The Laundry Room Makeover

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!

The OTHER Bathroom

Our house is a 2 bathroom house, though currently

the downstairs bathroom is under going

a complete tear out and renovation.

So that left us with the ugly upstairs bathroom.

You'll recall I painted it last year.

If you can't recall, you can read about it here.

Anyway, here is what it looked like prior to painting the walls a peach color.

Here is a photo from just the other night.

Yes the walls look lovely, 

(and so does the brand new window behind the blind)

but I want you to focus on the flooring.

The yellowish flooring with the creases that held

decades of dirt and grime

that no matter how much, long or hard I scrubbed 

on my hands and knees

would never look like it was completely clean.

Plus, it just didn't match.

But I don't think yellowish grimey floors match anything, really.

So, I was walking the aisles of Ollie's Bargain Outlet at lunch,

looking for cheap good stuff

when I came across some flooring.

Long story short, I ended up finding 6x8ft sheets of vinyl flooring.

I measured the bathroom and sure enough, with the exception of a small strip

behind the toilet, 6x8 ft would work.

So I talked Big E into putting in vinyl flooring.

Oh, I forgot to mention it was only $20!

I was expecting to just slap that puppy on top of the existing floor, but Big E said the old floor had to come up.

This is where it gets a little hairy, 

and I'm not talking about Big E's chest hair.

I, in my "I found $20 easy to install flooring" high,

assumed that I'd cut the caulk that ringed the flooring

and that old floor would pop right out.

I've been involved with several projects in this house, 

and not one has gone completely as planned

so I can't really tell you why I thought this was going to be a piece of cake.

Other than the $20 piece of floor euphoria.

There were 3 distinct layers of flooring in the main floor areas.

The yellowish one, another one that was whitish with flowers or something and a blue/green

old linoleum tile with the tar backing.

And under that, 

original hardwood floors.

Even stranger was the cement or plaster I found 

in the floor.

At first I thought it was the part of the original wall

before the house was added on to.

Turns out it was a chunk of plaster.

It was used to fill a hole in the floor.

I'm not sure what someone does

to cause a hole in hardwood floor 2 inches or so deep.

It added more work because we now needed to fill the hole properly.

It took about 6 hours, 

but I managed to get all the floor up.

Over by the toilet I found 2 other types of floor that were 

nailed in place.

The toilet was also raised up for some reason.

Seriously, even the tar covered wood floor looks better

than that yellowish floor.

It took a little longer to get the floor clean enough for adhesive, 

but it finally got done.

Definitely an improvement,

and worth the hours of labor.

Just a couple of decorative touches and it'll be good for a long time.

Guess What's Happening!

It's time to say buh-bye! to the kitchen floor.

Part of me is still a little sad about not being able to salvage the hardwood,

but the larger part of me is happy to see the plywood

disappear. 

The Evils of Flooring

Our flooring removal extended beyond the living room.

The next carpet on the chopping black was the dining room carpet.

When we removed the living room carpet, 

we revealed gorgeous 100 year old hardwood floors

with minimal amount of wear.

What would the dining room reveal?

It revealed that someone actually glued, 

yes, GLUED,

carpet to the 100 year old floor.

The end result was a sea of black padding

stuck to glue

stuck to the hardwood floor.

Personally, 

I think whomever decided back in the day 

that gluing anything to hardwood was
the best way to go

should be strung up and whipped.

Our only option was to scrape off the adhesive.

I'll share more on that process later.

We also needed to remove the linoleum in the kitchen.

I had peeked under the linoleum in places and knew

the hardwood was under that too.

Unfortunately, 

the hardwood did not extend the entire length of the kitchen.

As it turns out, the original foot print of the house

ended where the plywood subfloor starts.

So the area where my husband is standing is all part of an addition.

There is a header beam in the ceiling that confirms this.

So, even though the hardwood in the kitchen is in really good shape

(better than the living room)

We can't use it.

The new addition's flooring was made to be level with the existing floor

so to try to add hardwood to match would be impossible as it would be higher than the existing floor.

So, we're back to the original idea of the black and white tiles.

I can't even tell you how upsetting it is for me to cover this floor

(especially after complaining about other people doing it). 

But the addition left us no other alternative.

(Unless I convince my dad or my husband that we should pull up the old flooring, lay subfloor and put tiles on that and save the hardwood for another project- like using it to make a kitchen counter top.  But My chances of that are slim to none)