Of Laundry Rooms and Landscape Work

Not sure if I ever posted photos of the laundry room. It's not a terribly exciting space in anyone's house, and I'm not sure mine is an exception. Except to me, right now.

It was a genuine revelation two years ago when we moved the washer from our dank basement to the new laundry room just outside our master bedroom up on the second floor, and replaced the then-recently-defunct dryer with a new one.

Suddenly all the drudgery I had assigned for years to "doing laundry" evaporated when I only had to schlep about fifteen feet from the hamper in my closet to the washing machine. I realized after my very first load of wash that it wasn't "doing laundry" that was what I had dreaded for twenty years of living here. It was the climb down 2 flghts of stairs to the damp, unfinished part of the basement where the washer and dryer resided, then, of course, the climb back up.

Who knew?

Since that revelatory initial experience, I no longer avoided laundry, but not much had changed in our "new" second-floor laundry room until just the past few weeks.

The novelty and excitement of only a short trip to clean tee shirts and the steam setting on the dryer had sort-of worn off when, finally, the finishing touches for that room began. These were, namely, a laundry sink and, finally some built-in shelves that would obscure that part of the tile floor that had been left un-tiled because we knew we'd be building shelves or cabinets there. At some point.

I stared at that abrupt flooring terminus for 27 long months. Now, with these lovely shelves, you'd never suspect the tile doesn't continue all the way to the wall. Except that now I've told you. So that's ruined. Sorry Timmy. Deep Secrets of the Making of a Laundry Room, Revealed!

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  That tall space is for the central vac attachments and the 40-foot upstairs hose that goes with it

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Today I'll pick up the stone for the laundry sink countertop. I actually already picked it up yesterday but because we, of course, are doing this project in a slightly unorthodox manner as far as the guys at our stone place are concerned, we had to bring it back for a few minor modifications. Here's a sneak peak of the dry-fit, though. Had to make sure they cut it the right size, right??

The faucet is a hand-me-down (hand-me-up?) from the old one we had in the kitchen, but it will look pretty spiffy, I think, in its new spot. I really saw no need to buy a new one. It's a laundry room, for heaven's sake. I was surprised enough when Tim told me it was time for me to go pick some stone out for the countertop - I'd been thinking we were going to just do it in formica (or is that Formica? I guess that pun was unavoidable. Sorry. . .) I guess we did do it "in Formica," no matter how you look at it.

There's more painting to be done in this room, and the cabinet under the sink, which will be anything but fancy, needs to be constructed as well. Maybe that will happen by next Wednesday? Hope springs eternal.

Meanwhile, back to the efforts outside. Just a day and a half worth of work since last week, but more great progress. See if you can spot the differences - besides the wet and leaf-covered ground in a few of these. Think of it like one of those games we used to play in the Highlights magazines at the doctor's office.

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  Sitting wall for "fire pit" area - stone top still to go

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  Foundation for step down from the side door (foreground)

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Plus we finally nailed down the order for the extra stone flagging for the rest of the side patio today (apparently it gets trickier to put together full wholesale orders this late in the season, so that process took over a week). That will all get delivered Thursday (tomorrow!), and if the weather cooperates this weekend, we should be almost done with the side patio by the time I post next week.

Until then, happy Halloween!