Drop your drawers here…

:-)  That saying still makes me giggle. One day, I’m going to pretend I am ferociously brave and get that vinyl wall piece that says that…

Previously at the Neal house…

The view from my kitchen… OBVIOUSLY not a pretty sight…

 

Ugh… I can’t even believe I took this picture, much less that I’m putting it out there for all the world to see.  But there it is… in all it’s tutu’d glory.

Clearly, this is the “after” shot…

as viewed from the kitchen

Hooks for my purse and keys…

the laundry room connects our kitchen to our garage

 

 

Ahhhh… No more tutus. 

I replaced them with a drying rack from Ballard Designs, a bin to catch mail, and lots of extra cabinet space and drawers .  This remodel nearly doubled my kitchen cabinet space.  (which just goes to show you how small my kitchen is…)

And yes… I actually use it… See those towels?  They are hiding my Hubby’s tighty-whitey underpants.  Aren’t you glad I don’t love you enough to show you THAT? ;-)

view from the garage

I cannot TELL you how much better this room makes our house function… which helps with my “loving the one you’re with” philosophy regarding staying in this house.  And really, it makes laundry much easier to do… no a JOY to do, but EASIER.  The new Samsung washer and dryer set helps as well… We went from nearly 10-12 loads of clothes a week, to 4-5 loads.  Which is SHOCKING for me, because we had very large capacity machines before… I still am amazed by how these guys save me so much time (and water & $$$).

The cabinets were the closest match that Lowe’s had to our kitchen cabinets.  The view from the kitchen really is great to see, which makes me so happy that we didn’t go with white laundry room cabinets.  The granite also matches the countertops already in our kitchen.  I took the door between the two rooms down, so it’s become more of a pass-through from the garage (not that we can park in there yet…)

We also improved the lighting greatly by taking down a single light bulb, ceiling hugging fixture and installed a craftsman style track system (also from Lowe’s.)  I really used to hate these style of light fixtures, but now that they are easily available  in a variety of styles, I LOVE them.  We chose a 4 bulb style that allows us to aim the light in the direction that it’s most needed.  And in a room like this with no windows, it has made a wonderful difference in this room.

Not including the washer/dryer set, this remodel took around a month and a half & came in around $5,000. And was well worth every single penny and the time it took to get it done.

So that’s been my project of the summer.  Along with driving the girls to and from camps, ballet classes, and play dates.  I can’t believe that we’re already into August!

Next project: The girls’ bathroom… of which I’ve sledge hammered up most of the ugly beige ceramic tile already :-) My husband loves me… He really really loves me. Either that, or he’s very very scared of me ;-)