Friday, November 19, 2010

Show Me Your Life - Laundry Room

I'm going to say something not many people say. I love my laundry room. No, I REALLY love my laundry room! It's one of the few rooms that actually has a color scheme and I selected it mostly to build from for when we get to the rest of the house. In short, actual THOUGHT went into decorating this room.
Now, you're probably wondering "Seriously? Who decorates a laundry room?" Most people want to get in, get out, and be done, right? Laundry is one of the few (and I mean FEW) household chores I don't mind doing. Do I wake up on laundry day and jump on Husband and say, "It's laundry day! Hooray!!"? No. But I also mind getting up every 35-50 minutes (depending on the wash or dry cycle) and switching things out, or bringing a load into the living room to fold while I watch TV. Ironing, well, that's another story.
Anyway, our laundry room is a pass through to get from the garage into our house, but we don't actually use anything in there as the "catch-all." Our keys, my purse, etc. all live somewhere else in the house, so it's actually fairly easy to keep clean.
The pictures are a little light, as we have a fluorescent fixture in the laundry room (which will be gone once I brush up on my electrical skillz). It looks like more yellow, than green, but I promise it's a pretty light apple green. When we paint the kitchen (which connects to the laundry room), it will be a shade darker and match accessories we have in there.










The washing machine, water heater, and cleaning organizer. The washing machine and dryer were a move-in gift from our parents (all 4 of them) when we got our first apartment, which conveniently had hook-ups :)









The "folding table," which as I've said, I don't fold there, so it's where Husband's work shirts live until I get around to ironing (see the board hanging on the wall?) The only difference between today and when this picture was taken is that the dog crate is no longer there. A Mister update is sorely needed, but suffice it to say that his crate in in our bedroom and the laundry baskets are in place of the crate.









The art I did over the folding table. On the far left says "Laundry schedule: sort...later, wash...tomorrow, fold...next week, iron...get real!" I made it (and it's counter-part on the right) out of scrapbook paper and a frame I ordered online (since 12x12 isn't really standard i.e. cheap). The one on the right says "Laundry today or naked tomorrow!" Teeheehee! In the middle is a print I ordered from Amazon.com. It cost a whopping $0 thanks to gift cards I had earned through Swagbucks (ask me how you can get Swagbucks, and yes, I promise it's NOT a scam!)













My biggest accomplishment in the laundry room was lowering the shelf that was above our washer and dryer. I stand at a statuesque 4'8" so reaching over the machines and getting the bins without anything falling on me just didn't happen. I can now get a good firm grip on the bins (or basket, which is what the detergent lives in) and lower it without getting a concussion...or breaking anything. It will most likely have to be raised whenever we move, but that won't be soon, so I'm making my house livable! Of course, now we have a huge open space OVER the shelf that I'm trying to figure out how to fill...

Friday, November 12, 2010

Show Me Your Life - Bathrooms

Today's installment of Kelly's Show Me Your Life is bathrooms. We have 2 full baths. Our first apartment together had 2 baths and that came in handy more than once (sometimes you just can't wait), so one requirement when we were shopping was at least 1.5 baths.















This is our guest bath. It's nothing super exciting, tub/shower combo, toilet, and single vanity. There is a small linen closet on the right side, hiding behind the door, which is pretty handy. This bathroom is outfitted with all the bathroom stuff we got for our wedding (basically because it's the bathroom that required a shower curtain and our wedding set was newer). Unfortunately, that meant the soft, fluffy towels went in there as well. We're slowly working on getting nice ones in the master though!















Speaking of the master, here it is!

















Double vanity, something our apartment didn't have and I now can't live without!
















Garden tub and stand-alone shower (to the right, just outside of the picture).














The neatest part about the master is that the toilet has its own little room. I can do my business in peace while Husband brushes his teeth or whatever. There is also a linen closet directly across from the toilet.


I have just one question. Can anyone give me a logical reason for the towel bar over the toilet? Clearly our sink is in the other section and I'm certainly not wiping my hands on a towel BEFORE they get washed (just ew). Why is it there? Whenever we get around to painting, it will come down and be donated to Habitat Restore or Goodwill or someplace unless I get one logical reason as to why I should keep it there.