As every right thinking human being can tell you, the most important rooms in the house are the garage, workshop, and office… so, when we bought the farm, you can imagine my excitement that there was an office, several options for a workshop, a two car garage and a six car garage!

You may have noticed that there have been no posts on the garage office or workshop… that is because they are the only rooms in the house that have had no work done on them whatsoever… I think this is clearly a case of discrimination… maybe I should start a husband’s rights movement?

Jean, on the other hand, has the skewed view that the kitchen and laundry room are the most important rooms in the house. The kitchen was the first major project to get done after the bedrooms were cleaned up and inhabitable, and lately, the laundry room has consumed almost every available moment.

Most homes have a laundry room. This home now has a laundry suite with a private bathroom, a small Butlers Pantry, and a planner desk nook separating the kitchen and laundry room.

I’m pretty sure that my wife put more thought into this area than any other area in the house. If we added a bed, sofa and TV she would probably spend all of her time here!

When we bought the farm this was one of the most disgusting rooms in the house! There was a washer and dryer that probably worked just fine, but, the first thing I was ordered to do after closing on the house was throw them away! that decision might have been influenced by the moldy towels still in the washer…

Here are a couple of “before” pictures

When we pulled out the washer this is what we found behind it. I wish I could say this shocked us, but, this was pretty much what the whole house looked like!

After Cleaning up the rooms and getting new appliances she was temporarily appeased. The next picture is what the laundry room looked like for the past year… It looked OK to me! Perfectly adequate…

we bought the farm laundry room before remodel

Unfortunately, Jean did’t think it was adequate… my time ran out and we have spent the past couple of weeks making it look like this…

After… I guess it looks a little bit better…

The advantage of living in a house while you are remodeling is that you don’t have to make all of the decisions up front… you live with it for a while and figure out what you really want and what makes sense. Here are a few of the things that we came up with over the past year while living in the space…

we bought the farm laundry room
After working in the yard, taking off shoes is a must, sometimes clothes as well… This bench doubles as a clothes hamper so we don’t have to carry wet and dirty clothes through the house. It matches the cover to the washer and dryer, and counter in the butlers pantry…

Jeanie wanted a cover for the Washer and dryer with a waterfall edge… maybe we’ll lose less socks??? We designed it to fit together with no nails and it can be taken apart in 30 seconds. Gene, our plumber, liked the idea!

The Window looked out at a wall on the sun porch – so we took it out and used the space for cupboards and storage… it looks better too!
The hidden hanger rod under the Valance will be helpful when I do the laundry 🙂 and the utility sink comes in handy so I don’t get my dirty hand-prints all over the house. Also, a picture of laundry in the laundry room… novel idea… just in case you’ve forgotten what you came here to do!
Butlers Pantry
A closet converted into extra kitchen space (little butlers pantry) and hidden appliances keep the kitchen cleaner!
An employee locker for shoe storage from Cotton Buds (Dad’s company that was sold a couple of years ago) refinished to match kitchen colors. Magnetic letters to personalize the lockers for our guests…
A feature wall in the bathroom ties the natural wood in the other rooms together. I was OK with paint, Jeanie wanted to spend a lot more time and effort…

Here are a few of the Pics from the process:

  • We bought the farm laundry room construction
  • laundry room bathroom