master bedroom. Then I’ll paint that closet interior and we’ll recarpet in there and buy an adjustable (think “sleep number”) bed. Hopefully that will be done by the end of April so we can focus our attention in the garden. 

We have so many plates spinning now that I need a secretary! Seriously, when I get overwhelmed by things, I deal with it by crying. A good cleansing, ugly cry. But I didn’t let myself do that until after my eye exam, because my eyes go wonky for a couple days. But I’m past that now, and it’s the weekend anyway, and it’s sunny! Life is busy, but very good!

Linking to Scrappy Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.