After we got the keys to our house...

the first thing we did was move the washer and dryer from the kitchen. (Yes, I'm entering the contest that Houseblogs.net is offering! I could sure use that $300 gift certificate from True Value!) I've never been a big fan of spaghetti sauce near my clean clothes, and so the weekend after we moved in we moved the washer/dyer hookups from the east side of the kitchen to the back room. Moving the water hook-ups was relatively easy, as the back room shares the wet wall with the sink/dishwasher from the kitchen; moving the 220 electrical line for the dryer was a trickier reroute and fish from the attic. Luckily, we had help from family with the project!

Here's the new laundry center (with a pretty puppy in the middle of her shave down on top):

Here is where the laundry center used to be...

The fridge used to be where the nice hutch is in the second picture. The rest of the kitchen counterspace and appliances are off to the left. We think that THIS is a much better use of space!

And, of course, the rest of the kitchen; you can see that stained glass window in the laundry picture, too:

The laundry room is through the door on the right (with the white gate); the current fridge/pantry is to the right.

This post was written for Houseblogs.net as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by True Value.

More Backroom Plans... I think I have something now!

Thanks for all of your wonderful suggestions! It really helps me hack through this process.

A few of you asked what program I'm using to create my 3D layouts. I'm using SketchUp, a free program from Google. I must say it is quite easy to use; I figured it out through trial and error. I just have the basics down; I have seen some FABULOUS models elsewhere.

We thought through our priorities, and decided that the dogs could sleep in a bathroom/laundry room, that we didn't REALLY need a side back door AND a back back door, and that a bathroom really would be nice. We already traded for a stackable washer and dryer to help with our plans.

A snag came up when we realized the trap door for the crawl space is right where we wanted to place a wall; we compromised by shrinking the bedroom by a foot. It's now a 10' x 13' bedroom; the largest in the house by FAR, and with no closet eating up space inside it. I am also concerned about placing a sink over this trap door... is this a good idea, or a disaster waiting to happen?

Here are two ideas; look at how far they came from my last attempt! The trap door is the square on the floor of the laundry/bathroom area.






Basically, I divided the space up into a 10'x13' bedroom and two 7'x5' spaces, one a walk in closet and one a laundry or bathroom. I removed the side back door, and added our salvaged French doors to the bedroom.

I can't decide about doors... should the closet and laundry room have their own separate entrances from the bedroom (I'll likely do pocket doors for at least one of them), or should I have only ONE door that into the bathroom, and then a door from there into the closet? I drew the plans with a separate door for each.

Whether we do the bathroom will depend on the ease of plumbing. In the little bit of research I've done, it sounds alternately like the easiest thing in the whole world and like I've asked to move the Empire State Building. It doesn't help that I don't really know what needs to be done except we need the 4 inch drain and we already have plumbing in the wall...

What are your thoughts on these floorplans? Any ideas on how hard or easy it might be to install a new bathroom in a wood framed house over a crawl space, using an existing wet wall (kitchen)?

Update on Danby Washer and Dryer

It's been 3 days and 5 loads of laundry (I've been washing EVERYTHING to see how it works) since we got our new Danby washer and dryer. To review, it is Energy Star rated, front loading, and small; the old set was top loading and huge.

Here's why I am in LOVE with my new washer and dryer:

Our washer drains into the same pipe as the sink; for some reason (faulty plumbing, I would assume), the water drained out of the old washer had always backed up into the sink as it drained, as there is too much water to go down at once. It would fill the sink up most of the way in overflow drainage... and it would do this 3 times during a cycle.

The NEW washer does NOT fill up the sink at all! It does not drain enough water at once to overload the drain... and it still drains those three times. I ran over to the sink to check during the first 3 loads.

That is a LOT of water saved each time we run the washer!

Plus, the spin cycle on the washer (we have it set to 1000 rpm) pulls a LOT of water out of the clothes, so the drying time isn't as long. I was used to drying clothes for more than an hour in the old dryer. Now, it takes about 30 minutes.

That is a LOT of electricity saved each time we run the dryer!

Finally, I use 1/2 TBSP of laundry detergent for every load in the new machine. I used to put in 3/4 cup of detergent to get my clothes clean in the old top loader.

That is a LOT of detergent saved each time we wash our clothes!

What a Trade! (or Simple Amusements)

Thanks to some wonderful suggestions you all made on my backroom plans, I started looking at stackable washers and dryers for our laundry room. I was in research mode; I wanted to see what a nice used stackable set would cost us, and how much we could get for our existing HUGE General Electric washer and dryer.

I searched through Craigslist (I search Craigslist for everything), and discovered a couple that wanted to TRADE their Danby Energy Star efficient, compact, stackable, and front-loading washer and dryer set for a BIG washer and dryer... exactly what we have.

We unhooked our extra larger washer and dryer (It is AMAZING how much dirt and dust collects behind your washer and dryer!), and drove down to Denver to trade.

We just hooked up the new set and popped in a load of whites... it is SO QUIET! I can barely hear it. And, it filled up with a QUARTER of the water that our old washer used. We sat and watched the washer work for 15 minutes... it's quite fun to watch a front loader washing machine work. Simple amusements for simple people.

We haven't used the dryer yet, but I have high hopes. The only negative that I can see to this set is that it is somewhat small... it only holds medium to large loads. That is not a problem for the two of us in our tiny house, luckily.

I can't wait to see what our electric and water bill savings will be. Here's to saving just a little more of the earth AND saving space and money.

Some Back Room Ideas

As I said previously, we are attempting to remodel our back room. Here is the original room: (20'x10', with a sloping ceiling)

The door on the top leads into the main house. The door on the right side leads out to the driveway. We are removing both huge windows on the bottom as well as the window into the next room at the top.

Right now it functions as a bedroom, laundry room, and dog sleeping room (it's divided by a huge ugly armoire.) We need it to function as all or most of those things in the remodel. Sadly, the pups can not sleep WITH us, due to allergies... and they are too young to be trusted not to chew themselves to sleep.

The laundry area is currently storing our family filing cabinet, a cabinet of house tools/paint/etc, linens, and dog things.

The other bedrooms in the house are 8'x10 and 10'x12', each with a closet taken out of that floorspace... basically anything we do to this new space is bigger than either other bedroom.

Thanks to all of your suggestions on the previous post... here are three possibilities. I added French doors at the bottom of each, but didn't work on placement at all, so it's sort of awkward in all of them.

Here is the room in our first configuration, with completely separated areas:

Pros:
Doggy space
Separate Laundry Area with room for cabinets and LOTS of storage
Direct access from the house to the driveway/trash can
Would be easy to build built in storage on either side of the bed (floor to ceiling)

Cons:
SMALL closet space (though bigger than what we are using now)
Smaller bedroom
Weird walls/dimensions

Here is the room with a walk in closet:

Pros:
Walk in closet
Larger (10x15) Bedroom
Logical floorplan and layout

Cons:
No doggy space
No paint/tool space
No direct access to driveway/trashcans

And here is the room with a 1/2 bath and non-walk in closet:

After doing a little research, I though adding a half bath to the mix might not be a bad idea in our 1 bathroom house. Unfortunately, it would be a bit of work, as the wet wall is taken up by the laundry area right now. I don't think I have a good model for this, but I can't figure out how else to do it.

Pros:
Toilet in bedroom!
Larger (10x14) bedroom
Resale value from second bathroom

Cons:
No doggy space
No paint/tool storage
Small closet


Any ideas? Suggestions?

The Master Bed/Laundry Room Shell (AKA The Back Room)

I have been struggling with ideas for how to renovate our back room. It is a 10' by 20' room that was added on in the 1920's. It has a slanted roof, windows into the main house, and 2 HUGE windows. Oh, and peel and stick vinyl tiles.

When we moved in, we decided we would convert it into our master bedroom and laundry room. We moved the laundry out of the kitchen and into this room the first weekend. We moved a bed and a clothes rack in for the bedroom side.

And then we planned. And planned. And planned.

And three years later, we are still sleeping in the room. We added a freestanding closet to separate the laundry area and the sleeping area, but it is still open to the rest of the house.

I discovered Google SketchUp tonight, and drew a mock-up of our back room:

I added the washer and dryer (the two boxes), as they are likely NOT moving. The top of the picture is attached to the house, and the other walls are exterior.

We are definitely removing the two HUGE windows on the bottom of the pictures, along with the window into the guest room at the top left. We are putting in French doors on the bottom.

Nothing else is final.

The room is 20' by 10' and we need:
A bedroom
A closet
A laundry room

I'm trying some ideas out in SketchUp right now! Any ideas?