Our condo has a small utility/laundry room located off the hall between the living and bedroom areas. That's where you'll find the furnace, water heater, washer, and dryer. It also also holds Jackson the cat's litter box, assorted laundry products, and the only place we can store the two half-full five gallon buckets of extra paint left by the previous owner. (As much as I would like them to go somewhere else, the basement storage area isn't heated and the paint would freeze.)
The room does what it needs to, but it won't win any awards for beauty or efficiency. The vinyl floor is dated, the edges are curling up around the washing machine pan, and the walls need a fresh coat of paint. When we moved in, to make room for the litter box we purchased a stackable washer and dryer. Unfortunately, the tall stack covered up a storage cubby, which meant I lost my place to put laundry supplies. To solve the problem I bought a plywood board and used the paint buckets as a base for a shelf.
Eventually the room will get an upgrade, but I don't know when that will happen. In the short term, I decided to install a small shelving system. The first step in the project was to paint, but I was a little concerned about getting the job done well. It would require a lot of detail work to work around all the items, pipes, and hoses. I'm a okay painter, but detail work isn't my strong suit.
I ended up wrapping newspaper around everything that was close to the wall or
could possibly catch a drip of paint or have a roller pushed up against it. That included the dryer hose and electrical cord
the back of the furnace, and the weird overflow tank for the hot water heater.
It took almost as much time to prep the room as it did to paint it, but the work was worth it. I did not have to clean up any messes. After the paint dried it was a simple matter to install the shelving uprights, snap in the brackets, and set the shelves on top of them. Now there's plenty of room for everything that needs to go in there.
Five years ago today: There's One In Every Crowd
Expansion tank, pressure reducing valve, and backflow preventer. My house was built in 52 and I don't have any of those. I probably should upgrade. I'll put that on my project list. It will be number 693.
ReplyDeleteI hope your not running the dryer with paper wrapped around the exhaust vent. I hope that's not a plastic exhaust vent.
You're just a font of information :-)
DeleteNo, the paper was temporary and came off immediately after the painting was done. (I was paranoid about causing issues.) The vent is silver, which I think means it's aluminum. Came new with the professionally-installed applicances.
Well done! professional work. Kudos to you!
ReplyDeleteThank you. I try.
DeleteI wish I could claim to be so careful when I paint. I've heard of the new on demand water heaters. Never seen one. But I hear they're huge space savers.
ReplyDeleteI hop our water heater lasts a long time, but I've thought about looking into alternatives when we have to replace it.
DeleteGood job. I think paint is flammable maybe not a good idea to store near the furnace?
ReplyDeleteLatex paint isn't a problem...but even so the cans are about five feet away.
DeleteOh good to know.
DeleteYou could teach a graduate course in downsizing.
ReplyDeleteThanks :-)
Deleteyour description of laundry is brief one indeed
ReplyDeletehow wise to warp everything with paper before start to paint ,no cleaning afterwards sigh