If you haven't looked behind your washer lately, run and do it right now. Go! I'll wait for you.I had no idea there was a leak back there. It wasn't severe enough to make a visible puddle on the floor, but it was ruining the wall! Both faucets were dripping, as well as the hot water hose. Mr. H's socks came in handy to absorb the drips, and a couple of Ys from the garden shut off the lower ones. I tore back all the wet sheetrock and sprayed everything with straight Purex to kill any mold spores. Then I went ahead and painted the undamaged area of that wall, and called my son, John, to the rescue.
John to the rescue!John cut out the sheet rock to expose the plumbing, surveyed the damage, and made the decision to replace everything rather than try to repair it.
Plumbing replaced, and a sheetrock patch installed
Taped and textured, ready for a coat of primer.
Then I gave it a coat of paint. The wall is like new, and John is my hero kid, as usual! The laundry room is ready for that new washer, which will be delivered Thursday.
All the shelves and moldings got a fresh coat of bright white paint. I purchased the two base cupboards (we had to put them together), and then stacked the old shelves on top of the one on the right, attaching them with a couple of L brackets so they won't topple off.
The two new cupboards give me some nice hidden storage.
Another view of the room. The light sage green paint is a pleasant change from the blue that has been the color for at least ten years.
The plant window is looking rather bare with most of the seedlings moved out to the garden shed.
I didn't completely give up gardening while I was redoing the laundry room. While waiting for the paint to dry, I made toilet paper seed mats of carrots, beets and radishes. They will all be planted tomorrow.Elsewhere in the garden, the spinach is up, and the radish rows are visible all the way from the kitchen window. I planted some broccoli under milk jugs, the peas aren't up yet, and neither is the lettuce. Most of the seedlings in the garden shed have now sprouted, except for the parsley and the lemon basil. I bought a new packet of parsley seed today, just in case. I know it can take around 3 weeks for parsley to start growing, but the old (2008) seed can't be counted on to be viable, so I decided to play it safe and plant a backup crop. We finally got a good rain yesterday, but the wind blew hard all day today, so everything is dry again. Our irrigation water was supposed to be turned on March 22, but it's still off. Everyone to the west of us has water, but none to the east. Phone calls to the irrigation district just get "It should be on later today or tomorrow", but she's been giving that same answer since last Tuesday! Today she said there must be a stuck valve somewhere.....well, UNSTICK IT!!
Hooray for John! You should bake him a cake or something for coming to the rescue once again. Those small leaks inside walls can really do some major damage over time!
ReplyDeleteEG, I made sure there were a few $$$ attached to one of his work tools when he went home ;-) And I'll be cooking him an Easter dinner. He's bringing the cake!
ReplyDeletegreat post
ReplyDeleteIn colour therapy, green is the colour of healing and growth. It’s calming and restful and brings balance to the soul......it’s also a lucky colour!
amadi_construction, I find it to be a calming color. It's the same pale sage green as my bedroom in our Arizona home. That bedroom used to be a bright, sunny yellow. It was a shock to the system to awaken to so much sunshine! With the soft green, I awaken slowly and calmly.
ReplyDeleteGranny, how much for the boy?
ReplyDeleteI see you have finally had it and punched a hole in the wall, that's what I see! Heehee, seriously, your fresh new laundry rooms looks amazing! And I am so jealous of your window in there. Laundry is fun again!
ReplyDeleteAwesome, the room looks brand new...nice color and new cupboards are look nice.
ReplyDeleteI need to get myself a son like that. Shhh! Don't tell my current son I'm looking for another.
ReplyDeleteWhat an organized laundry room! Glad to see it was all taken care of! It looks great! I've been following your blog for about a year and a half now, and there's always some level of anticipation when things shut down for a few days :) Glad it worked out!
ReplyDeleteTIG, you should have asked that question years and years ago, when the boy was a teenager. He'd have gone quite cheap then ;-)
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Erin, no....when I get at my rope's end, I just punch a hole in Mr. H.
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Daphne, I'm going to pour myself a cup of coffee, then sit back and watch you and The Idiot Gardener fight over him.
Hey, I won't tell your son. I used to tell my two oldest boys "Don't you EVER tell your brother, but you're my favorite son". Yeah, I'm a sneaky old broad :-D
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Thank you, Sarada. I'm always happy to get some new storage. I only have two boxes of home canned food, from last year's garden, under the bed now!
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Thank you, Megan, and thank you for the comment! It's always nice to "meet" people who read my blog.
Yeah John! He's a keeper!!! ;) Storage cupbards looks great and your paint job is very nice. And in the midst of it all you get to play with toilet paper! Love it! Great job well done Granny!
ReplyDeleteUnstick they should AG! Lol.
ReplyDeleteThe repaired, repainted laundry room looks great. Lovin' the TP seed strips by the way. :)
Kiwi Gomez, John is definitely a keeper. I knew he'd be a handy man to have around when he was a kid. One day he turned our (nearly new) riding lawnmower into a go-cart. We weren't too happy with his work back then ;-)
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Kelly, I've already planted radishes and lettuce on toilet paper strips. I love the ease of seeding in the warm kitchen, rather than the cold rain, and the nice straight rows (or squares)...and no thinning!
The irrigation district charges us about $5 a week, right on our property tax bill. We have no option, we have to pay whether we use it or not. They give no refunds for the weeks they don't have it available for us to use. Last year we had it shut off for over a week, in the middle of the hot summer, before they discovered someone forgot to turn on a valve :-(
Fantastic to have such a handy son around. More reason for you to sell that Arizona house.
ReplyDeleteRibbit, no bites on the AZ house yet. I hate that we're probably going to have to drop the price on it, after all the work I did to fix it up :-(
ReplyDeleteAG...good thing you caught that leak...can John come to my house? I have an entire bottom floor that needs to be sheetrocked : )
ReplyDeleteSunny, you sheetrock your floors? That's just weird!
ReplyDelete;-) LOL
Hey Granny! I just love Sage colors! I have a lot of it in my house, though a tad darker than yours!
ReplyDeleteWe are gonna have to make a big hole in our laundry room wall too! We always wondered why they had TWO dryer vents in the laundry room and we found out when we started redoing our laundry room...we were sending all the dryer lint right into the walls! The pipe in the wall was that flimsy plastic stuff and melted against the hot water pipe! Grr. The other vent goes to the garage and that just isn't gonna work! Way too much lint and humidity in the garage! Fun stuff!
Your laundry room looks great! As always, you put me to shame!
ReplyDeleteI saw this today and thought of you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_2GjHet_9Y
I can just picture you with that pillow case! LOL!
Shawn Ann, we had a vent problem in the first house we ever owned. My clothes wouldn't get dry, and a horrid odor came out when I opened the door. Upon checking the vent, we found a robin had nested in the pipe, then another robin pushed that nest back and built her nest, and then another! There were three nests and a couple of dead birds in the pipe!
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LOL, Caffienated Mom! I must remember to take the radio out to the back yard, and play some funky music while I'm drying my lettuce!
I hope my boys are as helpful when they grow up as your John is. Good job raisin' him right! ;-)
ReplyDeleteYour new laundry is a very nice outcome to a stinky situation. We had leaking in our walls too from a cracked kitchen pipe. Who knows how long it was going on, but I didn't notice until the cabinet floor started growing mold and smelled. Now the landlady wants to redo the kitchen! Goodbye ugly tiled countertops! Hello new free kitchen hehe.
Momma_S, I'm thinking I might clone John and sell copies. I have a very helpful daughter, too. She doesn't do sheetrock ;-)
ReplyDeleteWhat a nice and roomy laundry room! I'm very envious. Our's is really only big enough for the washer and dryer, but I'm grateful for it.
ReplyDeleteHannah, if I get anything else in that room, I won't be able to turn around! It does look neat and roomy with no dirty clothes in sight. You should see the pile of them in my bedroom :-D
ReplyDeleteHeather has left a new comment on your post "March 29, 2010: Laundry Room Repairs":
ReplyDeleteI really have to try and make some TP seed mats. What a great idea.
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Heather, Blogger lost your comment, so I copied from my email.
I planted all of those TP seed mats today in a wind storm! Even with the wind, it was easier than planting seed by seed. My TP planted spinach and radishes are coming up nicely.
That is a great looking face lift and repair job to the laundry room. Like everyone else, I love the sage green color choice but even more so because of the crisp white shelving and appliances that contrast with it. Very chic. Even better - you have some terrific new closed door storage too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kitsap. The "fun" part is starting now...I'm painting all my dark wood doors white. I have two coats of primer on the laundry room door, it will get two coats of enamel next. Then I'll only have 5 more to do and I'll have all the hall doors done :-O
ReplyDeleteLooks good! Laundry rooms look so much better when everything is tucked nicely behind the wall.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Dan. I won't even put my dirty laundry back in there, it would just make the room look messy! Instead, I cleaned out the hall closet and redid some shelving to make room for the laundry basket, broom, mop and dustpan. It's still handy to the laundry room, but hidden behind a closed door!
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