Yet Another Renovation

McStudly and I are expecting our tax return any day, now. Actually, it'll be deposited on the 12th, according to the e-mail we received after we e-filed.

(Sidenote: Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy doing our taxes? No, I'm being serious. I really, thoroughly enjoy it! Okay... I know I sound crazy, right now. Movingrightalong...)

Well, this year we're planning to finally renovate the laundry area downstairs. Can I hear a "woot woot"?! Yeah, it's pretty exciting...

When we bought the house, we figured the laundry area would eventually need to be updated, but it was pretty low on the list. Even though it came with the original washer and dryer, they still worked. That was over a year ago. Not long after we moved in, we realized that it took running the dryer about 1.5 times to really get things dry. Now that we've lived here for a while, we're up to running it 2.5, sometimes 3 times just to dry the laundry. And on top of that, we can't really wash a whole lot of clothes at one time - these aren't exactly high capacity appliances, ya see.

Along with old, dated appliances, we have this really crappy vinyl tile on the floor. By really crappy, I mean poorly installed, and horribly selected (obviously not in that order). It's this really gross green (again with the green... this woman was nuts for it!) and half of the tiles don't even stick anymore. It's just... not cool.

So here's what we're hoping to get done, down there:

1 - Appliances: New Washer/Dryer set. We were originally planning to go with a regular top-load washer and electric dryer, since we're not huge front-loader fans. However, the more we thought about it, the more we realized we'll need as much additional storage and work space as we can, down there. So now, the plan is to probably go with front-loaders (more info on that, later).

2 - Walls: There's this gross geometrical-style border just above the baseboards that needs to be removed. Then, we'll clean and paint the walls - probably the same color (by Valspar, Eddie Bauer's "Wicker") as the rest of the living room, to give the house a flow.

3 - Flooring: That old non-sticky vinyl tile has to go. So we've been researching a few options that will stand up to the high traffic and use of the laundry room (it's also the only passage to our backyard, so we're always taking Austin out through that space). Right now we're between regular tile (which wouldn't be easy to keep cleaned in that space), vinyl hardwood planks (looks just like hardwood, and water resistant, but not a "selling" feature), and really anything else is still a possibility. But we also need to replace the carpet on the stairs, so we're actually planning to put in some outdoor carpet (to stand up to the mud our dog sneaks in with occasionally) in a dark-ish color (to help hide the dirt Austin seems to track in with each trip outside).

4 - Railing: The stair railing that is going down those stairs is... eh... not good. It's wood at the top, and partially painted white near the bottom. And now it's gotten worn down from when Austin was little and we tried keeping him down there instead of in his crate (it didn't work out, since he chewed on the railing and tried to pull up the stair carpet!). So we originally thought about refinishing that railing, but have since nixxed (is that a word?) that. We'll be replacing it with a new railing that will eventually match the railing upstairs (when we get around to replacing that one).

5 - Door: The downstairs door does it's job... but that's about it. It's yellowed (thanks to our chain-smoking previous owner) and isn't the prettiest. So we're going to try maybe painting it and hanging blinds in front of the window (but secretly, I'm not above just replacing the thing!).

6 - Heater: We have a baseboard heater downstairs, and it makes me nervous. It's old (though it does still work) and it's an ugly brown/tan color. Ideally, I want to replace it, but I'm not sure if we can. And honestly, I'm not sure that we could find anything safer to put in it's place. Baseboard heaters in general make me nervous, so getting another one probably won't make me feel any better, but I'm wondering if we can get one that at least won't be such an eye sore and will look a lot better when we go to sell in a few years.

7 - Storage: We have NONE! Unless you count putting stuff on top of the dryer, there's no where to put anything. This may seem like it would have a simple solution, but unfortunately it's not that simple. On the left wall is a set of three water valves that need to be easily accessible. In a perfect world, we could hang a shelving/cabinet unit and cut a hole to fit the valves inside... we have a fuse box on the right side. So we can't just cut a hole for something like that (obviously) and definitely can't make it hard to access. And hanging something just to the left would look awkward (take my word for it), so that's not really an option, either. So we basically have one solid option: shelves. I'm good with this option. I am. BUT (you knew there'd be a "but", didn't you?!) just hanging shelves means that you'll have to look at those water valves and fuse box, also. I'm pretty sure they'll stick out even more once the walls have been painted, too, so we're researching a few options for covering those bad boys up.

Anywho - that's the plan, for now. It's a big one, but it's still doable (that's what she said). Hopefully in a month or two, we'll have some after pictures to show you all (not without some good before shots, that is). In the meantime, my sister is helping me put a mood board together (and by "helping", I mean I'm giving her the info, and she's making it... just to clarify), so look for that in the next few days. Hopefully, having this info and the mood board will convince McStudly that my plan is awesome and my genius shouldn't be doubted.

...a girl can dream, can't she?!