{Giveaway is Closed}
The winners are: #64-Renee; #93-Maryellen; #224-Staci Congrats, ladies, you’ve been emailed!
When I last shared my laundry room with you, I had just added a Lutron Occupancy Sensor switch which I totally love, by the way! Now, when I open the door and walk in that room, the lights automatically turn on and when I walk out, they automatically go out 1 minute later.
So, after getting the backyard all cleaned up with the Bagster, it’s time to move on to the next little project on the list: adding a new wall in the laundry room. This long bowling ally laundry room of mine has lots of space and I’m so happy to have it, but to really utilize it well, I needed to add a wall for storage, since most things in storage are not meant to be seen all the time. That’s where we want to hide things, right? Plus, the toilet that I added in that space sits in the corner, so it only seemed right to add a door and a wall to that end of the room. That way all those things that I don’t want to look at all the time will be hidden from sight. Perfect solution, that wall!
First things first, we got 2 by 4’s to start adding wood to the floor, walls and ceilings for nailing up studs which are needed for framing up a wall. Dad used special screws in the concrete to get them set in place. He’s so good at knowing how to do this stuff.
All the 2 x 4’s are in place and ready to go. We decided to bring the wall out 1 foot from the right wall and frame the door there. The door will open into the storage closet right in front of the toilet and I’ll be painting this interior door the same green as the door that’s already in here.
Framing up the ceiling for studs.
Adding the 2 x 4 studs in place so we can then start the drywall process.
Studs are all in place and ready for drywall now. I did have my electrician come in and add a light switch and separate overhead light in this room, so that I would get plenty of light in there. I just did a bare bulb light socket overhead since this room is just storage. Nothin’ fancy! A new wall outlet was added too, since you can’t have too many of those.
There’s the bare bulb overhead light. Since the ceiling in here isn’t finished and I painted it black, I didn’t worry about doing anything fancy, just functional.
Now, we’re ready to start adding drywall, so piece by piece my dad measured and cut, adding it inside and then outside the studs.
He used a utility knife to cut out some notches and for the wall outlets.
We had several cutouts to make around the pipes and all.
And you can see the first piece nailed in place and ready for the next piece.
We got busy cutting, fitting and nailing each piece into place, one by one. I was helping with the nailing too and didn’t get a lot of in progress pics, but it went pretty fast and about 2 hours later, we were finished with putting it up.
And now it looks like this! It’s fun to see a wall go up, ready for taping, mudding and sanding next. Then the door frame and door will slide into place and we’ll finish off this wall with baseboard trim and lots of paint, like the rest of the room. It’s going to be so great to have this storage area away from the main room with all that stuff hidden away. It will end up being a 5×9’ space and I’ll have room to add some utility shelves for all my Christmas stuff. Nice!

That’s the latest update on the laundry room space. I can hardly believe how far this room has come since we started renovating this house last year. When I look back at the before pics, it blows my mind! It’s gone from SUPER UGLY to really functional and half-way pretty now. Getting this room completely organized and cleaned up is going to thrill me and it’s getting there now. Organizing and cleaning up this room and my garage is on my short-list of projects to do soon. I want this laundry room to be very functional, but also very pretty too. Even though it’s sort of industrial looking, there’s no reason why it can’t be pretty too and one end is already there. The other side of the room will soon be catching up, can’t wait!
Part of my update was adding the Lutron Occupancy Sensor in here and it’s been a great addition. I love walking in and having the lights FLIP on just like that. CLICK! ON! With movement in the room, they stay on as long as you’re in there working, then when I leave, they click off again in one minute. I’d highly recommend these sensors and can think of a few more spaces to put them. Got kids? Get yourself one of these. Here’s a chart showing how much energy they save and I can imagine they would if you have kids around leaving those lights on all the time.
I’ve got THREE more Lutron Occupancy Sensors to give away, so if you’d like to win one of these for yourself, please leave me a comment saying which room you’d put this in. I think you’ll enjoy it too!Â
If you don’t win and would like to purchase, here’s a coupon code for you!
25% off Maestro occupancy/vacancy sensor dimmers and switches on LutronStore.com PLUS one free Claro single-gang wallplate ($4.90 suggested list price) with each qualifying item.
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Promo Code
wholeftthelightson
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Code expiration date
Sunday, Oct. 31, 2013
Note: This is a sponsored post by Lutron. I was compensated to try this product out and share it with all of you, my readers. All opinions and how it was installed are all my own words. I happen to think this is a really cool product!




goodness! I would have to say my daughter’s bathroom or bedrooms. They are FOREVER leaving the lights on and this would eliminate some of the nagging in my house ha ha.
I could definitely use one of these in our family room since it’s downstairs and I’m always running down to turn the lights off.
Now if they only made one to turn off the TV!
Love your laundry room! Thanks for the giveaway.
Maggie
I can’t believe how great your laundry looks. You’re right, the progression has been amazing. I love the close-up picture of your daddy’s hands. Hands that have worked, and helped, and loved, and comforted, and are still going strong, in spite of the age that shows on them. Would like to have one of the Lutron lights for my laundry room, also. It’s in the basement and would eliminate my little juggling act of balancing the laundry basket on my knee while flipping the old light switch!
I would certainly put one in my laundry room. I think it would be great because I usually have my hand full with laundry to put in the washer; so not having to turn the light on would be fantastic.
I need about 4 of them. Retired people seem to forget to turn off lights.
I’d love one of the light switches in each of my kids’ rooms…can’t even tell you how many times a day I turn off their lights!
Hi Rhoda,
Your laundry room looks amazing. I have to say that I am adding cabinets in my laundry room bc builder grade means hook ups only. But bc my hands are ALWAYS full when I walk in, having a sensor would be AMAZING! I hope I win one.
Thank you and love your new laundry room
Mirna Hill
I would have to put one in our master bath. Thanks for the opportunity.
It would be perfect in my laundry room which I go through to my garage.
I have three small children, need I say more? 🙂
I think every room in my house needs this! But I would start with the bathroom. It uses the most light bulbs and is left on the most by my kiddos…..okay…..I leave them on too 🙂
I can think of a number of places, but probably the hallway going down the stairs to basement. My grands forget to turn that light off.
What a neat idea! Would put one of these in my master bedroom closet and one in my main hallway to the back of the house! Thanks for hosting, Rhoda! Nice work on that utility room!
my daughter’s room…she never shuts off her lights!!!
I’d love a light sensor! Where couldn’t I use one? My daughter leaves on every light, everywhere she goes. So, her bedroom and bathroom would likely be at the top of list of places I would use one. Thanks for the giveaway!
My master closet!!
I would put these in the bathrooms because my grandchildren who live with me are notorious for leaving the lights on. This would definitely end a lot of nagging on my part to turn the lights off. . lol.
These would be handy in so many rooms but that comes to mind first is our laundry room so whether you enter from the garage or kitchen (usually with groceries or laundry baskets) you wouldn’t have to be hands free. Thanks for sharing!
Basement closet. I walk out with my hands full and three days later, the light is still on…
I would love to try this switch in my sewing room. I often walk out and leave the lights on with intentions of returning. They end up staying on for hours with no one in the room.