I'm all about efficiency. It's just something that I like to be and strive to make lots of parts of my life. It's weird. But the truth. So after living in our house for two years - I got sick of the way I had to do laundry. I mean it obviously wasn't the end of the world, as we are very lucky to have a house with a nice washer and dryer, but carrying 2 adults dirty clothes down two flights of stairs, opening 2 doors, through the garage and FINALLY down to the basement - well, yes, that got old week after week. So what was the first step?? Build a hallway that makes that trek down to the basement all inside - obviously I still had to keep those steps due to our side-by-side split style house - but I think the hallway turned out AWESOME!!!!! Not sure what I'm talking about? Check out the step by step process of making our basement entrance inside here, here, here and here.
OK - so what was next? Well, had a few things in mind, mainly from my favorite furniture building website, Ana White. The first I decided to build was a laundry basket dress from this plan. It seemed pretty easy - well once we got the plywood in and out of Jimmy's car (oh jeez - that was sure a test of our marriage....) - and it really was very easy. What I have determined I am the worst at in the furniture building process? Finishing it off - aka painting and sealing. It's for sure my least favorite step!!
Now let me show you what I did!! So the first step was obviously cutting the plywood - which that is always done in our garage with 2 people and safety glasses and a circular saw. We are all about safety here!! But once I got those cut, it was time to get them together. Have I mentioned that I couldn't do ANY of this on my own without my right angle clamps? See them in the picture below - well they are life savers!!
The next step, I just measured the 1X1 wood that I cut to act as the top of the "drawer" and drilled those in. See how the 3 laundry baskets fit so nicely?? That's one for Brittany, one for Jimmy and one for.....oh no, no one else - just the towels.
And here is a picture of my last and least favorite step - painting. Haha, wondering what the heck that black sheet is doing hanging there? That was our "photo shoot" area for the dog's halloween costume shoot. We are weird.
But something I did learn the hard way. Don't be an idiot and paint inside on carpet. Obviously I did already know this, but figured I could make it work and not spill on the carpet. Well, I did spill a few drops, but then after I was "finished" and had put the polyurethane on it....well Willy decided to knock that over all over the carpet. Good news is? That carpet is SICK and we have hated it since we moved in, so maybe that will encourage us to finally replace it. Trying to see the good side of spilling it EVERYWHERE....
Oh, the other purple thing in the background? That project post is coming up....I was a little into multi-tasking that weekend, can you tell? 2 furniture projects going at once and then a photo shoot - ah!
So after it was painted, sealed and dried - it was time to put it to use! Check it out in our basement laundry room area. I love it and caught it mid-laundry time, as you can see some of our clothes folded in there. Makes it so much better because before I was leaving our hampers downstairs until laundry was finished and taking the clothes back up in them. It was OK, however, if laundry spilled over into a 2 or 3 day process (yes I will admit it sometimes we start it and forget about it....), the dirty hampers were still downstairs so we had no where to put our actual dirty clothes. Well - when you have a nasty dog that likes to destroy your underwear, do that too many times and you are really starting to lack in the number of undie options that you have. Hence, my frustration and this project....
So there you have it. What is the second project? It's a wood replacement for the laundry pedestals!! We contemplated buying the ones from Samsung when we bought our new washer and dryer, but at $400 a pop, I figured we could do without. So that is where this other solution comes in handy. I'm making one for myself and my mom......
I wish this was my job!!!
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