The Next to Last Renovation project for our house

[jp1]

When we replaced the original gas furnace from 1979 when our house was built with a heat pump we moved the air handler up to the attic. It used to be in a little closet in a space between the short hallway to our downstairs powder room and the kitchen. That freed up the space. Previously there was a narrow pantry cabinet in the hall to the bathroom beside it and a shallow 1 foot deep dish cabinet in the kitchen that butted up against both the pantry and furnace space. Now we're going to turn that whole space into a place for the fridge on the kitchen side so that we can put a much bigger pantry cabinet where the fridge currently is, and a shallow pantry cabinet on the hall side. In the bathroom we're going to stack the washer/dryer and turn the old dryer space into a floor to ceiling 2'x2' laundry cabinet and a 1' deep x 2' wide dish cabinet in the kitchen. This will give us a LOT more usable space.

Here are pics from what the contractor got done on day one. The plan for tomorrow is to finish moving electric and plumbing, and wall in the space for the fridge so that we can move it (we just got a new one and we can't use the left side because the door won't open against the wall). Then next week they will finish the work in the bathroom. The pantry cabinet in the kitchen will be semi-custom and we haven't even ordered it yet so it will probably take 2-3 months for that to be finished and installed, but everything else should be done by next friday.

This is where the fridge is going to go.
fridge.jpg
This will be the shallow pantry space in the bathroom hallway.
hall.jpg
This is the bathroom. The washer/dryer will be stacked on the left side and there will be a cabinet on the right side. The cabinet will be 2'x2' floor to ceiling in the bathroom and 1' deep by 2' wide floor to ceiling in the kitchen. (where the wall is between the current fridge space and the new fridge space). (behind the left side wall is where the fridge is currently in the kitchen.)
bath.jpg

[rosarugosa]

Very cool, JP! I look forward to more pictures as your project progresses.

[Tradd]

Can’t wait to see the final result! More pantry space is always a good thing.

[happystuff]

Nice! Hope it gets finished quickly and with minimal life interruptions!

[catherine]

Nice redesign! I agree that pantry space is really important and stackable washer/dryers are very space saving. My son has one. Well, so do I but mine is one of those little ones. The regular size stackables are great.

Definitely post the "after" pictures!

[jp1]

Random question. The current plan, and most simple, is to make the space for the washer/dryer 34 inches wide. Our units are 27 inches wide. That seems to be the current max size. Is that enough?

[iris lilies]

That project will make your spaces so much more usable. I really thought about stackable washer dryer in our renovation but DH was leery of them so since we had room, we went with conventional size side-by-side washer dryer. I would like the stackable ones just fine were it me alone.

[ToomuchStuff]

Random question. The current plan, and most simple, is to make the space for the washer/dryer 34 inches wide. Our units are 27 inches wide. That seems to be the current max size. Is that enough?

IMHE, just as long as you don't put a doorframe causing the space to be closed in (where you have to move the washer/dryer over after pushing in). That allows a shelf/roller, etc. to be placed between with laundry supplies that could be removed later if larger washers became a thing.

[jp1]

That project will make your spaces so much more usable. I really thought about stackable washer dryer in our renovation but DH was leery of them so since we had room, we went with conventional size side-by-side washer dryer. I would like the stackable ones just fine were it me alone.

We actually are just stacking the units we already have. We got an LG stacking thingy for like $25. I also spent another $20 on rollers so that we'll actually be able to move them out of the space if needed. I already can't move the washer so there's no way I would be able to move it with a dryer on top of it.

[jp1]

IMHE, just as long as you don't put a doorframe causing the space to be closed in (where you have to move the washer/dryer over after pushing in). That allows a shelf/roller, etc. to be placed between with laundry supplies that could be removed later if larger washers became a thing.

That makes sense. When we lived in the city the washer/dryer were stacked in a closet with a door. The closet itself was wide enough but they barely fit through the door and when the washer was dying our landlord was concerned because fullsize units had gotten bigger. The repair guy ended up being able to fix the existing unit so it didn't end up being a problem. At least not while we lived there.