Good, Better, Best

Hello, it’s me again, not much…how ’bout you?

I feel like I need to reintroduce myself–it’s been months. I’ve been traveling, crafting, decorating, and doing life. I just haven’t been sharing as much as usual. Maybe in 2020, I’ll figure out a way to get back on track.

For now, I want to tell you about a book I read ages ago. The author talked a lot about good, better, and best. She explained how something can be good, but you can take steps to make it better, and then go on to find the best.

That seems like kind of a lofty goal for today’s subject, but I’m going with it. Today we’re talking about storing mops, and brooms, and vacuum cleaners. Remember when I revealed the laundry room makeover? (You can check it out here: https://bigwhitehouseonthehill.wordpress.com/2019/06/19/the-transformation-of-a-laundry-room/)  Well, I was all excited about getting all the cleaning equipment behind closed door.

Having supplies is good; hiding them away behind closed doors is better. 

But then when you open the doors, you have junk the floor; mops and brooms, leaning together in a messy hodgepodge. It did not make me happy. So I went online and for under $10, I found some hooks to help me organize.

While I’m a big fan of 3M hooks and use them frequently, I went with Jinshunfa Powerful Hook. They promised to hold 13 pounds, and I bought an 8-pack for under $10. The have a strong adhesive and are removable with the heat from a hair dryer. 

Will this change the world? No. But it will make me smile when I need to sweep the floor. What’s the old saying “A place for everything and everything in it’s place.”  While that doesn’t describe my entire house, it works for this tiny closet. I haven’t achieved best, but at least I’m moving into the better territory.

With the chaos of the holidays, I feel the need to organize one tiny part of my life. How about you?

 

 

 

 

 

What Do You Do with an Extra Bathroom?

When we moved in one of the quirks of the house was a three-quarters bath in the laundry room. It wasn’t like we didn’t have a powder room, two en suite bathrooms, and a full bath upstairs. You could even shower out on the deck if you wanted to. It seemed like overkill. It became the dining room for the dogs.

So when me and the MR started thinking about remodeling the laundry room last year, we decided to turn its en suite bathroom into a butler’s pantry. It’s just around the corner from the kitchen, and when you have 70-plus guests, it’s nice to have extra room for food. The full kitchen upstairs comes in handy, but negotiating stairs with platters is tricky for me.

Enough with all the talk, let’s take a look at where we started.

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It was amazing how big the space became once the wall came down. The hole you see in the first set of photos was made when the contractors were measuring for the cabinetry. With all the angles, it took over two hours for them to mark down the proper dimensions.

They did a great job. Where the shower and comode once stood, we now have a wall of cabinetry, a wine fridge, and an extra fridge for all those big gatherings.

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With lights, and the size of the room, and glare, and my photography skills, you’re not getting quite the beauty of it all, but trust me it’s lovely.

And then where Cocoa’s food was stored, and where I checked my hair before leaving, we have a prep sink and more gorgeous cabinetry.

This can be the fancy bar area when we’re entertaining. It’s also great for all those extra wine glasses. For the moment, it’s hiding my next trip to the second hand store.

While we went with a cheery blue in the laundry room, we kept the Tony Taupe we have throughout the rest of the main floor in the pantry area for a more seamless transition.

And while for everyday we keep the doors opened between the two, when we’re entertaining and being all fancy, we upgraded to a door with a frosted panel to keep dirty clothes out of sight.

We’re very happy with how it all turned out. Next week, I’ll be back with all the changes to the master bathroom. You’re going to be amazed.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Taking Shape

We are still in the midst of remodel madness, but everything is really starting to take shape. A little visible progress is what gives us hope in the midst of the dust, the noise, the disruption.

The tile is all done for the shower. It looks beautiful. The MR splurged on a special drain that simply disappears into the wall with a “V” center section. It’s pretty slick.

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So now we need the showerhead and controls to be installed, and then the glass surround would be nice.

Our new counter is in. It’s similar in shape and size to the last one, but we’ve traded one drawer for five drawers plus two large end cupboards.

In here, we need countertops, sinks, faucets, a mirror, two pendants, and lovely tile to the ceiling.

On the other wall, we’ve have one tall and deep cabinet. We’re still needing a decorative light, a shelf, a heated towel rack, and a bathtub in the corner.

Now shall we move to the other end of the house? The laundry room has all the cabinetry installed. It looks gigantic; I’m going to need a really tall stepstool.

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What’s left to do you say? They’re going to build a box for the washer and dryer to sit on to make room for the dryer venting. In this way, the appliances can be moved back in line with the cabinets. We have a sink and counters to be installed, and then my days at the laundromat will be over.

The butler’s pantry looks amazing. I really like the dark wood. It may be the closest to being finished.

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The wine fridge and extra fridge are on back order. We need a brighter light, a countertop, sinks, and some tile, and we’re done.

Speaking of done, the workers have finished their work in the kitchen. Yes, in the kitchen; I know you’re surprised. We replaced the backsplash with some mosaic tile. We’ve gone from plain to color, texture, and beauty. Sometimes it’s fun to have a little sparkle. It looked a little busy at first, but when you add in all the everyday stuff it’s like it’s always been there.

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Big things are in the mix. I’m looking forward to the finishing line.

As I write, we have guys installing a new door in the laundry room, someone measuring for the shower glass, another guy servicing the boiler, and the cleaning lady whisking away the dusk. We are a veritable hive of activity.

Spring is in the air; things are looking up. Hope they are for you, too.

Anticipation

You know how they say you have to tear it down before you can build it back up again? Well, we’ve been in the stage where you tear it down, make lots of noise, and create a big mess for the last few weeks.

While our master bath looks like a big empty room, the plumbing and outlets have been moved. We have a floor where the tub once was. Massive amounts of blue tile and a wall have disappeared.

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In the laundry room, the bathroom is a thing of the past but so are all the cabinetry, a wall, and my washer and dryer.

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This has forced me into new experiences. I haven’t been to a laundromat in 20 years; those industrial machines are really fast. I did three loads of laundry in under 90 minutes and made it to work with time to spare.

So where are we at? Our guy from Semco is here redoing the floors to match up with the rest of the rooms, the MR picked up our order of beautiful tile last week, and we’re doing our best to keep up with the dust that’s everywhere.

I’m looking forward to seeing the cabinets in place, and the rooms coming together. The floors need a few days to cure, so it’ll be Thursday before we start seeing more progress.

The weather is unseasonably cold, our boiler isn’t working, snow is in the forecast again this week, but in the end, it will all work out. I’m praying for patience and a few more sunny days.

Cocoa wanted to chase off a pair of mountain lions, but the MR convinced her that was a bad idea. We stayed safely on the deck and enjoyed the sunshine.

How was your February? Sunny days ahead?

Hold on a Minute

Me and the MR had these big plans. We met with a designer and a contractor. We looked at drawings and visited cabinet stores.

We thought everything was on track, but we didn’t want to worry about a big remodel before Sweet Miss’ wedding.

The wedding was in July. August came and went without a word, so the MR sent a few emails inquiring about our master bath and laundry room remodels.

We have a bathtub and a bunch of fixtures in the garage. Let’s get a move on.

Well the designer and her assistant came out. We tweaked the cabinet design and decided on some counter and backsplash options.

And then…bad news. The contractor backed out for personal reasons. The MR has interviewed a few, and we’re waiting for bids.

All in all, this is moving slower than I expected. Sweet Miss and the Fella got me a pretty scarf and a bath bomb for my birthday. It’s going to be awhile before I get to relax in my new tub.

We are making progress at a very slow rate. Here are some choices for the butler’s pantry in the old laundry room.

And then because I love the sunrises this time of year. Here’s one I’d like to share with you.

So guys, I haven’t been holding out on you; we’re just on hold for a bit. It’s just another one of those patience developing opportunities. You know how much I love those.

Any scheduling-shifting, remodel hiccups you want to share? We can commiserate together.

If you can’t remember what I’m talking about, take a look at Big Changes

Big Changes

The master bathroom has always been a bit of a challenge. Imagine a navy tiled shower of gloom, a double vanity with just one drawer, a Japanese soaking tub next to floor-to-ceiling windows, a shallow cabinet for all the niceties, and weird angles galore.

The same lovely lady—Kristi—we’ve been working with on the laundry room remodel has put together a plan for us. She had a wildly exciting, over-the-top, move walls, and showers, and closets plan that we just couldn’t get on board with.

So we went with moving sinks, incorporating better storage, redoing bathtub and shower, adding accent tile, and bringing it all into the 21st century.

That’s enough of my talking about it. You want pictures, right?

For now, all I have is some sketches.

The contractor is booked out till August, and you may remember we have a wedding coming up in less than two months. So we’re still in the picking out stuff phase—tiles, sinks, countertops, tubs, faucets, and lights.

We’re headed toward gray tile, white counters, white cabinets, and a large scale accent wall. Here’s a few ideas Kristi showed us.

And don’t worry about the laundry room; we’re continuing to narrow in on a plan for it as well. Here’s updated elevations of what the old laundry room and attached bath has always dreamt of being when it grew up.

I’m looking forward to hidden storage for the vacuums, brooms, and mops. The bathroom area is being transformed into a butlers pantry with an extra fridge and lots of room for wineglasses, platters, and serve ware. It’s going to be quite lovely.

Any changes at your house?

You can learn more about the laundry room remodel at Dreaming a Little.

All About April

April showers have given way to May. You know what that means; it’s time for our monthly recap of the blog.

We had speakers, Spring, and a generator. The speakers are great, spring is a little fickle, and we haven’t had the need to use the generator, but it’s ready and waiting.

A new laundry room rennovation is in the future. We’ve checked out wine fridges and matching column fridges and met with a contractor. Much more is in store, but we may have to wait a while on this one. In the meantime, be sure to check out the inspiration all around you.

And now for updates and other news. Me and the MR took a quick trip to Palm Springs, for dinners out, sunshine, shopping, hiking, swimming, and games. My garden still needs some work, but the MR has the wall around the generator looking great. We donated a few things to our local MOPS garage sale, but I think it’s time for some more spring cleaning.

And in other good news, we received an invitation from Sweet Miss and the Fella for their upcoming wedding. It’s getting real.

How was your April?

Dreaming a Little

I may have mentioned something about a laundry room remodel recently. Well me and the MR have been meeting with a designer to try and make better use of a rather odd set up.

The original owners had a tanning bed opposite the washer and dryer. We have just an odd space with cabinets running across the middle of the wall.

He was in the construction industry and liked to come in through the laundry room, get rid of his work clothes and immediately shower. I’m sure it made sense for him, just not so much for us.

Cocoa loves the bathroom in the laundry room—it’s where she eats her meals and snacks and chew sticks are stored. It seems kind of a shame to have a whole room dedicated to a dog and her accouterments.

So we met with Kristi of Studio K2. She’d done some work for a friend of the MR’s; and after seeing the remodel photos, we decided to give her a call. We spent an afternoon chatting about wine fridges, butler’s pantries, extra storage, light issues, and usable space, and she presented us with the following plan.

She also had lovely ideas for drying racks, beautiful walls of cabinetry, and a built-in dog bowl station.

The light issue could be improved by replacing the doors with glass panels. That means the door from the outside, the door between the laundry and adjacent bath, the door to both rooms, and perhaps the door to the deck that lines up with all three other doors. Nothing is every easy…

Cocoa’s bare bones bathroom would be replaced with a wine fridge, an overflow fridge for entertaining, and then a pretty sink and storage for platters and holiday plates, stemware and silver.

It sounds like contractors are booked out a ways, but I’m loving all these ideas.

We’re planning on carrying the white cabinets found in the rest of the house in here, and open shelving doesn’t work when we leave the doors open all summer long.

I’ll probably still move a drying rack out on the deck in the summer, but it’ll be wonderful to have a place to hang up the MR’s button-downs, and my dainties won’t be hanging on the line in front of God and everyone.

I remember when my mom redid her laundry room. And the 20-something I was, I may have rolled my eyes. Sorry Mom. Now I get how exciting it can be to dream a little dream.

Any remodeling plans at your house?

Want a peak at where we’ve started and where we’ve been? You can find our ever changing laundry room here, or here, or here, or here. 

Sleek & Shiny Washer and Dryer

Now that some of our big projects are complete, we’ve turned our attention to the laundry room with its over 20-year-old washer and dryer.

Do they work? Yes.
Do clothes get clean? I think so.
Are your whites gleaming white? Not so much.
Do they have all the bells and whistles? Nope.
Do they take forever to run through a wash cycle? You better believe it.
Are they a little grungy, a little funky? Yep.

Now the MR doesn’t do the laundry, never has, probably never will. I don’t cut down trees; we all have our gifts. That being said, for whatever reason, our old washer and dryer gave him fits.

So when the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Weekend rolled around last month, we went shopping. The year before we’d checked out a sale at Home Depot, but we had floors, the conversation pit, moldings, carpet, bathroom remodels, and furniture on the agenda for last year. We decided the new appliances could wait.

Another year, another sale, and we were off. The nice lady at the hardware store didn’t seem very informed. Home Depot offers free installation, but with the need for propane conversion rather than natural gas, that whole idea went sideways. With propane, they don’t install the machines, you have to call another company, and deal with them to get your appliances working. When she called this company they couldn’t find the part and seemed basically clueless.

About that time, we put the deal to a halt and decided to think about it. Well, a few days later, the MR checked out Fredreck’s Appliance Center, one of our local stores, where we had purchased the oven, microwave, cooktop, and dishwasher when everything conked out in the first few months here.

Not only could they install a washer and dryer and hook up to propane, they would match the big box store’s price. You gotta love it when the little guy makes good.

So Tuesday, a couple nice fellows installed these beauties in under an hour.

 

We went with the Electrolux front-loading models after checking out service records. I didn’t want the pedestals, since I have great storage above. I was also worried about noise. The pair we had at our old house shook like crazy on their pedestals. I figured a lower center of gravity might help, and I like being able to fold clothes on top and reach the cupboards easily.

I haven’t been doing non-stop laundry for the past few days, but I was shocked at how quickly I can run a load through the washing machine. The MR mentioned one of his new shirts was still a bit wrinkly after I ironed it, so I suggested the steam cycle on the dryer.

I still have a lot to learn about how to run my new toys. Maybe I’ll spend an hour with the instruction manual or just keep pushing buttons and see what happens.

Of course, this is just the beginning. We have a whole list of things to do in the laundry room. We need to paint it–it’s the only room downstairs besides the pantry that hasn’t received a new coat of paint.

We need to figure out a better laundry sorting system. The laundry room has also become the dogs’ room, since they can’t be trusted to behave in the rest of the house. They’ve taken to going through the little laundry bags, chewing up the frames, and tearing up the socks and underwear. Don’t you just love them?

Maybe we need to extend the cabinets to the floor, so we can hide the vacuum cleaners and have a place for brooms and mops, and a sorting system behind closed doors.

We also have been having a bit of a problem with the dogs opening the pocket doors, getting into the trash, and lounging on the new furniture. The MR bought a hook and eye; maybe that will keep them locked up when I’m out and about. They just don’t know how good they have it.

I’ve been checking out Houzz and Pinterest to get some sorting/storage ideas.

How do you handle sorting at your house? Do your pets drive you batty? 

(Cocoa likes to chew the corners off my throw pillows when I’m out. She’s lucky she’s cute.)

 

 

Getting Comfortable

Pets–you gotta love ’em. Our dogs bring joy and laughter to our lives; they’re always up for a good run or a game of fetch. BUT–there’s always a but–these dogs drive me crazy.

Cocoa looks all sweet and innocent, snoozing on the chair, but that puppy likes to chew.

 

In order to keep our house from sustaining damage, the dogs have been relegated to the laundry room when we’re gone and at night. While fewer pillows have been chewed up, our clothes have taken a bit of a beating.

I wasn’t surprised to find chewed up socks and underwear, but Cocoa got bored with that and decided to redesign the MR jeans.

Apparently, that Levi’s patch is overdone, and a few bite marks at the waistband are all the rage. In order to save our wardrobe, I came up with a plan. I would make dog beds and tie chew sticks to them. Our sweet little dogs would be so busy with their treats that they wouldn’t have time to bother with our clothes.

I had all the supplies, a few of the girls’ old comforters, some fabric that I bought for curtains that were never meant to be, and some rope for the trim.

Bogart approved whole-heartedly. He even deigned to test out the cushy-ness factor for me.

I was excited since i had two rather undiscriminating clients, I figured I could try out some new techniques. I’d seen some cute napkins with mitered hems–very professional looking–so I decided to try it out on the dogs. What are they going to do if my corners are wonky? They’ve been known to eat garbage; I don’t think they’ll complain.

Well, it all went swimmingly. Celebrate Creativity has a super, simple tutorial (you can check out here). I just made my “napkins” more like dog-bed-size. When I had two finished “napkins”, I put them wrong-sides together, sewed around three sides (about an inch-and-a-half from the edge), and made some buttonholes on the fourth. Then it was just a matter of tacking the edges together every so often, running the cord through, and adding little chew treats.

So how did it turn out? I finished in the middle of the afternoon, stuck the new dog bed in the laundry room, started dinner, and realized I’d forgotten to take any photos. What was I thinking?

I guess they enjoyed it. The chew element didn’t really work out, but at least they wound up with a cozy pair of beds to lie on. And if you run out other things to chew, there’s always the corner of your bed, the stuffing, or even your buddy’s ear–Cocoa has a problem.

The dogs can usually be found sitting on their beds when I get ready to leave, so I think they like them even without treats.

One little tip in case you decide to make dog beds or napkins, I cut a piece of cardboard to one inch in width to use as a guide while I was ironing. I imagine it would also come in handy if you were making a dozen napkins.

 

And by the by, guess whose sewing machine repair shop just called? I’m thinking more projects are just around the corner.

What have you been making? How do you keep your dogs from chewing up the world?

(OK, so I’ve been messing with my theme for the blog (how it looks). After two years, it was time for something new, but the theme I used on Wednesday was just too hard to read. I hope you like the new one. It might be another two years before I get the courage to shake things up again.)