The new and improved laundry room!

These are the before pictures. I can't find  a picture of our original laundry room. It was 11x13 with brown linoleum and a window when we first moved in. At Christmas time in 2009, we took a square out of that room and built a walk through closet. You can see that square in the first picture below. The door on the left of that picture goes from the L-shaped laundry room into the closet.

 This picture (above) is taken from sitting on top of the dryer. It shows the door to the family room on the right and you can just catch a glimpse on the left of the picture of the corner where the room Ls.

 In this picture you can see where the washer and dryer were. You can also tell that the ceiling in this room had not been finished.

In this picture taken from the door into the old laundry room you can see how the wall in front of you is the back side of the closet and how what was left of the room was L-shaped.

It was never our intention to leave an L-shaped laundry room. Now, finally, this spring break we undertook part 2 of the renovation. Basically what we did  was to put a wall in separating the long part of the L, which is our new bathroom and has access through the closet and the short part of the L to become the laundry room with a door into the family room.

Even just the laundry room portion of this project was a big job. Before drywalling, Rob had to move the plumbing and electrical. He had to also move the vent for the dryer and connect the new vent to where in the ceiling the vent ducts went to the outside. This was not as easy as you would think since the vent hose could not go straight up as directly above the dryer in the ceiling is the main heating duct for the house. Rob had to use flexible hose and cut holes in his 2x6 framed wall to get the dryer vent connected how it needed to be.

We also had another terrifying adventure with the dryer electrical. Our electrical panel is not well-labelled. We thought we knew which breaker was for the dryer and it was turned off. Rob started working on dismantling the plug when all of a sudden it sparked and actually melted the ground wire. Luckily Rob was not holding the wires at the time which were hot as it turned out. This was a miracle, because those 220 V plugs have enough power to kill someone. Later we hired our friend, an electrician to put the plug together. He had tools that helped him figure out which breaker did in fact control the dryer. I feel grateful to Heavenly Father for protecting Rob and am reassured that our Heavenly Father looks out for us.

Our new laundry room is only 66" x 87' or 5.5 ft x 7.25 ft, but I believe we have made the best possible use of the space. We stacked the washer and dryer, and Rob built shelves (inspired by my sister Liz's laundry room) which are the right size for laundry baskets. On top of the shelves is an arborite counter top. As you can see from the first picture below, I can take the laundry from the dryer and throw it on the counter top to fold. Then, I can put the clean laundry in the appropriate basket below. There is also room on the shelves for detergents and a garbage can. I love that Rob built a bottom shelf and that there is a kick plate under it so that no little socks or garbage or anything will fall back in under the shelves. This should help with the unmatched sock problem and make the room easy to keep clean. 

 The biggest down side of the smaller laundry room, or so I thought, was that I would not have a place to iron or to store my iron. It turns out that the iron fits, for storage, behind the door. And today I did all the ironing--three weeks worth--by setting the iron up so that I was standing in the laundry room and the ironing board came partly out the door. It actually worked perfectly and the counter top was a good place to stand up the iron when not in use. Perhaps I will put in a curtain rod above the dryer and across the 5.5 ft. wall of the room to hang the ironed shirts until I am done and put them away.

 Here is what it looks like now with the ironing and laundry all done. I am thinking about putting my world map on the wall above the counter top. Might as well be educated as we fold!

Another view where you can see the machines and the corner of the counter top.

Our new laundry room is quite small, but it is awesome!