Laundry Closet Renovation
I knew my current place was the one I wanted to buy as soon as I walked in. I loved the tree shaded street it was on, the enclosed kitchen, the wood burning fireplace, the garden common area out front, and I especially loved the unnecessary amount of space that a single person living in a 2-bed, 2-bath place would have. However, I walked into the second bedroom and opened up the sliding doors to the closet… and was met with a sight of the the HVAC. Confused, I went back out into the hallway and opened the bi-fold doors to the laundry closet, and behind the laundry machines, I was looking at the other end of the HVAC and also the water heater. This laundry closet/ utility closet/ guest room closet combo was a complete mess, but I liked everything else about the place enough to put an offer on it by the end of the showing. (My entire house finding and buying process was a mess - being homeless during the first month of residency until I closed was not something I ever want to live through again. Forever thankful for the generosity of my friend’s parents who graciously took me in and housed and fed me during that time.)
Anyways, I closed and moved in, and quickly made the place my own. The laundry closet remained an eyesore. The previous owners ended up leaving me the laundry machines, which were some olllldddd beat up Kenmore machines that I wanted to change out ASAP, but life got the better of me and nothing happened for two and half years. The washing machine was adequate, but I would have to cycle my clothes through the dryer at least 2-3 times before they would be minimally damp. I knew I needed to fix it, but there never seemed to be a good time to start the project.
That is until just about four weeks ago when our whole department caught COVID (thankfully, we all only had mild symptoms and have recovered well since). I was in bed and knocked out the first half of my quarantine, but managed to spend the second half cleaning lots, studying some, reading new library books (if you haven’t yet read “Empire of Pain”, highly recommend), actually taking time with my prayers and reading Quran, catching up on some shows (started “The Wire” - amazing), eating healthy (since I lost my sense of smell and taste and what better time to start anyways), and all around feeling human (albeit a sick one). In the last two of days of my quarantine period, I figured it’d be a great time to start the project I had been putting off for ages - the laundry closet. I did allll of the laundry I possibly could and went for it. Once I started hauling the dryer out of place, and I saw the ducting was actually never hooked up, I knew there was no going back. In my COVID physically exhausted state, I somehow managed to lug the machines out of the closet and down the hall with some old towels and lots of sliding. Cleaning out the now empty utility closet was only mildly terrifying - removing the ducting, upending the vinyl tiles, finding a hole in the concrete and figuring out that was my floor drain, unearthing a strange machine next to my HVAC and subsequently learning what a condensate pump was, etc… Buying drywall and joint compound at The Home Depot took several trips and many inquisitive looks from employees, and the process of actually removing and electrical panel and patching up the holes - it was a journey of discovery, to say the least.
In true DIY renovation fashion, I had mapped out plenty of ideas of what I wanted this closet to look like - I wanted a stacked washer/dryer in front of the water heater/HVAC situation, and then the wall next to the electrical panel to be used for shelving to better utilize the space. After extensive research into laundry machines, I decided I would go with the Samsung stacked units - the cost seemed reasonable, and overall the reviews seemed great. The best laid plans go awry, as they so often do, by targeted social media ads - my extensive appliance researching triggered ads for the STL appliance outlet, which I went to go check out on a post call day. I spent three hours overwhelmed by all the options, and ended up being very taken by the LG stacked washer dryer tower unit. It was aesthetically pleasing, the dimensions were perfect for my closet, AND most importantly - the control panel for the washer and dryer were in the middle, meaning my short self would not have to get the stepstool out to turn on the dryer…
Unfortunately, the unit was decidedly out of the price range I had set for myself, so the initial trip to the appliance outlet was unfruitful. Over the course of the next week, I bought the new flooring and wallpaper I wanted for the space. These were purchased after much dissent from friends and family, who all mocked my excessively busy and pink choices. Naturally, I went for them anyways — I knew my vision and I was sticking with it. You bet I watched that shipping notification until it was delivered to my doorstep, and raced home post call to excitedly put them in, sleep be darned.
On one of my occasional post call Menards trips (don’t question it, I find it highly therapeutic), I found this GORGEOUS light fixture that I didn’t even I needed until I saw it. The extent of my electrical knowledge pretty much includes switching out a light fixture, but I’m pretty proud of that (also, switching out a ceiling fixture on your own is definitely more technically more challenging than I expected it to be).
At this point, my plans for a budget were pretty much shot, so I ended up deciding that the LG unit was the way to go. As I waited for the delivery day, I turned my attention to figuring out what I wanted to do with the shelving. The electrical panel on the left hand side was proving difficult, as the shelving couldn’t come out too far lest it be blocked, and the outlets on the wall had to be accounted for as well. Also, I wanted to incorporate a drying rack or hanger rod somewhere in the space, which went through many theoretical variations (and many IKEA trips), before I found the following 4-cube EKET cabinet.
Honestly, this is the part of my closet I’m most proud of - I built and mounted the shelf (and as you can see, cut the backing in half so the wallpaper would show through the bottom). I also had to cut out a small portion of the side to allow the wires that would plug into the outlets to pass through. I was originally going to install a hanger rod on the bottom of the shelving, but that was going to be too low to actually dry anything, especially if I wanted to keep my hamper under that area. After extensive IKEA perusing, I found this KOMPLEMENT pants hanger rack - it’s meant to be built into a custom laundry organization situation, but was the exact dimensions of my shelf. I was able to hack the included side mount rails to become bottom mount rails, and have the rack slide off the top of my shelf unit for allll my hanging needs. To finish off the look, I put the hamper from my room (with an ironing board and three compartments) which fit perfectly in the space. I took this hamper from home years ago, but here’s a link for a similar one.
Though my laundry unit ended up being delivered okay, I quickly realized I had run into a problem - the dryer ducting didn’t fit from behind, so I eventually had to figure out a riser situation that would allow the ducting to come from below. I had to corale the third party delivery service to come back and lift the machine so the riser could go under, which was a whole adventure in and of itself. The mobile base I got from Amazon seems to be working for now, but we’ll see how it holds up in the long term. You may notice from the photos that I had to remove the bifold doors that were originally on the closet - while I say it’s because I didn’t want all of my hard work hidden, it’s really because the laundry until doors open from the left, and with the bifold doors open, there wasn’t enough space open the doors…. so much for my incessant pre-project measuring.
In the end, it took four weeks, a whole lot more money than I anticipated, many post call days without sleeping, and just about running out of all my laundry to complete this project - but I LOVE IT. The inaugural load was all of my scrubs that had built up over the past few weeks and honestly I’ve never been more excited to do laundry.
