Laundry Accouterment

I was able to get the whole room sanded down except for the area just behind and above the water heater. I also got some of the holes filled. As I’ve said, all of this beadboard came out of what was originally a machine shop for a turn of the century woolen mill. Later, it became many things, one of which was D & D Motors. At some point a sprinkler system was put in and it was suspended from the beadboard ceiling. This meant that there was the occasional screw hole.

Wait, what was the point of all of this….oh yeah, the holes. I got them filled.

Tomorrow I should be able to caulk any wide seams, wipe it all down, and maybe even start to put primer on. Our I might un-strap the water heater from the wall and wiggle it out a few inches and go ahead and sand behind it. Its funny that I’ve lived in many homes in California where the water heater was not properly secured (Earthquakes, remember) and it never bothered me. Now that I’ve strapped this one down so well, the thought of having it not strapped makes me nervous.

But the point of this blog entry was not holes, sprinkler systems, or even un-strapped water heaters. The point is the accoutrements that will go in the room. There are only two, so I needed filler. Hence the long, boring story of the holes and the water heater.



The charming little cabinet above came with the house. It was part of a 1920s rental kitchen, but I think it pre-dates the kitchen. As far as I know they weren’t big on cornices on 1920s rental kitchens. Not only that, but it doesn’t look anything like any of the other cabinets that were in the rental kitchens. This one was off by itself.

This cabinet was pretty much the first thing I ever fixed up in the house. At one time something - a towel rack maybe – had been mounted in the right, front corner. It looked like someone removed it with a claw hammer. No point in wasting those endless seconds it would have taken to get a screw driver and remove like a civilized person when a perfectly good claw hammer is sitting right there. Am I right?

I stripped it down, cleaned the paint off the hardware, and fixed the claw hammer divot. I put the whole thing the back together and then cracked one piece of glass at the very end. Sigh! It is still cracked, so I need to fix that.

I’ve found many good homes for it over the years, but none of them took. At one point, the sink and that cabinet were in my real kitchen. They were a part of the original design, but in the end they didn’t make the cut for one reason or another. A friend is supposed to be buying the sink, and the little cabinet will be mounted over the washer and dryer in the new laundry room. I think it has finally found a good home. I really like that little cabinet.



This is the light fixture that will be going in the laundry room. Perhaps a bit fancy for a laundry room, but this is a laundry room that will have brackets and crown molding at the ceiling. I don’t think it will be too out of place. Besides, I really have no place else for it. This came from my year long light fixture buying spree.

The light fixture buying spree was in the pre-blog days. I was flush with cash from a recent refinancing on the house. I sort of lost touch with reality for several months and went crazy with buying antique light fixtures. I bought so many that I ended up re-selling 4 or 5 of them, and I still have a few more than I need. If you think this one’s too fancy for a laundry room, wait till you see the one that is going in the butler’s pantry!

This was the only fixture I bought that had been rewired. It was also the most expensive, and the only one I bought in a local shop. I think I paid $350 for it and bought it in a now defunct antique store called Antique Charm down in Fortuna. I never would have bought it if I had not been partially insane at the time. Oh well, it too will soon have a nice home in the laundry room.