This is what our laundry/mud/sun room looked like
when we got the house.
Note the aluminum siding still on what was
the original outside of the house,
and the drop ceiling,
and carpet over concrete.
The carpet was, of course, glued down
and required scraping.
I can say scraping concrete is far easier than scraping adhesive
off wood floors.
We painted over the paneling using a color
called Witch's Brew.
Yes, I often choose paint colors based on their name.
We removed the siding and saved it for other projects-
basically the 2 new construction windows on the side of the house
that will replace the former upstairs apartment door
and the window that was made smaller for the old apartment kitchen.
Note the old ugly door.
This space was obviously a porch that was enclosed,
hence the window that looks into the bathroom.
The window was taken out and boarded up
as part of the bathroom renovation still in progress.
All the above happened a while ago.
Fast forward to this past November/December 2018.
Big E wanted to see what the original house siding looked like
under the tar shingles
(that were under aluminum siding).
Here is the white wood siding of the house.
And here is a peek at a gray color the house was painted
before the white.
Oddly, a medium grey is the color I wanted the house to be
once we get to that stage of renovations.
Next, Big E needed to build a wall of sorts.
Our water lines were just hanging there as you can see.
We wanted to be able to hide the pipes,
and have a smooth wall.
The finished wall.
The next order of business was the ugly door into the kitchen.
You might remember, I salvaged an older door (not old in terms of my house old, but aged)
from what was the town's firehouse/borough office/community center.
If you don't remember, you can read about it here.
This was the old Borough Office door,
and I thought it would be perfect for this doorway into the kitchen.
The pebbled glass would let in light,
but prevent people from seeing any mess that might be in the laundry room.
Big E was not thrilled with my door salvage.
He actually said no.
But someone tapped out the pins quick,
and voila'.
(I believe in the saying "It's better to ask forgiveness than permission")
Of course, the door was bigger than the opening we had.
So it required some cutting of wood and moving wires and such.
I'm please with how it looks.
(the missing trim and cuts in the kitchen have been patched and repainted)
Then we had to remove the drop ceiling.
We planned to drywall the ceiling rather than stick with the drop ceiling.
I'm not a fan of drop ceilings.
I'm only sharing one photo- the end result-of drywalling the ceiling.
My parents came to help,
and thank God they did.
Someone surely would have died otherwise.
Most likely me, crushed under a slab of drywall.
Next came the really fun part.
Three years earlier,
Big E and I got laminate flooring for this room at a Home Depot
Black Friday deal.
It's been sitting in the room for three years,
and finally it was getting installed.
That's our floor guy in yellow.
Kidding.
That's our neighbor who came over to help.
The weekend before, Big E helped our neighbor with his laminate flooring,
and the favor was returned.
This is how life in small towns should be.
Know, like and help your neighbors.
Luckily, our room didn't require any fancy cuts.
It's basically a box.
The biggest issue was the threshold.
There was a slight incline into the kitchen that they had to figure out.
That and of course the door had to be shaved down
with the added height of the floor.
It was a rainy day.
Not a shocker since all of 2018 was rainy.
The guys used the easy-up canopy to
make a make shift saw area.
And finally, the finished floor.
We have since put back the trim.
There's still work to be done in here.
I need to repaint the walls,
spackle and paint the drywall ceiling (and the newly built wall)
and get some accessories for the room.
What an amazing transformation!
Stay tuned!
I have a few completed projects I need to blog about!
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