oakleyok, I love your laundry room! Absolutely beautiful. countrygal, the laminate has held up well. It's been through 2 dogs, 2 cats and 4 kids so it's taken a lot of abuse! I've been after my husband for a couple of years to replace it because it seemed to be fading. Could also be that I messed the finish up over time using the wrong cleaners. Regardless, it was a lower end floor (money wise) to begin with so I have to say I was very pleased with it.

Yes i do! I actually have some design sense and wanted to be an interior designer. I installed new Espresso color thick carpet in my whole condo, i loved the color, sheen and the way it hid the stains. Lol im bad i know, but i had light color carpet before and it was a mess to keep clean, to the eye. Only problem was when i installed the Espresso color carpet was that my walls were bright white and i didnt like the contrast, the dark brown per say and the white walls, just looked odd to me and bugged me, Finally i gave in and put color on the walls! Reason i say all that is, if the walls are not white, go for it. Maybe re think the color of the walls as to me, the silver of the washer and silver of the walls might clash with one another, if just not the perfect, complementing shades. You could do a creamy rich, off white, like vanilla. What i did in picking the colors for my living room and bedrooms was, i went to home depot, i picked out all the colors that immediately caught my eye. Then i took home two or three of the same paint swatches home, taped them together, then taped them on the wall to be painted, in different areas, to see which color i like better. It was better for me than using one swatch of color and trying to decide on a big blank white wall. So i used three and taped them together and made the swatch 50 % bigger! Its up to you in the end and what you like. But i do think the espresso will work very well with the silver, or graphite appliances, just a little weary on silver walls. I used the Berh paint and primer in one, used less coats and the color came out very nice! The green is, chinese jade and the yellow is, pyramid gold. I had to put into mind all the colors i already had, the carpet, my couch, coffee tables, dining table. This is also what i did, i fine tuned into what colors i wanted for the walls, then i took other swatches, for instance, i have white baseboards, so i got a white swatch, i have a orange couch, so i got an orange swatch, i have espresso carpet, so i got an espresso colored swatch, then i put them all next to the color of the wall swatch, to see how well they all mixed together! And to me, the colors couldnt have fallen into place any better. Also made my condo feel more like a house, more like me, more personlized! Imagine the walls in the photos before, white! What a big different a little color can do!

To David 28. Sorry, sodium hydroxide is a lubricant and does lubricate seals and bearing in a top load washer. It is water soluable. I also read in a student textbook concerning Diesel engine oil, that sodium is or was used as an additional lubricant. Just previously they used carbon in motor oil to reduce friction. It was discontinued decades ago. Why I do not know, I am not in the oil business. Doing laundry is personal and I report what I see and did. Sodium hydroxide is excellent for laundry. No detergent is required and no bleach. I use 5 Gram sodium hydroxide dissolved in cold water before adding to hot water in the washer, before adding clothes. It removes most if not all body oil enbedded in clothes and makes soap. Bleach is not required as the pH of sodium hydroxide at the start with fresh sodium, 14.0 pH and is far above bleach. If one is nervous with this chemical, one can use sodium carbonate that requires 15 gram/laundry load and no detergent or bleach and does almost as well as sodium hdroxide. There is no smell to the laundry after washing with these chemicals, laundry smells like brand new out of your favorite clothing store. What makers of these chemicals FAIL to mention concerning these two chemicals, is storage must be in air right containers or else oxygen in the air will render sodium useless. This also includes HTH powdered bleach, calcium hypochlorate as used in swimming pools. Store in air tight containers! Use about 50 grams of powdered bleach per 4 liter water to make a gallon of bleach. I have done this for years and never had a problem except I failed to store it properly and it did a lot of damage to metal. Keep it stored in air tight containers! The original OEM containers are useless except for shipping. I do not buy bleach any longer. If I do need bleach I use sodium carbonate! Cheaper and excellent! Almost any chemical above a pH of 7.0 can be used in laundry. The current price of detergent makes me shiverrrrr.

enduring, thanks, you bring up a lot of good points. i noticed in my existing laundry room that the tiles are all loose. i had assumed it was just because it is old and in need of a refresh, but wonder now if this is an indication of a poorly located washer? i also see that the dryer vents out onto the roof (a lot of old lint here). i didn't know there were ventless dryers! i will have to read up on those. thank you! Jan, initially i didn't think I should do the laundry in the smaller bath since that bath is small as it is. but the exterior wall of that bath is on my deck, which would be much better to clean out the dryer vents that way. so your and hemina's suggestion of moving it to the other bath is warming up to me. i agree with you regarding the attic not being worth tapping into. Laura, thanks for those suggestions. I do think we need a second bath and do feel it will add value. i also am thinking about having the upstairs laundry be a secondary unit stowed away somewhere, and putting the main laundry in my mudroom, since it is closer to where I am most of the day. perhaps a laundry chute would be a fun and useful item to add. i need to work on the location and concept of how i do laundry a bit more, think through all of my home's issues too. thank you so much everyone. it has been such helpful feedback!