The Great Laundry Room Overhaul: Part 2

After weeks of alternating between biting cold and driving rains, I finally decided I didn't care that I couldn't take my shelf project out into the driveway. I may not have an indoor work space, doggonit, but I was going to build this sucker!! So I did the thing my mother would never have let me do - I pointed my drill toward my hardwood floors and prayed my hand didn't slip. I blame the inexcusable irony of my unbuilt shelf creating further clutter in my laundry room for my madness. Though I would never recommend this exactly, my living room rug turned out to be quite useful as a grid.

The starting point for my design was More Like Home's Homestead Storage Shelves. I altered it to fit my need for clothes hanging space and to fit storage tubs under the bottom shelf. I also cut the cost of a single 2x4 by leaving spaces between the boards of the shelves. And I learned the difference between buying 2x4s at Lowes (where I should have gone) and Home Depot (where the lengths are actually cut for framing and therefore not actually 8 feet long). That would have been good to know in advance.

Since this is essentially my first building project ever, I had no illusions it was going to be perfect. This shelf, though much needed, is my guinea pig. Over all I'm pleased with it, though the 2x4s themselves are definitely a little rough. I will have to wait for the weather to behave itself to sand it down and paint it! Before I paint, however, I still have to add the clothes hanging rod. My original plan had been to attach it to the extra shelf supports I added, but I'm beginning to wonder if I shouldn't be higher. Slowly but surely, we're making progress!

Ryobi: Say Hello to My Little Friends

As my Twitter bio says, I have WAY too many interests. Most of the time, I have to settle for admiring my interests from afar. World travel and high-end amateur astronomy, for example, are just too pricey for me to really get into. HOWEVER, I have discovered to my delight that my interest in wood working is not as far out of my reach as I once thought. Some of the tools needed to begin can be super affordable and even a few of the basic power tools don't have to break the bank. Check out Pretty Handy Girl's Toolbox for an excellent overview.

I've had my hand tools for awhile, I've been very fond of my hand-me-down power drill and my recent power sander is simply lovely... but seriously, I'm so stinkin' excited for these guys:

Did I just do glamour shots of a circular saw and a jigsaw? Why yes I did. :) Oh, and because I grouch about my lousy camera phone so much, can we just observe the beauty of what I can do when I sneak borrow with every intention of returning my sister's nice camera? But back to the topic at hand... we have here: Ryobi 7 1/4" Laser Circular Saw, reconditioned, $25Ryobi VS Orbital Jigsaw with Laser, reconditioned, $31Needless to say, I'm rather pleased. See? Good tools don't HAVE to be outrageous! I'll probably upgrade the circular saw blade and I need to purchase blades for the other as well, but really that's still an awesome price for both. Moral of the story: manufacturer's reconditioned tool sales = win.THE LAUNDRY ROOM MAY NOW COMMENCE!!

The Great Laundry Room Overhaul

I like organization, utility and aesthetically pleasing spaces. My laundry room currently fails on all counts. We finally have a washer and dryer, but the rest of the space is a snarl of storage and empty cardboard boxes (apparently my sisters and I have separation anxiety with our moving boxes). It's a disaster.

Well, was a disaster. I should have taken a before picture, but I was on such a cleaning binge that I didn't stop to think (it happens...) and emptied most of the contents out into my family room. Just in the interest of being transparent about my faults and quirks, I'll admit that all the rubbish on the far couch are the empty boxes. Pathetic.

These shots below of the mostly empty laundry room itself represent about 3 hours of hard work, even though the reality is that it still looks like crap.

So how do I go from this to organization, utility and an aesthetically pleasing space? Let's start by identifying my goals:

• Utilize storage space - it's the ONLY space in the house - and keep easily access able
• Create hanging space for clothes to dry AND a 'coat closet' space
• Potentially create additional food storage space as our kitchen is limited
• Make it purty

Reasonable enough, right? Here's my plan:

created on www.floorplanner.com

The items in black currently exist... the red are what I want to build the week of Christmas. I'm still designing the shelving unit (and learning how to render it in SketchUp) but it will be simple: open frame with a top shelf, hanging rod and open space for clothes, then a bottom shelf with enough clearance beneath to put a standard height plastic storage tub. That's pretty much it! The small pantry unit is still in the theoretical phase and needs to pass the roommate approval committee.

I'll be digging through More Like Home's series 31 Days of 2x4 Projects for inspiration! Can't wait to have a few days off work to start building! In the meantime, I'll just keep cleaning.

Ana White and a dumpster dive

Have you heard of Ana White? If you haven't, we need to fix that. She's a mom and home maker from Alaska who has a serious gift for DIY building projects and writing (check out her new book!). I have absolutely loved crawling through the archives of her site and daydreaming over the literally hundreds of free plans. And the Momplex is epic. End of story.

While I lack the basic saws to do many of her projects, she did inspiring me to take on a restoration project. Don't be creeped out, but I salvaged this piece from beside a dumpster in a nearby apartment complex. I drove through there completely by accident and spotted this crazy thing. Sorry the pictures are all going to be a little bad, I'm still snapping photos with my 'dumb' phone and the evening light doesn't help.

What we have here is a nasty old gutted couch frame. The metal cushion supports are rusty and broken (reinforced with what looks like a cut up t-shirt tied into the frame, now molded and absolutely gross) and the wood itself is very worn and a little funky in spots. I chose not to dwell on that and instead put on my breathing and eye protection, work gloves and pulled out all the metal with a pair of sturdy needle nose pliers. After all the millions of staples, hooks and brackets were gone, I broke out the power sander and went over every square inch. The next day, I had this:

Much better, right? Figuring out what grit sandpaper to use was trial and error, but fortunately it's pretty cheap and I know I'll use the extra. Power sanders are magical, by the way. I found mine on clearance for $20!

The next step was to get some cedar toned deck stain and sealant and voila! Now all I have to do is get some lumber for the seat and I'll have a fantastic bench for my backyard! I keep wondering about maybe making a fire pit to put this bad boy next to...

So thank you Ana White for your inspiration - you give me confidence!! She has the alphabetical place of honor on my Home Projects blogroll to the left so remember to visit her site and look for her at the book store.




PS - Coffee table to go with it made from stacked pallets? What do you think?