washers & dryers

The tale of the washer/dryer closet goes back to last spring and summer. When we first bought this condo it came with a stackable washer/dryer however we knew up front that it was broken. It was old and pre-historic and had crazy buttons all over it for mysterious washing settings I never even knew existed.

My brother graciously offered to help us fix it at the time so we wouldnt have to buy a new one - YAY! However, after he got it working and we began to use it regularly we discovered the dryer was staining our clothes - BOO! After a while of this we decided it was time to move on to a new washer/dryer that actually did what it was supposed to - clean clothes - rather than the opposite - dirty and ruin everything.

Once it came time to purchase the new washer/dryer we decided to completely fix up the W/D closet as well. After removing the old appliance we discovered that the sneaky tilers that had installed the tile floor must have completed the tile grouting AFTER the washer/dryer was installed - there was a large area under where the washer/dryer sat without grout at all - nice - very quality work.

Justin & his Dad took on the job of re-grouting and sealing all the tile, patching & sanding the drywall, fixing the dryer exhaust vents/outlets, installing new baseboard, installing beautiful new french doors, and painting the interior of the closet. Then we spent a significant amount of time shopping around for a new washer/dryer (that would fit such a tiny closet space). We finally landed on a Whirlpool Duet Stackable unit. The day they delivered/installed it, we were on pins & needles waiting to see if it would fit in the closet - it DID end up fitting (with about 1/2" to spare - yikes!) Anyway, the whole project probably took about 2-3 months. Justin was a champion and stuck it out without me - at the time I was crazy busy with work and had absolutely no focus for house projects. I'm so lucky to have him!

Here's some photos of the lovely closet transformation... it's so nice to have reliably clean clothes again!

smallest space, longest project.

We've gradually been working on our bedroom closet for about 4 months now. You wouldn't think such a small space would take so long to complete, but then again, pretty much everything we've done has taken about 3 times longer than we've initially thought. Nevertheless, we have a real closet now and it's SO nice!

The original closet was a bit torn up from some brackets that the previous owner had installed incorrectly, so we did a lot of skimcoating to fill in the holes and uneven walls then we planned a new system for hanging shelves with rods. We selected solid wood double doors instead of the hollow bi-folds that were there previously. Once we were able to install the doors we could complete the new casing around the doors and finish repainting the interior, adding the wood shelves, rods and baseboards. We still have to add the crown trim to the top of the door frame but we'll be doing all of the doors at the same time (once we pick out the crown we want to use).

Today we installed the doorknob hardware so it's finally feeling complete! Here's a few photos:

We also finished installing the light for our guest room. Another task completed! Woohoo!

It's been a busy couple weeks in the Weidl household. We've been hard at work to stick to our holiday deadline and complete our front two rooms, and we're getting closer! Even though Halloween weekend was a whirlwind of hanging out with friends, costumes, handing out candy in the suburbs, and our usual errands, we managed to finish paiting the living room as well! Here's some progress shots from Halloween weekend and this past weekend.

Justin, rolling out the walls...

The lighter color makes sure a difference in the space! I love how bright it makes it feel... and the sunshine through the windows in the morning is the best! Can't wait to get the fireplace going now as well... (hopefully re-tiling soon!)

Our Christmas tree window! Can't wait to break out the holiday decor! =)

Working on painting the french doors for our closet... still 1 more coat to go and then these will be ready to be put up for good!

We've been procrastinating the woodwork for the tops of our doors for a LONG time. We knew we wanted to match this detail (above) that is the original detail from the 1890's above our front door. We have similiar details above our windows too, however they are all painted white (this is why we chose to go with all white woodwork). The detail includes 3 seperate pieces - the bottom routed piece, the middle rectangular piece and the top crown piece. After months of trying to figure out the bottom piece detail, one of Justin's Dad's friends lent us a router so we could simply route our a square piece of wood to get a nice curved inset edge... it came out really nice! Now we just need to put up the middle and top pieces, caulk them all and then paint them all! Whew!! This project will be ongoing, as you can see...

Here's what the bottom routed piece looks like installed. Now we just need to finish it out!

Last but not least, we got our first ceiling medallion up! This is in our master bedroom. The job is not nearly as easy as I had originally thought it would be. This too will be a multi-step project (still not yet completed). We got the medallion up and secured, but we had to spackle all the screw holes and allow that to dry. Next steps will be sanding and painting the medallion and then installing the fixture for good! Can't wait!