All Lit Up

Last week I asked everyone which outdoor lighting options they liked the most and I got a real mix of responses. I love seeing how everyone picks something a bit different but I ended up picking none of the options that I posted. We were under a bit of a time crunch and needed to purchase lights that were at a store versus on the Internet. I'm happy with my selection and they installed the lights today - now I'm wishing I had purchased new lights for next to the front door but they are good enough for now. I did however listen to all of you and went with clear glass versus the opaque glass. I hope you like what we picked!

 Dont' the lights look all regal and proud to be next to the garage door? I love them but most importantly they work and will make me feel better about getting home in the dark, no boogie mans to jump out and scare me thanks to the motion sensors.

Now we have one more thing to check off the house to-do list. Don't you love that feeling?

Light 'Em Up

Thanksgiving break will be here in a few short days and now that I have my photography class under my belt, it's time to get some much needed projects done around the house. First on my very long list is to get outdoor lighting installed on the garage so that our house is better lit and will provide the lighting we need to shovel our driveway in the winter. I know, I hate to admit that winter is on it's way and unfortunately in Chicago we get a lot of white fluffy snow. In addition to installing more lighting, we are also going to have an outdoor outlet on the front of the house installed so it'll make it so much easier to put up holiday lights. Gosh, we'll have to do that over the Thanksgiving break too. In the meantime I would love your advice on the following lighting options that I am pondering. Please let me know which of the following options you like. Thanks in advance for your advice!

Light 1

Light 2

 Light 3

 Light 4

 Light 5

 Light 6

 Light 7

 Light 8

 Light 9

Laundry Room Demo - The Big Reveal

The big Laundry Room Reveal is here! I know you have stuck with me through the day by day progress of the laundry room and now I get to show you the final result. What started out as a whole lot of "I wishes" turned into reality with the help of a fabulous contractor. We have been using our new appliances for a couple of weeks and I have almost forgotten what it was like before - but not quite.

Here's a quick recap of our little laundry room transformation:

• On Day 1 they demoed the area and moved all of the plumbing to gain our extra 6 inches of space.
• On Day 2 they built the new wall and began drywalling the area.
• On Day 3 they finished putting up the drywall, cut and laid out the tiles, installed the can lights, and assembled the cabinets.
• On Days 4-5 the tiles were grouted, the drywall finished drying, the walls were primed/painted, cabinets were installed along with the filler, and last but not least the new washer and dryer were installed.
• And last but not least bead board was just added to hide the ugly 220 volt outlet and some of the plumbing with a little access panel.

And with that - here's our new laundry room!

Concealing all of that necessary but unattractive stuff!

P.S. Sorry the pictures are a bit dark.....the bead board went up today and I couldn't wait a second longer to share the complete project with you. I hope you forgive me and have enjoyed the process as much as we have. With that I am off to find something to wash.....

What I Loved in August

I love reading other blogs that share what the blogger loved during the previous month and I thought I would try something similar. Let's start with August and see where we go from here.

1. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson. I finished the 3rd book in the trilogy and thoroughly enjoyed the twists and turns that this book had. The author passed away several years ago after turning in the manuscripts and what a wonderful author he was. I highly recommend this trilogy and I'm sure you will love it!

2. Josie Maran Argan Oil. It's 100% pure argan oil from Morocco and I absolutely love it. It's an oil that provides the ultimate hydration and is great for the skin, cuticles, and split ends. I'm constantly finding more and more ways to use this product. Try it, I think you'll love it.

 3. Garden Veggies! I never thought that 1 cucumber plant, 1 tomato plant, and 1 cherry tomato plant would produce enough vegetables to feed the neighborhood. I think I got about 30 cucumbers from my one plant and too many cherry tomatoes to count therefore I've been sharing the fruits of my labor with everyone I can. My book club friends have begun to request my veggies which is a true compliment. What's my secret? Well I use compost, rain water from my rain barrel, and talk really nicely to the plants.....don't you do the same thing?

4. Time spent at Ravinia with my husband and friends. It's a great outdoor music venue where you can camp out in the park and picnic while listening to great music. We saw the Temptations and Carrie Underwood in August which was a blast.

5. My new Washer and Dryer! Our Laundry Room Demo was life altering - seriously! My husband and I have so much more time thanks to our super capacity washer and dryer. We used to do more than 10 loads a week because of the small capacity appliances we had and now we can do 3 a week - huge difference. It was the wisest money we have spent in a long time. The big reveal is coming soon so please ignore the tape since we are still painting and putting some final touches on the room. I'm excited to show you the finished product but you can see quite a bit of it here.

Laundry Room Demo - Days 4 & 5

It's been a long week but our laundry room transformation is almost done! I've been updating all of you throughout the week but Day 4 unfortunately consisted of the drywall drying. After 24 hours it was still not completely dry so I whipped out the fan and it was dry in an hour but it was too late to make any real progress. The tiles were grouted and the drywall dried but that was all that took place on Day 4. Nothing too exciting.

Day 5 however we accomplished a great deal. The walls were finished, the cabinet was hung, and the walls were primed and painted. It's such a small space that I thought it would be easy to paint but after getting covered in Elmer's glue primer and yelling at my husband for getting it everywhere, we ended up needed a little break. David headed to the Laundromat (for the first time ever!) and I headed off for a much needed glass of wine. Afterwards we ate dinner and I completed the coats of paint alone (sorry Honey it's just not your forte)!

The pictures were taken in the evening and aren't the greatest but I'm saving the good pictures for the upcoming reveal. I can't wait until it's all done!!!

Stay tuned for the big reveal....coming soon!

Laundry Room Demo - Day 3

We just completed day 3 of our laundry room transformation and I'm sure you will all be just as excited as we will be once it's done. Are you sick of me blogging about it yet?!?! I really need to do some laundry here soon and I don't want to spend all weekend doing it - but wait....I can wash big loads now! But still, I don't want stacks of laundry looming over me. I have the hardest part of the job - folding and putting it away.

Here's a recap of our transformation thus far:

• On Day 1 we demoed the area and moved all of the plumbing to gain our extra 6 inches of space.
• On Day 2 they built the new wall and began to drywall the area.
• On Day 3 they finishing putting up the drywall, laid the tiles on the floor, installed the can lights, and assembled the cabinets.

Next we need to finish up the walls, grout the tiles, prime and paint the walls and ceiling (YUCK!), install the cabinets, and last but not least......install the washer and dryer. I also have some finishing touches that I'm looking  forward to sharing with you. Let's just say I created art that didn't cost me anything!

I hope you stay with us as we finish the laundry room transformation that will allow us to wash and dry big loads of laundry in style.

Laundry Room Demo - Day 2

Yesterday we completed day 2 in the construction of our new laundry space. In day 1 we demoed the area and had the plumbing moved so we could gain our extra 6 inches of space. And in day 2 they completed the building of the wall on the left side and began drywalling the area. They didn't get as much done on day 2 but they were only working on it for a 1/2 day because of another project they were working on. Tanner and I got to sleep in so that was a big bonus.

You can see that it's coming together and the most exciting part of the day.....my new appliances arrived! They are temporarily sitting in the garage but I have been studying the manual so that I will know how to use all of the settings once it's time to start doing laundry again. It's really piling up so I hope they are done soon.

Stay tuned for details on what was accomplished on day 3 - I'm hoping the drywall is complete and the tiling on the floor but we'll see.

Laundry Room Demo - Day 1

Today was the first day of my "stay-cation" and I was actually excited to get up bright and early to see my laundry area become the hardest working room in the house. It started with clearing out the room and beginning to demo the area. The guys did a great job keeping it clean and Tanner did surprisingly well considering that there were strangers in his house pounding, banging, and creating a lot of noise.

Next they needed to move the plumbing by the furnace to the back of the closet so we can gain our much needed 6 inches of space so that we can go from apartment sized appliances to full-size.

And after the plumber worked his magic, the pipes are now in the right place and we have gas piping since we are converting from an electric to gas dryer. The gas dryer was a bit more expensive but we are going to see the savings come back to us through our monthly bills.

All of that extra space...maybe I can even hang our ironing board in there since we have so much space now?! A full day of work and with day 2 around the corner, we will soon have the drywall up, painted walls, flooring, can lights, and a cabinet for storage. Stay tuned as we continue on our journey to full-size appliance land!

Laundry Room - First Problem Solved

We are getting super-excited about our new laundry room that will soon allow us to have a full-size washer and dryer. Very excited about the amount of time and money this will save us but also it will certainly help with resale value as well. But I think we are both equally excited about the design process. But first I wanted to share with you that the first problem has been solved.

Instead of adding the extra space on the right side of the laundry closet we are luckily able to add it to the left side instead. The big metal pipe on the right was not something we were able to work around but luckily we are able to make it work on the other side with the moving of some piping instead. Thank goodness, I was getting really scared that I would possibly have to give up my scrapbook closet and that would have had me in tears.

Now the fun part, picking out a new washer/dryer and what the room will look like when it's all done. Anyone purchase new appliances lately? I'd love some recommendations but here's what we are thinking is the direction we may go in. Some super sleek stainless steel/gray/graphite colored machines! I think they would look beautiful next to some wainscoating on the walls and a marble countertop for folding those freshly washed clothes. I never thought I would be so excited about new appliances but I feel like a new world is opening up for us. Oh I know the drama but seriously we are super excited! Stay tuned, the project begins next week and I'll be sharing the project details with all of you.

Laundry Room Demo - Our First Problem

I'm very excited about the possibility of having full-size washer/dryer in our basement and we have begun the process of working with a contractor to figure out how to make that possible. Sounds simple right? Well not when you are dealing with the space limitations that we are. There are a lot of options but they are slowly getting more and more expensive! One option was to convert my scrapbooking/craft closet into a laundry closet and I can't even imagine giving that up so we really have to figure out a way to make this work. Yesterday I shared with you what my dream laundry room would look like in this post and today I thought I would share the reality of the situation with you. Follow me through this adventure.

We had bi-fold doors here but after having to remove them for the bazillionith 10th time to have repairs done on our washing machine, my hubby tore them down and I decided to hang curtains from Ikea instead. Thanks Mom for hemming them for us!

Here's the tiniest front-loaders you can buy and they are junk! It takes an hour and a half to dry one load of clothes and that may only consist of 4 bath towels if you are lucky and I'm talking bath towels not bath sheets. Seriously it's ridiculous and the reason we need full-size appliances is to keep my sanity. The options for small washers and dryers is non-existent and stackables are out of the question - I hate them even more. We have to have full-size when we have a family and fixing this problem will help with the resale value of our home. Who wants to buy a 3 bedroom, 2 bath house with tiny appliances - no one I know!

We thought we had figured out the solution that was going to be easiest and the cheapest until we discovered this freakin pipe behind the wall we were planning on building out - this is a big problem! We were so disappointed to discover this problem and now we know why no one has fixed this problem in the past. We are very motivated and working with Peg, we will find a solution! Stay tuned as we go through our first demo adventure together.

Planning Our Laundry Room Demo

We live in a split-level home that was built in 1984 when closet space wasn't plentiful to say the least and the builders didn't think that having ample space for a washer/dryer was a priority. Well I'm here to tell you that having a beautiful space for a full-size washer/dryer is a major priority for a family. Our laundry area closet barely fits a 24" washer/dryer which was made for apartments or other small spaces where you aren't doing a load of laundry a day. While we have nice front-loaders, they choices are limited and after having our washer repaired about 10 times (not kidding) we decided that we needed to figure out a way to get full-size washers and dryer in our house. When we have children, the small units just won't cut it.

Here comes my book club buddy Peg who is a contractor/decorator by day and fabulous friend, book club junky at night. I've seen her work and it's fabulous so I was jumping for joy when she didn't shy away from our small project. My husband kept saying that there was nothing we could do and that I just had to live with it but I knew Peg would come up with a solution or two. She came over today and had a ton of ideas on how to not only get more room for a full-size washer/dryer but also more closet space. It's nice to know that as our family grows there are options for gaining more closet space. That will have to wait for another day but it looks like the week of August 16th we will have a larger laundry area that will fit full-size appliances. It involves pushing out a wall in our family room but losing a couple inches there to gain more on the other side is something I'm not worried about. The added bonus - I get to shop for some fabulous new appliances and get rid of the puny-size one's we have now! The options are endless and I didn't know you could drool over appliances but that I am definitely doing.

Here's a few photos for inspiration:

A girl can dream of a bright and cheery room like this.

The appliances are a gorgeous color and the countertop has plenty of space for folding and a place for hanging clothes as well.

Pull out ironing board is lovely but not in our plans.

While the teal isn't my taste, we did see these on clearance today at Best Buy. It looks great in this room.

The metallic, steel look of this room really gets my motor running. So fresh and clean!

White, white, white - need I say more?

This is a total dream....3 appliances! No more waiting to put all of the clothes in the dryer when you have two of them! When I hit the lotto this will become a reality.

Now that I have had a moment to daydream, this one is more realistic - it fits in a closet and has full size units with storage for cleaning supplies in addition to only being for laundry. We decided we didn't want to purchase the pedestals that are commonplace with front-loaders because we needed to have a folding area on top of the units. I do want the units a bit higher so it's not so hard on the back and building a platform with drawers in the closet may be a better idea. We are looking forward to the project and I'll keep you posted on the progress.