Utility Room 2.0

Old laundry room.

Our utility room was always pretty ugly.  When we first bought the house, it wasn't completely separated from the kitchen, so the furnace was practically sitting out in the room.  During the kitchen remodel, we closed in the utility room and added a door to separate it from the rest of the space.  That was helpful, but it made the room feel even smaller.

We started this project because we bought a new water heater to replace the old one.  The new water heater is a high efficiency heat pump type that we received a Federal discount on.  The plan was to rip everything out of the room, install a new floor, paint and then get everything reinstalled in a weekend.  That's just what we did.

Here are some photos of the project:

Above: New vinyl flooring.  We picked vinyl because it is easy to clean and a water resistant surface.

Above: New energy efficient GE heat pump water heater.  It's an attractive looking machine.  We painted the room to match the kitchen colors.

Above: The controls on the new water heater allow you to set the temperature, as well as the efficiency settings.  You can temporarily set it to fast recovery for high-demand hot water needs.  The energy sticker on our old water heater claimed 5,000 kWh per year.  The new GE claims 1,856.  According to my calculation, the new water heater will save us approximately $25 per month.

Above: The newly organized and finished utility room.  It looked a lot better before we put everything back into it, but it feels much more organized now.  We installed a large shelf in the back for laundry and recycling.  This room also houses the cat box and now there is room for cat liter storage.  Not bad for a weekend project.