Renovation Reveal: Laundry and Entryway

Laundry Room

What is now our laundry room was basically wasted space when we bought the house. It was a 60-inch space between the house and garage with no obvious purpose. We always thought it would be the perfect place for laundry, but it dropped way down the priority list when we discovered that we had to renovate all three bathrooms. Anyway, this is what the space looked like when we started the laundry renovation. 

Before

After taking the room to the studs, reframing as needed, framing and installing a new interior door, framing and installing a proper fire-rated door to the garage, adding the necessary plumbing and electricity plus lights and fans, insulating, drywalling, painting, tiling, hanging cabinets, installing and painting trim, and moving the washer and dryer into place, this is what we have today. 

After (taken from the garage side)

After (taken from the house side)

Although we finished within budget even after greatly expanding the project (see below and here), we have opted to keep our current washer and dryer. Aside from the practical point that they are still highly functioning, I'm a bit nervous about replacing machines that I know and like with new ones at a time when I'm anticipating doing a lot of laundry.

Laundry Closet

When we moved into our house, the laundry was located in a closet just inside the entryway. It had doors, but the laundry couldn't actually be used with the doors in place. (This should have been our first red flag, but we were hopelessly optimistic first time homeowners.) Needless to say, the doors came off almost immediately. 

2007

Over time, I painted the area when I painted the hallway, and we hung a simple shelf and some dark curtains to keep the laundry (mostly) out of sight. Oh yeah, and I hung one of George's previously white socks that I accidentally dyed when I washed a load of laundry with a new, pink rug. Doh! 

This is what the laundry closet looked like when we started this project. 

Before

The result of the renovation is an empty closet with new 6-panel doors. We have some work to do inside the closet to get it ready to store the umpteen million things we want to store, but we'll get to that over the next few months. With the doors closed, it's a big improvement from our exposed washer/dryer or Ikea curtains, don't you think? 

After

Entryway

What does the entryway have to do with the laundry? Well, when you enter our front door, the old laundry closet is just to the right, and the new laundry room is directly to the left.

The new laundry room door automatically improved the entryway but left the [insert negative adjective] closet doors and flooring, which looked more like stickers than flooring, looking even worse. So, it made sense to carry the new tile into the entryway and replace the closet door with something nice and in keeping with the style of the new interior door while we were already making improvements. 

Here is what the transition between the entryway and the laundry room looked like before we started. Check out the shape of those doors! 

Before

And here is the transition from the entryway to the laundry room now. 

After

After

Remember, the old view from the entryway to the laundry closet? 

Before

This is the new view from the entryway to the (former laundry) closet. 

Here's the evolution of the rest of the entryway: 

2007

2008 - After a coat of paint

2010 - After a new, lighter paint and brand new door and trim

2012 - With the new tile

Because we were already replacing the doors on the entryway closet and old laundry closet, we decided to go ahead and replace the only other main floor closet door, which keeps our pantry neatly hidden away.

And now you see how I've reached peace with painting 6-panel doors. There are three coats on every new closet door and the new door to the laundry for a total of more mini-roller and brush strokes than I care to count. Phew! 

Renovation Reveal: Banister and Railing

Replacement of the banister and railing was a last minute addition to our most recent round of renovations. We knew that our banister was a safety hazard (and ugly) and our lack of railing was also problematic, but we originally planned to address them a little closer to the time that our little one would be moving around. However, as the renovations lagged on and our costs stayed within budget, it made sense to put our carpenter to work on the banister and railing while he was creating dust elsewhere in our house.

Pardon the poor and lacking "before" photos. We didn't document our old banister when we have documented the rest of the house over the years, and we didn't take official "before" photos because it was such a spur of the moment decision.

Banister - Before

So this was the way our hallway (and banister) looked when we moved in. I don't even have words for the bone white walls and unsanded, unpainted ceilings. I have always hated that light fixture, but I'm too cheap to replace it when it functions just fine. Oh yeah, the banister...Is it just me, or does the banister scream Brady Bunch? How easy would it be for a small child to step right through the balusters and take a dive to the first floor? All too easy. In case it's not evident from the photos, each (metal, poorly painted, ugly) baluster is about a foot from the next.

May 2007

The next year, I painted the hallway and hung up some photos in entirely too small a scale for the size of the walls. The banister was unchanged, but it looked slightly better with the contrasting dark paint, right?

Summer 2008

The new window, trim, and sill were definitely an improvement to the hallway, but the unsafe (and ugly) banister lingered. 

Summer 2010

Banister - After

And now...here is the new banister, complete with balusters that will actually keep a small child from launching herself to the floor below, getting her head stuck, or otherwise landing in harm's way. 

April 2012

After a bit of initial hesitation, I absolutely love the ball on the newel post. My grandparents had a similar (but larger and blue) ball on the newel post at the base of the stairs in their farm house. Whenever we visited, we always hung our coats on it. Now, the memory lives on each time I walk up or down our stairs. 

April 2012

Railing

As for the railing, we don't have any photos of the one that was up when we moved in. It was so ugly that we opted to not rehang it after I painted back in 2008. We decided that now is the time to have a proper railing since we want our house to be to code and to be ready for a little one learning how to climb the stairs in about a year's time.

April 2012

Well, what do you think? Improvement or waste of money?

Block 1 of 6

As I mentioned, I started a quilting class last week. During the class, we'll do six blocks, each of a different pattern in order to learn different techniques. Of course, the last class will be used to assemble the whole thing.

Without further ado, here is my first block, which was done entirely by hand:

Ohio Star

Weekend in Photos

I'll let the photos tell the story:

The time on Saturday morning when I gave into pregnancy insomnia and pokes from within and started my day

Sunshine on my wet paint - more details coming soon.

Making my third ever pavlova

Waiting for George at Seatac 

Fresh pedicure

I see you, Mount Rainier.

His and her poutine

George's belated birthday pavlova

The first load is in the books - more details coming soon.

Organized and labeled the pantry - no nesting going on here. 

New towel bar - more details coming soon.

The new bathroom mirror is ready to be installed. (28.5 weeks - compare with 18.5 weeks)

We have a busy and exciting week ahead. Stay tuned for renovation details and photos because we'll be DONE as soon as we add a few finishing touches this week. 

True Potpourri

Here's what's on my mind:


Full Steam Ahead
This week has been full of reminders of how close we are to the arrival of our sweet pea. The car seat arrived. The crib and dresser arrived at the local warehouse. Baby's activity level has picked up considerably. I am officially in the third trimester.

Touching
I'm already getting the privilege of experiencing the father-daughter bond between George and Baby Girl. When he calls from London, I put the phone on speaker. She generally gets a lot more active during phone calls from her Daddy. Today, she was really chill until George started talking directly to her; at that very moment, she started squirming around. My heart is melted.

This isn't going to be easy, is it?
I received some news today that makes me feel like a bad mom...and our baby is still months away. Ugh. This parenting thing isn't going to be easy, is it?

Making Peace
Remember my reference to 6-panel doors? I have several of them to paint, and they scare me...a lot. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I want them to look just so. The whole batch is not quite done, but I'm making peace with this challenge.