Laundry Room, pt 1 - Done!

On Friday evening, Ken, Jeremy, and I assembled the cabinets for the laundry room and moved them into place. We leveled them and screw them to each other, then moved on to attaching them to the wall.

Oops. They came with this rather wimpy plastic bracket which was supposed to be attached with a screw to the top of the cabinet and then to the stud in the wall. Since we were putting a countertop on the cabinets, that wouldn't work. But.... the drawers in the cabinets left enough room that we could screw a bracket up into the cabinet top from underneath and into the wall.

Except... the back of these cabinets are pretty much just cardboard with a white laminate over them. None too sturdy. That's fine -- since they are going up against a wall anyway. But when Ken screwed through the back of cabinet to the stud, instead of tightening up the cabinet to the wall, it just pulled the backing loose.

His other concern was that the screw going up into the cabinet top was going to pop through and show. I pointed out that we were putting a top on anyway -- so it wouldn't show. In fact, a slightly longer screw might be good. Help the glue hold the top in place.

So we glued the countertop in place and clamped it. Then we retreated to bed for a good night's sleep and thoughts about the attach-to-the-wall quandary.

The next morning while I was attending to important stuff screwing around on the computer playing my favorite RTS game (Illyriad -- great stuff!) I heard Ken downstairs in the laundry room, wielding his drill. When I got down there to supervise help, I found that he had used some steel L brackets to attach things. Those cabinets weren't going anywhere!

He'd also put up the shelf standards, so I could put up the shelves. With a little caulk around the countertop and wall, the first part of the laundry room project was done!

Cabinets where The Beast used to be. 

Right side of cabinets with shelves above

Left side of cabinets with shelves above. 

Yes, there is a gap between the left side and the wall. It's about 8" wide and is intentional. First, we'd have had to use different cabinets to fill the space completely. Second, the baseboard heater goes back too far and we'd have had to work around it. I didn't want a 2" gap for the heater -- and to collect stuff that fell off the counter. Third, the larger gap is useful for storing folding tables and chairs, the leaves for our dining room table, or other tall stuff.

I wish these were better pictures, but the laundry room is rather limiting when it comes to allowing me to back up and get a wider view. Imagine me squished in against the wall by the washer trying to line up the picture without looking through the viewfinder. Ha! you should have seen some of the cock-eyed shots I got! 

Since taking the pictures I've filled up the shelves with stuff from the kitchen that needed a new home -- like the triple crock pot that we only use for parties. It takes up a ton of space and the top shelf here is a great place for something we don't use often. I also took all the rags (old towels and washcloths, mostly) off the other shelves and put them away in the drawers. I still have one drawer that is mostly empty and I think that will be the home for my tablecloths. 

Every time I went in there this weekend, I was happy. I even folded laundry as soon as it came out of the dryer because I was so delighted with having a nice clean countertop for doing so. Yes, it's the little things in life that make me smile. 

Next up on the project list for me is to finish the painting and decorating of the stud (cat) quarters. But I'm going to Colorado the end of the week for my niece's wedding. House projects on hold until after that.