Laundry and Loathing and Longing

Just ask Z-- he will easily be able to tell you what my least favorite household task is... it's Laundry. I hate laundry. I hate doing laundry more than I hate doing dishes. I hate the hauling baskets of stinkiness down the stairs and loading it all in there. I hate the dirty socks and underpants that manage to find their way out of the basket on your way down the stairs. I hate unloading soggy clothes and shoving them in the dryer. And I hate dryer lint, it gives me the heebie jeebies. But even more than all that I hate folding laundry, and even more than all that I hate putting clean folded laundry away. I don't know why. I just don't like doing it.
But then I stumbled accross this picture of a gorgeous laundry room:And I gasped! My goodness! It's beautiful! If I had a laundry room this clean and homey and light and airy I would probably spend all my days doing laundry. And when I was done with it all... I would take off my clothes and do more laundry just for fun. And I would hang out in there when I got bored just admiring the lovely clean stacks of towels, and sheets. And I would probably sigh a lot just because i was in a beautiful room.
Or I might also just love to have a laundry room that looks like this:

Or even this:

Which may actually be a more realistic goal for me... it's still clean and bright and organized.
But alas and alack, my laundry room looks nothing like wither of those pictures. My laundry room (and you must know this is rather embarrassing to reveal in all it's cluttered, dirty, concrete ickiness...) looks like this:(shudder) I can't believe I just shared that. I don't even like to look at it-- much less be in it. As you can see I have no white washed cabinets, sparkling tile, or bright clean, happy looking walls. What functional storage we have is unorganized, and basically holding trash. The floor and walls are dirty concrete and I have no where I can fold clothes... even if I wanted to. (sigh) it's the most depressing room/space of my life.
I was talking to Z about cleaning up the laundry area and making some small inexpensive changes to try to boost it's appeal... he thinks I am crazy for wanting to 'fix up' our laundry room, but not so crazy that he has offered to do laundry so I don't have to be in the yucky room.
So, here are my proposed laundry room changes/additions/remodel:
(yes, it's a scribbled on picture of the same dirty space as above. PROPOSED changes--dream with me!) A. PAINT the walls and raw wood shelves a clean bright white color.
B. STORAGE I would really like to put some cabinets above the washer/dryer, and then clean off the shelves and keep baskets for laundry there, so it wouldn't have to pile up on the floor. which bring us to...
C. FLOOR I know we don't have money to put down nice pretty tile or even easier-to-keep-clean vinyl flooring. But I am considering a floor paint or stain-- and hopefully something with a nice hard shiny finish so I can mop it up and feel like it's at least partially cleaner.
D. HIDE I have an old changing screen thats just dying for a makeover and a laundry room with a big nasty eyesore of a water heater... the two should meet. It will be magical, I just know it!

See, don't you think that will at least be a great IMPROVEMENT? Now I just have to get Z on board. I seem to be pretty good at getting my way with him when I have my mind set on something. I imagine he will shake his head and laugh at me when I suggest it-- or when he comes home one day and I am in the midst of a bigger mess than this whole thing was to begin with. But he always helps me out of my messes... which is why he is my husband and I love him.
And because I love him, I do his laundry. And because I do his laundry, I would like to love my laundry room.