Stop One: The Laundry Room

Today we have been in our house for four months exactly!! Some days it seems like we've always been here and others it seems like we signed our lives (and paychecks) away just yesterday. In true Seattle fashion, we signed all of our mortgage papers with Shaky hands at a Starbucks on fourth avenue. Ahh, such an exciting day.

We've definitely had our tastes of the joys of home-ownership including cold water, no heat, rodents, pop-corn ceilings and even old-faithful in our garage. More to come on these adventures. In the meantime, lets kick off a mini, in-progress tour in the laundry room.
Our laundry room is between our kitchen and our garage, so it gets a lot of traffic. When we moved in the washer and dryer were side by side.

In order to accommodate a Kitty-litter box, I started researching stacking kits. I searched the Internet, but could not find anything for our Kenmore model. Finally, I pulled out all the old manuals out that the owner left to see if there was any information included there on where we could order the hardware. Voiiii-laa! Included in the Manila envelope he left, were the stacking instructions and kit!

That night Greg and I flipped the dryer over, put on the vibrations strips and screwed those babies together. Since then, Zippy and Shishy have been right at home in their private facilities. Yes, I am a cat lady.

Originally there was a door to the kitchen. We realized very quickly that two doors and two laundry doors in such a tiny space wasn't working for us. Add onto that a cat that likes to open and close doors, and the door to the kitchen was a thing of the past.

We use the cabinet next to the washer and dryer for storage. Our house is a small one, so we have to maximize every inch of storage space. These are the original cabinets to the house (1970's) and are pretty small. But the laundry room (or doing laundry for that matter) is definitely not on top of my to-do list, a coat of white paint and they'll do for right now.

Currently we are using an ikea table that I bought as a desk in college as our counter. It serves it's purpose. Nothing fancy, but cheap. I love me a bargain. Usually the kitty facilities are hidden behind a cute DIY curtain and a spring-loaded curtain rod. But, Greg stepped on it last week and bent the rod in half. No privacy for the kitties this week.

Fulfilling his manly duties, Greg whipped out his stud finder when I decided we need a coat rack in here as well. Watching him locate the studs and hang the rack was like a light bulb going off. So that's how adults hang things so that they stay. I've had many picture-hanging adventures that involve powdered dry wall and falling screws. Anyhow, we use the coat racks all the time. Greg's coats, my bags, grocery bags. I'm by no means a clean-person, so I try with all my might to hang my junk here to keep it from cluttering up our living areas. 

 As for whats in the cabinet up above, a little bit of everything. Its primary purpose is storing laundry and cleaning supplies. But it also doubles as storage for mail and coupons in a file folder, as well as artwork made my nieces and nephews, and other household goodies.

Of course, I couldn't take pictures of a door without Zip getting excited and giving it a try for old time sake. Gotta love that crazy kitty.