Funny Story of How Sometimes Your Holy Grail is Right In Front of Your Stupid Face

To add to the bevvy of small catastrophes last week, my washing machine chose to act up and wouldn't go through it's drain & spin options. It's a brand new, front-loading HE [energy efficient] washer (and I have a mile long list of why no one should ever buy this type of washing machine, EVER) that is computerized.  There are some sort of sensors that pick up on how heavy the wash is and how many minutes it should go through it's cycle. Long story short, I'm finding the sensors aren't accurate and it's tripping itself up, shutting down mid-wash and like a computer - it won't do ANYTHING unless you unplug the whole machine (aka reboot) and start all over. I wasn't happy.

The plug for the washer is behind it, and off to the side. To unplug it, I have to step up on a small table, lean over the top of the washer and yank. To the right of it is the laundry room sink with a towel bar above it. The whole set-up is something I look at every day, 15x a day without giving any of it much thought.

So the other night as I was furiously rebooting my washing machine, I noticed that something looked off with the towelbar over the laundry sink. I've only used this bar to hang up cleaning rags, etc. There are separate bars higher up in the space for drip-drying clothes so this bar is purely utility.

I must of bumped or rubbed against it trying to get to the outlet because lo and behold....

HNGGGGGGG. It's the Hall Mack Double Space-Booster Bar that has been hiding in plain sight and that I literally did not even know that we had or even think about checking it for oh...I don't know... the FIVE YEARS WE'VE BEEN HERE.

Which completely proves the point that these inventions were founded on, doesn't it? Hideaway space savers that are 100% functional when you need them to be.

This type of bar has been on my mental "wish" list. Clearly this one has been neglected and you can see that it has some tarnish and paint on it. No worries~! The brackets on these are easy to remove and now I have the plan to take it down and clean it up for use in one of the bathrooms - probably to replace the ceramic bar in the main bathroom. I'm so excited over this project, fingers crossed that it goes as smoothly as I hope.


...and the washing machine has since stopped being fussy. For now. :)

The Master Bath aka the "Seahorse Bathroom"

Every day I thank our lucky stars that this bathroom wasn't gutted ~ it came so close! The Real Estate agent almost had the original owner convinced that NO ONE would want a bathroom like this and would see it as a project and get turned off. When we "Squeeee!"-ed at the seahorse tiles, gushed over the Hall-Mack vanity shelves, and got perplexed, then hysterical over the Hall-Mack Relaxation Unit, it was just another reason the original owner wanted us to get this house. We appreciated the little things in ridiculously huge ways.

I don't use this bathroom unless it's an emergency pee break. Since it's off the master bedroom, I initially tried to make it my everyday bathroom but truth be told, the shower is only a stall (albeit a large stall, but... ladies you know how it is) and the overhead lighting isn't conducive to face-fixing either.  This bathroom is perfect Partner-In-Crime size and functionality, so up went the nonfogging shaving mirror, the gorgeous vanity shelves are lined with boy things, and the relaxation unit holds tattoo magazines for the extra manly touch.

The sink and cabinet were re-done at some point, and it is too large for the room itself, so it is on the list of things to take out, and we are checking local Re-Store shops for the perfect matching pedestal sink to replace the current monstrosity. That bathroom is so small it doesn't need it's own cabinet, I just bring the bucket of cleaners in from the  main bathroom when it needs a scrub.

 

seahorses on flecked tile. the colors are sand with darker brown flecks, cream & tan.  these seahorse tiles are randomly placed all over the shower wall.