A dream realized: Solatubes!

Ever since my parents first moved to St. Augustine, FL a million years ago, I have been obsessed with Solatubes. They had a bathroom with one small window and a Solatube that completely lit that little room up. I thought it was magical.

Until now, I have never had a house that was really set up for this feature. There has always been an above floor in the way. We had an interior 2nd floor bathroom in our first Spokane house in the Foothills. It would have been perfect for a Solatube, but there was a finished third floor above it. So we just put in some high transom lights to the room behind it for some light.

But THIS house has an actual problem in the form of an interior laundry room/entry off of the garage. It was literally pitch black, because not only were there no windows and a solid door to the garage, but its access hallway was slightly darkish also, tucked away off of the main living area. Because I HATE walking in from the garage into a pitch black space (and vice-versa), for the past 4.5 years I have just kept the ceiling light on ALL DAY EVERY DAY.

This part of the house does not have a second floor above it - we only have the loft, which is basically over the kitchen and front entry. So it was perfect for a Solatube installation. And MAN do those things work! Even on a completely overcast day like today, my previously pitch black room has LIGHT. So exciting!

This would previously have been a pitch black room accessed through a fairly dark hallway, unless the overhead light was on.

Pardon my construction dust - I was so excited I had to take pictures before I even vacuumed.

The amount of light on an even cloudy day is astounding.

By the way, while we are ogling my laundry room lighting - I am also in LOVE with my new super low-tech, top-loading, basic white Speed Queen washer and dryer. They are a dream compared to any of the fancy front-loaders we have had over the years. #oldschoolquality #nevergoback

This turned out so well in the laundry room, that we also had one installed in our bedroom closet. This one was a less critical installation, but it is also nice to just be able to walk in and swap out shoes without turning on the overhead light. The only one who isn’t happy about this arrangement is Chester the cat, because he likes to sleep on top of my shoe rack, hidden behind my terry robe in the complete darkness.