The Good, The Bad, And the Ugly

Not a whole lot in this post will be considered "eye candy", but before there can be beauty, there must be horrible, disgusting grossness to inspire us to blow torch the ugly and create the beauty.

And this is definitely grossness.

In our basement, we have a laundry room/bathroom that we have lovingly dubbed "the truck stop bathroom". Throughout the years, I have hated even entering that room, let alone using it. The only time we have ever used the bathroom part of it is when we have been working on our main bathroom. Well, the boys DO use the toilet when they're playing down there (and of course, forget to flush it, so I discover it months later, which only adds to the complete disgustingness of the room.)

This could be one of the reasons I have forever been behind on laundry.

Well, our ancient washer died (may it rest in peace), which forced us to consider a redo. A complete redo. Flooring, paint, storage, sink.

First the bad--this is the room before we touched it, other than to clear it out:

Guh-ross. Mold, mildew, and evil spirits reside here.

Seth tore out the floor and then basically doused the entire room in bleach. Firefighting breathing masks came in handy here.

This is how Seth looks when he's in "Seth-Smash" mode.

So, it was no longer bad, but it's still ugly:

No more mold or evil spirits. But it still has a long way to go.


And then, we let the first taste of good in:

I love these machines. So very thankful for them. We were already researching online the new model of this washer, and it got really good reviews. I happened to see both the washer and dryer listed on craigslist--only a year old, for less than the price of the new washer. Turns out, this couple was moving overseas and the appliances were in mint condition. We snatched them up. They have been a HUGE blessing and the nicest appliances I have ever owned. I like doing laundry now. I never thought I would utter those words.

I can only imagine how much I'll like it once the room gets gussied up. I'm thinking something like this for the floors--I love how it looks like wood but the vinyl is perfect for a moist basement. Everyone we talk to recommends them. And I need to pick a paint color. Stay tuned.