My washer/dryer kitchen counters

you should try them out sometime.
They're just so multi-functional and..and

this photo was taken in the winter

uh..

He likes to sleep there for the warm air blowing from the back of the counter. So smart.

umm look at the cat!

and fluffy and orange and cute. 

Too bad you can't at our place anymore. For the past year, our washer and dryer sat in the kitchen in a row of three with the stove. And since there is basically zero counter space otherwise (besides that blue contact-paper covered surface over the radiator), we may have occasionally (read: exclusively) used our laundry machines for chopping foodstuff..

Finally, though, I finished taping/mudding/sanding/painting the laundry area across from the shared bath (on the second floor). It's painted the same Pittsburgh Paints' Delicate White in eggshell as the rest of the house.

view from shared bath. [before]

same view. [after]

I thought I could do the baseboards myself this time, so I bought a bunch of 8' 1x4s at Home Depot and pre-primed and pre-painted them (btw, this should be obvious, so I really have no idea why we haven't always done so, but pre-priming and pre-painting trim before installation saves so much time. It's also much easier and you avoid the risk of getting paint on the floor.).  Then I started installing the painted baseboards with the trusty ol' hammer, finishing nails, and nail set. After about 3 nails I gave up on that method though, because the piece of wood was slightly warped and I was having trouble getting it to be flush with the wall. So, of course, I drove out to Home Depot and bought myself a compressor and finishing nail gun combo (Dan and I had been meaning to buy one) and banged the rest of the baseboards out in less than hour. Love that set.

My pancake compressor!

that's like, 30 minutes of work right there

When the inspectors came for the kitchen pre-permit meeting, I had them do a quick walk-through up here and they were immediately like, "where's the dryer vent?" I'd been postponing thinking about it because it seemed kind of complicated so I was all, "do I need one? I hang my clothes out on the line in the summer and the warm air from the dryer would be nice in the winter..?" Their responses didn't go so far as "shocked" but pretty close, and then they nervously chuckled and said, "you know dryer lint is one of the most flammable things out there, right? People take their dryer lint camping to build fires with.." So I figured out where I wanted it to go and had my roofer drill out a hole on the side of the house. The vent goes through the wall on the right, to a closet in the small bedroom, and in the closet it jogs up and back out the same wall.

yellow arrow points to dryer vent outlet

vent in the teeny closet

what a lovely sight

just gorgeous

love it.

 As for our kitchen, we brought down an old table that was stored up on the third floor. But we're busting out the wall this weekend and kitchen renovation begins!