Urban Renewal: Folding Laundry

When we first moved into our home, the basement was an apartment of sorts. At least we think this is the case. The evidence? The closet had been converted into a quasi-kitchen with a fully-functioning garbage disposal.

I can't say why, but it totally grosses me out that it used to function that way.

One of the first things RC and his dad did was pull out the counters down there and then they got rid of the garbage disposal. It was not something anyone could or should reuse. They then moved the washer and dryer in the bathroom to the closet, which was always meant to be a laundry closet except all the doors had been pulled out. It was totally exposed. 

It would have been fine to leave it exposed with some trim and storage solutions inside the closet, but it was just noisy. I took this project as my own since I had huge problems with the noisiness of our washer and dryer.

In September (yes, it has taken me this long to complete the project and blog about it), I bought bi-fold doors to replace some of the broken ones and to install some news ones. Getting them to fit in the car was quite comical. It was a good thing I was the only one in the car because another person would not have fit.

After I got them down to the basement, I wondered what I had gotten myself into. I had no idea how to install these things and was hoping there were some really good directions included with the doors. I figured I could have read and followed the directions (much like I did when I replaced the fill valve) and in no time I would have had functioning bi-fold doors concealing my laundry area.

Once I got the door in place, I couldn’t figure out why it kept struggling to open against the carpet. A good hour later, I realized the pivot joint that keeps it in place can be adjusted to raise the door up or down to avoid carpet resistance. Once I figured that out, my door moved like butter.

For a few weeks, I left them unpainted just to make sure they were working properly. The doors themselves came primed, and eventually I just gave them a few coats of Behr pure white.

The final step was adding some decorative hardware. The door kits come with these ugly wooden knobs and I liked the look of the brushed nickel ones we had already put on a similar closet upstairs.

Now the basement looks less like an unfinished cold place and more like a little room where I can happily fold laundry. I actually don’t mind folding the laundry; the hard part is putting the folded clothes away.

Follow our journey at UrbanRenewal.