Laundry Room

We just went from one giant construction project to the next here without really taking a minute to breathe. From the screen porch to starting the laundry room, we really are starting to make this house our home. It’s amazing to see the imprint previous owners have made on this house and how we are molding it to fit our desires. The house never had a laundry room; which is hard to believe this day and age, but I guess in the 1960’s it wasn’t a desirable room to have like it is now.  

We have a double car garage and two closets off the garage. Both of them are a good size and share the same wall as the screen porch. The closet nearest shares a wall with the kitchen and is where the washer and dryer are. The door from the garage goes into the kitchen and this entrance is used more than the front door. Also that door into the kitchen is right in the middle of the wall, so there’s no space for a kitchen table; making one whole corner of the kitchen completely wasted space. We use to have a chair in that corner. The most exciting and best solution for having a laundry/mudroom in the house and making the kitchen space more usable was to open up the closet to the kitchen and finish it out. Here are some pictures of what the kitchen and closet off the garage looked like before: 

kitchen wall with garage door entrance

where the laundry room door will be (new entrance)

Washer on one side of garage closet

A HUGE side project, moving the electrical panel. It was conveniently placed right where we needed to put the door. So we got a larger panel and moved it to the garage. Larger panel=hot tub being able to be hooked up! yeahhhhh!!! one project leads to another, leads to another...leads to anoth..er...

Dryer on the other side of garage closet

The window in the closet looks out over the screen porch, so we took that window out and put a door there. Now we will have access to the porch without having to go outside.

window out onto porch

framing it for the door!

framing the floor!

Time for demolition, after the electrical panel was moved, floor put in and exterior doors to garage and screen porch were installed. So fun!

Just a lil scary knocking a hole in your house!

He did so good!

All framed out and it's night time now...big day

bye bye old entrance!

You can also see in the above picture the door going out onto the screen porch. We sheet rocked where the old door out to the garage use to be. Put in insulation in the laundry room and kitchen, and the washer and dryer are on the same side now. 

 

Another laundry room update soon to come as hubby is already making more progress as we speak! 

Porch Bed

We built a hanging porch bed for the screen porch and love it! Here’s the design we came up with:

We kept the left side open and put a lower ledge on it, flush with the frame, so that you have space to completely stretch out or place a lovely beverage while lounging. It also makes it look less like a day bed and more like a giant chaise lounge.

Lumber and Supplies List:

3 turned posts

12 spindles

1 sheet of 3/8” plywood

2 of 6’x2”x4”s-span the middle

3 of 6’x1”x4”- support the sides and ends of the plywood
5/4"x6"-leftover decking boards

4x4 -for front left support (instead lieu of turned post)

4x4’s to hang from ceiling

3/4inch manila rope

Most of the lumber we had left over from building the screen porch, we had to buy the turned posts, spindles and sheet of plywood. First Ryan built the frame with left over 5/4" x 6" deck boards, with 2x4's in between and 1x4's on the sides to support the plywood.

On the front left, since it’s going to be open without a post, we used a 4x4 for support. Then we took the 3 turned posts and cut the ball top off each of them and cut the bottoms of them at a 45 degree angle on all four sides.  

This gave the posts a little more shape and makes them look more finished instead of just bluntly cutting them off straight. Then he mounted the 3 posts in each corner except for the front left. Then take the 5/4"x6" decking boards and cut them to length to sit on top of the posts. Making a back/arm rest. We also cut another 5/4"x6" decking board to place at the open end for that lovely beverage holder. 

attaching the posts

5/4"x6" decking boards

 Take the spindles and evenly space them out along the back and right side of the bed.

Cut the 3/8” plywood to fit the frame. 

Drill holes in all four corners of the 5/4"x6"decking boards large enough for ¾ inch rope to go through. Then drill holes horizontally in all 4 posts. The rope will go through the 5/4"x6" decking boards and down through the post for secured support. 

We already had a twin foam mattress and to protect it I bought a plastic zip mattress cover from Bed, Bath and Beyond. 

Now on to the fun part! In order to hang the bed from our ceiling, since it’s recessed in the rafters, we used two 4x4’s to go in between the rafter beams and secured those with really long screws, like 8” long, from the other side of the beam all the way through the 4x4.This thing isn’t going anywhere and my engineer assured me it could hold close to a ton. Then loop the rope over the 4x4 in the ceiling and tie a knot, then thread it down through the drilled holes and tie a knot at the bottom, do this on all four sides… and here it is hanging! 

Of course, decorate with a fitted sheet and pretty pillows! We LOVE it and it’s the perfect place for an afternoon nap!  

Stone Steps

We never thought we would say this….all the stonework is done!!! It’s such a huge chunk of the project finished, fin, complete! The steps in the last post that were halfway done were the last bit of it and they are finished. We made them a little deeper and shorter so they aren’t as steep to go down. And the porch door now has a nice landing!

Our next step is to finish the ceiling…screen and doors..and we are, dare I say? Done! well not done, done…nothing is ever done here..we ARE an ongoing project, :) but that’s the way we like it.

I have been stocking (junking) up my laundry room of thrift store finds to re-do for the porch. You'll probably see a post about those soooooon.

What projects are you working on? Need advice on a DIY? Feel free to comment and I'll get back with you!

Screen Porch Update

Cable railings-We didn’t want to do wood railings/spindles because it would block our view…we got a little creative (surprise surprise) and decided to do cable railings. (We ran it by the inspector and he liked the unique idea and passed it!) Boy, were we relieved!  We have two cables running between each support beam (one at one foot and one at 3 feet) and Ryan tied them off with turnbuckles. The turnbuckles match the ones that are across the ceiling for the cross-ties. It looks really neat and we didn’t lose any of our view. The cables blend in with the background and you hardly notice them!

 2 screen doors- we bought two screen doors at home depot and are so excited about them! One of them we got for 50% off because the screen was damaged..which was fine by us- that’s an easy fix! ;)

Beaded Board- Ryan bought beaded board for the ceiling. We put it up against the plywood so that the ceiling looks recessed and the beams are still exposed. 

Ceiling color- We picked out a color to paint the ceiling-sherwin Williams Sky High (a really light blue).You can see the quarter round is already painted...we need it to warm up to paint the ceiling!

Chose a fan- we found an awesome fan that has a pretty large diameter so we only need one fan out there. 

 Outdoor Speakers- Thanks to Aunt Lynda and Aunt Laurie we have outdoor speakers, and they are great!!! We put two on the porch and two on the patio ceiling.

 

Railing- At first we thought we wanted a wrought iron railing for the stairs and we found one on craigslist. But it didn't work out so well. Ryan ended up building a railing and it looks fantastic. He built them out of metal pipes, cut and welded them together and then spray painted it a flat black. They match perfectly with the style of the rest of the porch. 

Stone work- We had to build stone steps on both sides of the porch and a landing on one side. Ryan has become very talented with stone-masonry and has recently taught me. It's actually pretty fun!

Getting ready to pour the slab

Installed the handrail

a craftsman

Steps and slab done!

He did such a good job!!

On the patio side of the porch we had to bring the landing out a little further or else you would step off the porch onto a step.

Starting the stonework-no more gap going stepping onto the porch!

 Ryan set the stones along the front to make sure they are level (the engineer) and I filled in the rest (the artist). I definitely have much more of an appreciation for stonework.

The two steps I did-not too shabby for my first go!

Steps are almost done!

So the screen porch is getting there! I am already working on decorations. Haha I just can’t help it, we are SO excited to use it in the spring and can’t wait for y’all to hang out on it with us too!

Screen Porch Progress

A week has gone by and Ryan has made so much progress on the screen porch.

Ryan MADE these steel turnbuckle supports himself! I'm so proud of him.

installing the first rod and turnbuckle set-1 of 3

They look awesome!

more demolition-removing the soffit to make room for the porch door

notice the white column to the right of Ryan...

That was fun!

woah! There's no column anymore! It took me a while to realize this haha

the new door frame

where the column use to be

Ready for a screen door

and our lucky horseshoe is up!

Did I mention he finished the roof decking this weekend too?

The new roof tied in above the old garage roof.

ceiling and turnbuckles!

Pretty soon we'll be sitting out here.

We are having a new roof put on our house this week...then comes the railings/screen/trim/doors/fan. so close!