June 27, 2012: Laundry Room Update

We (I) painted the laundry room today, as you can see from the above image.

There was nearly a half-gallon of Olympic semi-gloss “Ocean Breeze” (light blue) paint left over from painting bathroom#2 last week, and we didn’t want to waste it. The laundry room was the only other room in the house that we’d want that color and in semi-gloss, so the decision was easy. But it required another gallon to make sure the whole room got two coats.

First thing in the morning, we unloaded all the shelves and moved that stuff to the master bedroom (Rebecca actually helped carry a bunch of it in there), and then disconnected the washer and dryer and pulled them out into the kitchen (just a few feet away). Of course, being the laundry room, there were lint and dust piles under everything, but it cleaned easily.

(Another reason to like our Manablock plumbing system — it’s incredibly easy to turn off the water to a specific location in the house.)

While I began painting, my wife and daughter went to the grocery store. As I continued to paint, they went to the pool for Rebecca’s first try with the arm-mounted floaties — which worked like a charm. They stayed indoors for most of the day; we placed our spare baby gate in the laundry room door so Rebecca could check on me occasionally. She spent about an hour playing with food boxes in our bedroom, and another half-hour banging on the washing machine. She thought it was great that all this stuff was out in the open.

The hardest part of the project was painting between the cabinet edges and the side walls. The cabinets don’t quite span the width of the room, leaving about a three-inch gap on either side. Everything else was routine. I suppose it’s even routine to cut your knee on the dryer exhaust vent went painting down in that corner — it must be routine, since I did it twice. I didn’t notice the first cut until I saw blood running down my leg. My wife grabbed some alcohol and a Band-Aid. The second cut was about an inch below the first one, so we just re-adjusted the bandage to cover both cuts.

I probably could’ve finished before supper, but I kept going around the room until the paint was gone. Still, I was finished and had the brushes cleaned out by 7:30 p.m.

We left everything out of the room overnight so the paint could more fully dry.

Weather: We hit 103°F but none of us were outside for that. It’s our sixth day this year of 100 degrees or more. (Last year by this point, we were on #10.)