A laundry room in the works

Helloooo everyone! Hope your week is going great so far!

Sooo, in September I talked about a laundry room we were planning in our basement...and then last month told you that the cost of doing the whole shebang made us decide to put parts of the project (like the floors and finished walls) on hold.

But we still really wanted to get the washer and dryer out of our entryway and into the basement. Because this just wasn't working for us:

We used a home design software the hubs bought to figure out a layout for the washer and dryer and a utility sink. Then, we had to clean up all of this.

Yikes!

The first phase of the laundry room project called for building out the studs for the walls, moving the plumbing and installing a pump, and doing some electrical wiring. I can't tell you any details about this, and you definitely wouldn't want any how-to tips from me about plumbing and electrical. Luckily, I have a handy hubs and father-in-law, who did all this work more or less in a weekend.

Pardon the blurry phone photo...

And, of course, the appliances had to be moved. We have a daylight basement, so instead of trying to fit the W&D through the basement stairwell, they took them for a little ride onto the front lawn and down to the basement door.

Here they are in their new home! True to my recent blog mission statement for the year, I'm showing you what this room looks like in its natural state, hampers and cleaning supplies and all. It's not pretty, but it's functional, and still in transition.

I looove how much space we have down here -- no worries about laundry piling up! A door here will eventually separate this area from the rest of the basement. It's so hard to photograph down here because it's so dark, but you get the gist.

In this space, we plan to put a storage cabinet we spotted at Lowe's. It'll hold cleaning supplies, hampers for clothes and have some space to hang things while they dry. You can see the drywall in the corner, waiting to get put up (hopefully soon).

We also plan to put a countertop across the W&D to keep things from falling between or behind them. And we'll put up a shelf or two above them for some storage once the drywall is up and painted.

And we hope to put in a laminate floor at some point too. This was the big budget breaker, even for a pretty affordable floor product, because the space is nearly 12 feet by 12 feet -- that's a lot of flooring! In the meantime, we're looking for a rug to put in front of the machines. 

I'm real proud of my hubby (and father-in-law) for doing all this work. He spent lots of time researching and learning about plumbing and electrical and all that jazz to make sure this project was done right.

But the real exciting part is the awesome closet we gained in the entryway (again, this is its natural state!).

We've got big plans for this space too -- not sure what yet, but I'm hoping for some hanging space, lots of shoe storage and a little bench. I can't wait to make this closet more useful. In the meantime, I'm totally enjoying all this space, and it's come quite in handy for when we have lots of people over. No more stepping over shoes to get to the door! No more moving laundry baskets out of the way to open the door! No more coats jammed into the tiny closet with no room for more! 

I even have room again for my river rock boot tray. It's been a great place to leave wet boots to dry this winter.

What have you been working on lately? Tackle any plumbing or electrical projects? I'd love to hear about them!