The laundry makeover. Simple before and after photos.

We have been in our house for over four years. We love the area we live in, but usually buying into this area means buying an already-renovated (with the taste of someone else and a hefty price tag) house or a fixer-upper as it is an older, established area. We chose the fixer-upper.

The house is huge compared to our tiny last house, which is a blessing, but we have found it to be quite the challenge. Everything that needs to be done is big, so usually expensive and often prohibitive due to the amount of time necessary for each project. We have slowly done bits and pieces, but it will be a long time until we are truly done, if ever!

The laundry has always bugged me. Always. Yes it was a disaster to look at, but it was the lack of functionality that was really annoying. I especially disliked the fact that it never felt clean no matter what I did. I once spent two full days wrangling the poorly laid tiles from the floor, hoping to get rid of some of the smell and help it to feel clean. It helped a little. It also created problems in that I then had to carefully replace some of the shower tiles I damaged, which I did last year. It took a lot of time to do this job because I had never tiled before and it was a steep learning curve. I now know that I didn't have the right tools and am quite frankly surprised that it worked out at all.

Coming into the school holidays Craig was forced to take extra time off work. The thought of getting to spend so much time together as a family was exciting and we sat down together to write down a few things that we absolutely wanted to do. Five kids can be very distracting so we wanted to be clear about things we didn't want to miss. Most of the fun activities like swimming, the beach etc we had no problem fitting in, but eventually we came to the conclusion that we really should get some jobs around the house done too. During the year Craig's shift work and the kids' after school activities make it hard to get big projects accomplished.

After preparing, painting and putting new fittings into the bathroom and separate toilet in two days (even with pool breaks!) we were energised and enthusiastic. So we decided to take on the laundry. Let's just say we underestimated just how much work would be involved. It took 8 days, although we both weren't working all the time, and Craig was building the side ramp and took down two big palms and a retaining wall during this time too. There are a couple of things that still need to be done, but I'm over waiting, so I am writing this before they are finished. A light switch needs to be changed and our taps kept having issues, which we now know is due to the different style of washers. We will get our awesome plummer-friend to redo the 'seating' of the tap soonish.

The mud room was only rendered and painted last year. The year before we converted it from an unused walkway to a room with entrances to the house, laundry and back yard at one end. It took forever! And by the way, render can really mess with a person's hands and is a bit harder to do than it looks. As a payoff for this extensive preparation prior, we only has to sand and paint this room.

The colours were taken from the curtains I made last year. I happen to love the TV show 'Sarah's House' and she frequently uses soft furnishings for her jumping off point in every room. I tend to do this too now. I will post a blog with all the photos of the gradual transformation and details later, just in case anyone wants specifics, but for now here are the simple before and after photos.

Before:

Mud room - 2013 (picture of a picture), January 2014, January 2015 (empty room)

Laundry - Curtains 2014, Other photos January 2015

After:

Mud room - As it is now, then slightly tidied up pics. There are many items in the trays right now as we are placing back-to-school things in them as we buy. This area hasn't had any organisation yet and we have hooks still to put on the walls.

Laundry - As it is used now. No cleaning or staging, because it didn't feel honest! Light switch and door still needs to be dealt with, along with the 'seating' of the taps. The washing machine will then be connected to the sink taps. You will notice the taps are not centred like the tub and backsplash. That is because they are on an asbestos wall, which we refuse to do anything other than paint it!

Lights and darks Ikea washing trolleys. Three tall airers behind the door. Three washing baskets are missing because they are out at the clothes line. All things necessary for a large family!

We love it!

Jen.x