I knew that when I bought my 1940s house 4 years ago that I’d have some work that would need to be done over the years as things began to wear out and need updating.  But the great thing was that the previous owners had already done a lot of it so it would be quite a while before there was much I’d need to do!  Don’t know if y’all know this or not, but way-back-when it was pretty common for the washing machine and dryer to live in the kitchen and while this might sound odd, my great-granddad’s house was set up that way so I’ve never thought it was too odd.  But, when the previous owners put the house on the market, they built a small room just off the kitchen to house the water heater and the washer and dryer!  Brilliant!

Except that it actually wasn’t built very well… so when I put my heavy front loading machines out there, the floor slowly started to give way.  It was to the point where each time the washer would hit the spin cycle, I was SURE the whole thing was going to fall through the floor!  And then, when I helped the repair guy move the unit into the kitchen and saw just how bad the floor was, I couldn’t believe it!  But now… it’s reinforced properly and while I might be a tad anxious for the next load of laundry, I’m pretty confident that it will be able to hold the weight now!

I took a picture of the outside because you can see the top of the door is slightly off frame and at the bottom of the door, the frame is rotting.  ROTTING.

Don’t worry, I didn’t actually climb under there, just held my camera to get a shot… and you can see at the far end how the floor is caving in.

And here, you can see behind the washer how it was starting to fall through!

This is just to show you both sides of my little laundry room.  Nothing fancy at all, but it works!

Oh my heavens… The one joist that was in place was about all that was holding everything up!

The “Monica” in me so badly wanted to get down there and clean all of those leaves out!

A new floor!!

And then there was that time that I set up my video light so I could see enough to paint the new floor at 10:30pm…

Ta-Da!

I know having some the washer and dryer in the middle of the kitchen and the hot water off for a day isn’t horrible, but I couldn’t help thinking about people who live in their house while MAJOR renovations are going on!  It’s an inconvenience for sure, but with everything else going on in the country right now, my perspective definitely stayed in check. It was only for a day and a half and wasn’t that big of a deal!

And take a look at that door frame!  The door sits how it’s supposed to and the frame isn’t rotted!
Please forgive all the saw dust… my broom lost its life during all of this and I haven’t gotten a new one yet :-)