Tour: Upstairs Laundry Room

As part of our universal design plans, we put it in a full laundry room upstairs, and have a small laundry closet on the first floor off the mudroom. Last night I enlisted Niels help to put up a few more items in our upstairs laundry room. It's not completely finished. I have an idea for the long as-of-yet-blank wall, but it's far enough along that I'm ready to give a tour.

Welcome to our upstairs laundry. 

First, the basics:

Cabinets: Tolani in natural maple from the Merrilat Classic line 

Countertop: Citadel Warp (5882) Formica laminate

Dryer: Maytag MEDE301YW

Floor: Armstrong's Natural Creations Arbor Art Strip Bamboo in Caramel

Fold Out Ironing Drawer: Rev-A-Shelf

Laundry Cubbies: Custom made in natural maple by Joe Yoder

Paint: Sherwin Williams Oyster Bay

Sink: CorStone White Self-Rimming Acrylic Laundry Sink

Washer: Maytag MEDWE450WW

We splurged a bit with the ironing drawer so we wouldn't always have an ironing board set out. I don't iron, because I don't buy clothes that require  ironing. But Niels will occasionally iron his shirts. With the drawer, it's easy to keep the laundry room clear from obstructions, that is, less that I can trip over!

We chose this sink because we like that the soap was hidden from view, and also because we liked the the washboard as I'm sure we'll put it to good use as our boy grows up.

I liked the idea of cubbies for sorting our laundry. We built our house with the long-term view, so at some point, our son will start doing his own laundry. He's only three now, so he gets a pass for now. But this way, there's a cubby for each of us, plus an extra for linens, or for the next year, our exchange student. 

I made the mirror out of clothes pins and glitter washi tape, and the framed art comes from repurposed frames, extra scrapbook paper, glitter sticker letters and more of the washi tape. The hook ledge on the right side comes from Ikea. The hangers are waiting for me to start my next project.

We didn't put any cabinets above the sink because, frankly, we have more storage room that we need already, and it was an easy way to save money. If we do want to add a drying rack, we can easily add a tension rod. 

Close ups of the three frames:

And the mirror:

One of the advantages of ICF homes are the deep window sills. I use mine to store our homemade laundry soap, vinegar, and laundry pins. To the left, you can see part of the towel that hangs by a command hook on the washer for drying out the rim of our front loader.

The Missing Sole Mates art that I made a few weeks ago is the inspiration behind this post. Since posting the tutorial less than three weeks ago, it's become our #1 most popular post of all time. No idea where all you fine folks are coming from, but thanks for stopping by!

Here's a view from the other side.

Shh...don't tell, but the closet is still a bit disorganized. I'm still deciding how to use the drawers and shelves. We're coming from a very small laundry closet so the space seems palatial. 

All that's left is to do something with this wall. Click here to see the idea I'm mulling over.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

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Crock Pot Jerk Chicken

I don't usually post recipes on this blog, but since I had several requests for my crock pot Jerk Chicken recipe after posting on Facebook about how yummy it smelled today, I decided to make an exception! After all, my dream kitchen was made for cooking!

This recipe, served with Island rice and curry broccoli, is one of my favorite go-to recipes. Best of all, it doesn't take a lot of time or energy to prepare.

Crock Pot Jerk Chicken
Adapted from: The Whole Gang

Ingredients: 

• 1 large onion, cut into chunks 
• 1.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breast
• ½ cup water 
• ¼ cup apple cider (optional) 
• 1 T ground allspice 
• 1 T ground nutmeg 
• 1 T thyme 
• 1 T Sea Salt or kosher salt 
• 1 T black pepper 
• 1 tsp onion powder 
• 1 tsp smoked paprika 
• 1 tsp minced garlic 
• ½ – 1 tsp cayenne pepper (optional) 
• 2-4 bay leaves 

Instructions:

1. Chop your onion and mix together your spices. 
2. Layer half of the onion on the bottom of the crockpot. 
3. Rub down the chicken with the seasonings and place in the crockpot. 
4. Place a couple of bay leaves and remaining onions and spices on top. 
5. Very carefully pour in the liquid along the side so it doesn't wash off the rub on the chicken. 
6. Put the lid on and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4 hours. 

The curry broccoli recipe I follow is based on this recipe from Mel's Kitchen Cafe, simply substituting broccoli for cauliflower. Although, I must admit that the curry cauliflower popcorn is quite tasty, too!

Eet smakelijk!

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Paint touch up in the in-law bathroom

 Today I completed a project that I've been wanting to get at for awhile. It has to do with our vanity, which has been a little bit of a problem child for us. Fortunately, our builder worked with us to make it right, and we got what we wanted, except for the way the pipes were finished...or not.

When we envisioned the vanity, we forgot that the back wall of the bathroom is an ICF wall, which means it's filled with rebar and concrete. No pipes are going to make it in there! So the pipes have to go down through the floor. It's not ideal, especially with the the under-sink area open, but I figured I could make them blend in a bit. As soon as I had a little time and energy. Today was the day.

First I used painter's tape to get a general idea of where I need to paint the gray (Sherwin Williams Mindful Gray) and what needed to be the white trim (Sherwin Williams Pure White). After I took this picture, I realized my line wasn't quite right. Painting is not my strong suit!

I took the opportunity to pour a little of each color into small glass jars that are much easier to grab for touch ups. 

While I waited for the first coat to dry, I thought about how I could hide the battery pack for the touch-activated faucet.

Now that the pipes weren't black anymore, I couldn't hide it there. 

My first thought was to use a magnet, until I realized that the magnet would probably mess with the battery. My next thought was velcro.

I took out one sheet of velcro.

I learned the hard way that you want to connect the two pieces before attaching them to a fixture.

Then I attached one side to the battery pack. 

Then I attached the whole thing to the back of the panel. It's hard to see, but there's about a 3" gap between the panel and the wall. I held it for a few seconds, and voila! Bye bye battery pack.

You can still see the pipes, but it's not quite the eye sore it was before. 

Here's the before and after:

I am so happy to be done with that vanity! Now to figure out what to do with the big empty wall across from it...

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Easy welcome message board with hooks

We are deep into the personalizing part of our move in here at the de Jong Dream House. We've been moved in for just about four months, and it's given us enough time to see how our initial organization is working and what needs to be adjusted (fortunately, not much). So now we are moving on to the fun part: turning our house into a home. After all the months of looking at models and show homes, it's easy to forget that the house is meant to reflect our own personality, not simply remain a neutral canvas. Part of the fun of unpacking is discovering all the things you've had packed away and figuring out how everything fits into the new place. Between my memory issues, and the fact that some of our things have been packed for almost two years, back when we started decluttering and prepping the old house for staging and selling, I never know what I'm going to find!

Last week, I found this message board with hooks in one of the decor boxes I was unpacking.

It took me a little bit to remember that Niels and I won it at a party hosted by some friends. We rocked the "newlywed game" and this was our prize. We were packing already at that point, so it immediately went into a box. 

It was just what I wanted for our foyer: a way to welcome guests and provide a place for keys. I love when I can shop in my own house! As you can see, I had to personalize it with some foam letters I also already had.

Looking into the foyer from the great room.

It fits perfectly into the little wall in the foyer. 

I'm working on lots of little projects that I can't share quite yet. I'm putting my DIY skills to work for a few surprises for my sister's wedding, and one last project for our exchange student, Marissa, who will be arriving in a few weeks. Stay tuned!

Finished Family Bathroom Tour

I am happy to report that after four months in our new house, we have one room that I consider done. It's the family bathroom. Funny how the kid rooms get our attention first. We've been working hard to finish our guest room and bathroom because our exchange student is coming in six weeks. So, without further adieu...

Welcome to our bathroom.

The color is Sherwin Williams Solaria. D's favorite color for the past year (at least!) has been yellow. He wanted a yellow bedroom, so we compromised with the bathroom and his closet. We wanted a cheerful yellow, not gold or neon. It also needed to be bright enough for this bathroom, which has no natural light, and yet not be washed out in the bathroom downstairs, which is full of natural light. We really like how it turned out.

On the other wall, we have the vanity and linen closet.

The granite is Venetian Gold. We weren't planning to put granite in the bathrooms, but the beauty of using remnants is that our cost ended up being less than the solid surface we had planned to use. 

The floor was an adventure. Originally, we put down Konecto Exotic Woods Bamboo >Luxury Vinyl Tile planks, in Caramel. But apparently we got a bum batch because it started peeling up within weeks. Our vendor was wonderful and quickly replaced it with a very similar looking LVT. Our new floor, shown below, is Armstrong's Natural Creations Arbor Art Strip Bamboo in Caramel. 

The one thing we did overly well in our house is plan for storage. In our old house, we had one linen closet for the entire home. In this house, we have linen closets in all three full bathrooms, plus a large linen closet in the upstairs hallways. Plus, all the bathrooms have plenty of drawers in the vanities. I have no idea how we'll fill this space up, but when you're planning to live somewhere for the rest of your life, it's better to plan for more space than too little.

In the linen closet in this bathroom, we attached a simple full-length mirror on the inside. We used command strips to hold it up. (We did the same thing in our mudroom closet). 

We opted for a full mirror in here to take advantage of the long vanity and to make the room look bigger. We bought the light fixture at Menards.

We bought the clock from Target. 

I ordered the custom "You are loved" vinyl from Uppercase Living before our house was even done. I knew I wanted D to see this daily reminder, no matter what else he saw in the mirror. 

I picked up the yellow flowers at a yard sale when we were staging our old house. D liked them so much, I put them in his bathroom. Of course, being a Dutch family, they should be tulips, but I love daisies, so they'll do. (Now that I look at it though, I think I might paint the container blue). I bought the red airplane at Hobby Lobby for his vintage transportation themed room, but it keeps ending up here. 

I made this dry erase board with cute transportation letters using a red frame I found at a thrift store for $1.50. You can read how I did it here. 

I also made the art on the main wall, based on a photo I saw on Pinterest. I dusted off my PowerPoint skills and made my own. 

Even though we knew we were "one and done," we thought it would be a good idea to put a door between the vanity area and bathroom for when guests stay. We were already thinking that we wanted to host at least one exchange student, and especially for a girl, it made sense to provide the extra privacy.

Originally, I hung a fabric shower curtain, but our little mess maker keep soaking it during bathtime. It's now in his room as part of his book nook. We bought this one at Meijer (not shown online).

Because D still spends quality time in the bathroom each day, we made this little book shelf for him.

Since the dual flush toilet is new to some of our guest, I labeled them for appropriate use. Sweet D says, "1 is for pee-pees. 2 is for poopies. 3 is for tootsies. 4 is for books." Now you know.

And because I live with boys, I needed to add  a little reminder:

Lastly, we made a row of preschooler sized robe hooks on the towel bar since D doesn't use regular towels yet.

I hope you enjoyed the tour!

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