Our 3-day Laundry Room Reno, Day 1

And so it begins. The 12-year-old LG front-loading washer sang its swan song this week, triggering a series of events that will culminate in a stacked washer/dryer. The goal is increased accessibility to the appliances and a little vintage storage in this tiny laundry room. Here are the gory "before" photos of the hot mess....because we believe in keeping it real. 

It's hard to imagine how ridiculously small this laundry room is. And even worse, it's in a 3000+ SF home built only a few years ago. A pox on the builder who scrimped on this space, and shame on the homebuyer who approved it. Here's an etch-a-sketch topdown view. 

Laundry room renovation topdown view of the "before" layout

With a mere 56" of depth, a 29" deep washer and dryer left barely 2 feet of walking space in front of the pair. The width isn't much better - standard washers and dryers are 27" wide each, leaving a mere 20" for the door to swing closed. So it didn't. - it remained open 99% of the time.

Morale of this story? If you're building or renovating a home, don't "short sheet" your laundry space. Along with the kitchen and bathroom, it's one of the hardest-working and most-used rooms in the house. Bumping out this space an extra foot booth ways would have resulted in a much more useful and flexible room. 

Since knocking out load-bearing walls isn't in our weekend plans, we're going to work within the footprint of the room. Stay tuned...the next phase will be easier on the eyes.

​We're glad you're following our journey - feel free to drop us a comment below!

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