Mud/Laundry room makeover

The past few weekends have been rather calm around our place...we haven't had any major commitments that require a full Saturday so I have been trying to be productive and use my time wisely.   I'm pretty sure when volleyball tournaments start, baseball gets going, and the good weather - camping, we'll be gone!

A couple weeks ago, I found a full gallon of the paint I used in the kitchen in '08.  Perfect.  My mud/laundry room needed a good cleaning and makeover badly.  The walls, once a Mexican Sand color (very light), were pretty well covered with dirt/mud from kicked off boots and shoes.  Dirty hands and fingers had made their appearance all around the walls near the utility sink. It was a quite a sight.

I had talked myself into painting it and getting it done before we got super busy, then decided I didn't feel up to it, and later talked myself back into getting it over with now.  I'm so glad I did.  Jay was home and I used him to move the washer and dryer and to take down the sink and shelf.  I told him I wanted to clear the room out entirely and do it right because who knows how long it would be before we got to it again.  We built our house in 2001 and the laundry room hasn't been touched since.

Jay got the room stripped down to the bare walls and I got busy preparing the walls for paint, filling some rough spots and washing some of the muddy areas.  I worked pretty much all morning and a little past noon to get the walls painted.  I then went to town to Mustard Seeds to buy this cute wall hanging that I had seen in there two weeks ago.  It would go perfectly in the mud/laundry room.  At that time they had two.  Should've bought it then, huh?  They were out, but the good news is it is something that can be ordered.  Yes!

And while I was there, I found a neat picture in a very rough frame that I fell in love with.  The glass is even cracked, but I thought it went along with the rough look of the frame.  Jay hung it and it's perfect.  Also, much to my surprise, there was a fourth water-spigot wall hook there that I didn't buy the first time around.  I had purchased three water-spigot hooks a few weeks ago and that was all they had.  They are each a different style handle and they're kind of a charcoal black/gray color.  I was delighted to see there were actually four and now they've replaced the very old key rack (wedding shower present in 1995) we had next to the door. 

Walls freshly painted, the floor mopped twice (yes, shamefully, I had to), trim and cabinet washed with Murphy's Oil Soap, everything put in its place, some things thrown away or relocated, hooks and my new/old picture in place....a spot left on the wall for the wall hanging Mustard Seeds is ordering...after getting everything back together, I told Jay that I wanted to just move in to that room.  I know I could keep it clean and I loved how neat and organized it is.  Just standing in that tiny little room made me feel so good.  (I think that is why I love camping and feel like I could live in a camper - closed quarters, less mess, organization.  Can you tell my house overwhelms me?  How do people with huge homes do it?!  Ahhh...)

It felt so good to have accomplished all that it in one day.  Love that feeling.  And guess what my sweet, sweet Josie did later on Saturday night?  I was loading the washing machine and she jumped up on my freshly painted wall with her sweet little talons...and put a big 'ole scratch down the inside of the wall by the doorway.  Oh my, you sweet, sweet kitten, how I love you and want to kill you right now.  No worries...the kitchen was still a disaster zone with all my painting supplies.  Sunday, I sanded the scratch and painted over it like it was never there.   Amazing though, it had been painted for less than 8 hours.  Oh, sweet, sweet Josie.  (I should probably just keep the paint, brush and sandpaper out, huh?)

A couple added bonuses:  As I imagined, the mess located under the washer and dryer was embarrassing and gross.  Jay discovered a couple things that could have been disastrous.  One, we were very close to a dryer fire, which I have read about.  The vent was not venting very much at all.  It was a Godsend that Jay got that cleaned out and hooked back up properly.  I often leave the house with the dryer running. 

Secondly, and this is a biggie too...when he unhooked the hoses to the washing machine, he pulled out the little strainer things and they were almost completely plugged with build-up and this brine stuff.  The brine stuff...is from when we first moved in and had to get water from the pond.  (People, we've lived there since 2001...how bad is that?!)  We were shocked that there was still water running through these screens.   I soaked them in vinegar and later cleaned them with a toothbrush.  I now feel like I have a brand new washing machine...the water pours freely and it fills so fast.  I never realized how slow it was to fill and how little water came out.  Amazing.

The mud/laundry room got a makeover, I felt good accomplishing something and being productive, and now I have a 'brand' new washing machine.  It was a good day.