Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Still Working...

Wow, it's been two months since my last post! Time has really flown by. We are still hard at work on the laundry room/mudroom, and I'm happy to say we're almost finished! In the past two months we have run into so many things that need to be fixed; it has really turned into a much bigger task than we thought. Here's what we started with:


Our first step was to get everything out of the room and off the walls. It turns out the washer didn't work and the dryer was rusted and really old, so we decided to scrap both of them. His parents were great to take them to the scrap yard for us, and I think they got $5.00 for the washer.
Our next step was to take down the paneling. You can't really tell by the picture, but the paneling was "doing the wave" as I like to call it; I don't know if it was due to moisture or just cheap paneling, but it was not attached to the wall. We figured that the batting was put up to keep the paneling from falling. Demo was not difficult...Steven used a hammer and pry bar to take down the batting, and I simply pulled the paneling off the wall (we had some fun punching holes in the wall first though).


When we pulled up the carpet and vinyl flooring, we found our first big hurdle...the floors were way uneven. The floor was in need of some serious support, so we got to work (well, Steven got to work - I was the cheerleader/supervisor/go-fer). With some help from his dad, he put a beam under the floor; then we put down a layer of 4-ply plywood on top of the floor to add a little strength.



We also had to redo all of the wiring. The room had only one light (and there was not even a light fixture, it was just the light bulb); part of the room was very dark since the room is L-shaped. When we are finished, there will be two lights and a ceiling fan.

Since there were three windows in the room and not much wall space, we decided to take out the window next to the door to make room to hang coats and hats. And, thanks to some friends who are also remodeling, we got a new back door! Here's a view of the outside today (the bathroom is behind the wall to the left).


Right now we are working on hanging sheetrock; then we'll mud and paint before we put down the vinyl tile floor. Here's our first piece of sheetrock (we're farther along than that, but I was so excited to see that first piece on the wall)!!



Sometime towards the end of the first month, we decided we might as well redo the bathroom that is built into the laundry room/mudroom. Here's the before:



The bathroom had the same wavy paneling (if you look REALLY hard you can see what I'm talking about) and crazy wiring. The light switch for the bathroom is just to the left of the door, but the switch for the back porch light is hidden in the bathroom - any guesses where?? - in the medicine cabinet above the toilet!! Here's a look at the demo stage:


See the hidden light switch?! The vanity sink had some water damage (particle board + water = new sink), so we tossed the base but kept the sink to use somewhere else. The shower that was installed in this bathroom was a badly damaged camper/mobile home shower; there was no saving it, so we tore it out and bought a one-piece shower. We got rid of the paneling and the flooring and put sheetrock on the walls and another layer of plywood on the floor. We made the last-minute decision to take out the window so we could hang shelves, but hopefully the sheetrock will be finished tomorrow. Here's where we are now:



Whew, what a long post! I have really learned my lesson...no more waiting two months between updates!

Oh, before I sign off I have to add one more thing. Look what Steven found in a wood pile in the yard:

We named him Gizmo...

1 comment:

  1. Wow Karen...it's been a month and a half since your last post. I double dog dare you to post an update! On your mark, get set, GO! (Love you!)

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