Completed Laundry Room

The laundry room is completed!  The dryer was delivered and installed today and Will fixed the doorway.  There is no longer a chunk missing out of the frame and wall.  We are totally amazed at the transformation of the space.  Two weeks of long weekends and week nights, plus having to rebuild a wall unexpectedly, was all that it took.  

As Will remarked, "I feel like I can come down here in my bare feet and not catch something."  I couldn't agree with him more.  I actually want to do laundry now.  The new set up is nice and easy: transferring from washer to dryer is more like twisting. 

The stairs are what Will thinks is the most radically transformed.  The nasty, mildewed, cat pee soaked carpet was removed.  We painted and added carpet tiles on the treads.  They have  slight pattern to them and were so easily installed! 

 I think that the most radically changed are the floors in general.  The vinyl tile--peel and stick! Cut to fit if necessary-- were also easily installed.  The biggest pain: cutting around the door frames.  Will and I have matching blisters on our thumbs from where the scissors rubbed.  But I have already vacuumed and mopped the tiles twice.  It is so quick and easy.

We are excited to show it to our tenant Kelly.  She comes back soon from vacation and we think that she will be shocked at the transformation.  We keep going down to behold our work-- and to fold some clean clothes.

Paint and Tile

 

The paint is drying, the trim is still wet, the stair well is tacky to touch, and some of the vinyl tiles are laid.  Here is a semi-reveal of the laundry room.

no more baby blue paint

ready to wash-- just need the dryer

new floor vs old nasty concrete floor with years of nasty carpet glue

pretty!

#2 coat of paint

new floors done and done!

We still have to lay the carpet tiles down on the stair treads and do some minor paint touch-ups.  And paint and rehang the doors.  Oh, and get the new dryer installed (on Thursday!) to then repair the chunk taken out of the doorway.  Plus, clean up the tenant's unit since we used that as a thoroughfare when the stairs were wet with paint.  *sigh* That sounds like a lot more than it is, but the main thing is that the laundry room, hallway, and stairwell of doom are now bright and pretty and clean.  I want to hang art on the walls and show everyone the renovation!  I want to do laundry now--maybe even iron!-- in the fresh space. Yea!

Laundry Continues

 We are ready to paint, folks.  We have hung the dry wall, muded the joints, and sanded.  We washed the walls, vacuumed the dust, and removed the old dryer.  We are ready to do this!

 Even Stirling is ready to do her part, but first, I need a drink.  A vodka tonic with a twist: rhubarb bitters.  So light, it gives the generic v&t an extra boost of flavor.   Tomorrow, we paint.  Tonight, I prepare...

Progress

I went to dinner last night with my friend Kate, but that didn't stop Will from continuing to work on the laundry room.  When I got home, he was slightly off his normal coloring due to the fine layer of white dust that he was covered in.  He had spent the day going between the hardware store and working in the basement.

 BUT, he was able to repair the wall!  I had gone to Home Depot to get wall board-- only the regular size sheet wouldn't fit into my car.  I bought 7  2x2 squares of wall board and 5 2x4 studs.  Will was able to screw the studs to the concrete directly-- oh, yes.  *I* know that all the shows on HGTV or the DIY Network would not approve of this method, but those studs aren't going anywhere.  And it is just the laundry room. 

Will then put all 7 of the squares up, though we have to go back and get one more to finish.  Will then taped the walls and started spackling all the holes and cracks everywhere in the stairwell and laundry room. 

The previous night, we were able to really clean the floor, remove the carpet tacks, the old linoleum tiles.







Tonight, I have spin class.  It is my task to sand the stairs.  I am hoping that someone will get tired of waiting for me and just do it himself.... fingers crossed!

Spoken Too Soon

Ah, I *might* have spoken too soon about the ease of which the laundry room was to be redone.  I should know better than to brag about having twelve days to do a project in this house. Nothing is ever as straight forward as "scrape, sand, clean, paint." 

We scrapped the the brick wall.  We were just going for the loose, flaky paint.  We weren't trying to remove all the old stuff, but just the wobbly stuff. Until we reached the top of the stairs.  That is when we scrapped the loose paint, to reveal torn wall paper, to remove to find broken plaster.  

And created the mess that the broken plaster created, all the way down.  *Sigh*   Slight alteration to the plans for the laundry room redo.  We will now first build a triangular shaped wall out of sheet rock, then sand and paint.  Not a huge delay, so far.  Just an added complication.  There is always a hitch in the remodeling; this is it for the this project.  Or, that is what we are telling ourselves.  The rest of it should go smoothly.  Once this is cleaned up, and once this wall is rebuilt with studs and drywall--because we are not replastering!--then the rest will be easy and fast. Right?

Laundry Room

These are the stairs to the laundry room (and the back entrance to the basement unit). It is a sad, dismal, dirty stairwell. When you get to the bottom, it doesn't really improve. Old, cat-urine soaked, smelly, crumbly, brown carpeting.  Navy blue, light blue, or white color walls, some of which is flaking off--including on the brick wall that makes the foundation for the house.  And the laundry itself is pretty depressing.  It is cramped.  Dirty.  Dusty. Spidery. Not at all a place that I want clean laundry to touch. 


So, since our dear friend in the basement is gone for two weeks.  We are taking advantage of her absence to clean up the space:  New paint!  New carpet!  New dryer! New floor!  When she returns, this will no longer be a disgusting part of the house to walk through, or to do laundry in.  We are making the laundry room pretty!

It should be easy!  Scrap the walls, remove the carpet and linoleum tiles, sand the steps/walls/doors, and repaint and retile.  We bought the stick-on grey tiles (we are going super upscale for the room, can't you tell?) that will be the flooring throughout the laundry room and outside in the hallway.  We bought carpet tiles that adhere to the treads with the rest of the stairs being exposed, painted wood.  We have a nice light cream color-- enough to be a color but not enough to be beige-- for the walls.  The stairs, doors,  and trim will be white.

The new dryer comes on June 23rd.  Dear friend returns June 24th.  That gives us 12 days.  We totally have this!