the laundry room: new doors!

october
this picture is a reminder of the first time we saw the laundry room. a lot has happened since then, especially in the last couple of weeks. we have moved the laundry room and are turning this room into an extension of the kitchen slash mudroom.

wednesday: the before

wednesday: the after!!!

 this week we put the new french doors in the former laundry room.

we found these at the Habitat ReStore. we were concerned they might be a little too big for the room....

but no regrets! they look great!

standing in the kitchen looking towards the back yard

putting up new siding

the far away shot (and our lovely and peaceful backyard oasis)

(me in my cru coffee and wine bar hoodie: a little beaufort coffee shop love!)

i do a little work from time to time...

i was standing in the kitchen when i shot this.

and we are done for the night!

a new washer and dryer for our new laundry room!!!ain

CATCHING UP: JANUARY 18th

ain't they purty????

hurray, they are here!!!!!! our shiny new whirlpool washer and dryer

60% off at lowes!!!

fyi, one of the few appliance companies still making their products in america

(CREATING JOBS PEOPLE!!!

 simple solutions to a crappy economy. duh.

oh, oops, sorry i got swept away by my soap box! get it?? haha! soapbox???)

anyhoo, and they are super energy efficient.

god, you know you are getting old when nothing makes you happier than a washer and a dryer!

laundry

catching up! these are from january 11th-ish

starting to insulate!

its always fun when you open the drywall and out comes a few studs. by this i mean,  open wall, and boom, down they go. exciting stuff! don't worry. nick fixed that too. see next photos!

new insulation. many new studs in the walls.

 extra support around the windows. and more new studs!

new siding!

tearing out the drywall/plaster

catching up: january 10

while beginning to tear out the drywall in the laundry room we found someone's home:

UM, EWWWWWWW!!!!!

i will also add that we found a matching and slightly bigger nest on the other side. what is better than that? we found the old tenants...i wish i was there to take the picture when nick opened the wall.

 but there it was. a bird, dead and preserved in the wall, and his friend mr. squirrel (who unlucky for us still had a bit of an unpleasant odor!)

squirrel and bird remains!
UM, SUPER EWWWWWW!!!!
anyhoo, here's the open walls.

a little drafty in this room you say??

more nests.
also, take note of the lack of a header on this doorway. so safe!
don't worry. nick will fix it!

 i like seeing the backside the lathing, where the plaster hangs. so cool.

in the laundry room looking towards our  current living room

cleaning up the mess

laundry room celing

catching up: these pictures are from january 10th-ish

we have now added extra support to the laundry room underneath. added a few floor joists, some new subfloor, new plywood and tile board.
after tearing out the ceiling we finally got a chance to see what the new ceiling height would be like!

new ceiling height

 we tore out the old closets, mostly because it was just easier

the old ceiling was just above the door frame!
look how much taller it is!
also take note of the new tile backer board.

new ceiling height

next on the list, bye bye drywall!

tearing down the ceiling

catching up: these pictures are from january 9th-ish

here are our adventures from tearing the down the ceiling in the laundry room

its like a childrens book:
"how many layers of roof can you find in this picture?"

oooooone, twoooooo, threeeeeee, fourfiveseven - oh heck who knows?

a seriously slow project at this rate

 nick finally went up into the attic and kicked it a few times. much easier solution.

ah, yes. eighteenlayersof wallpaper.

laundry room day 2

getting ready for the tile!
we decided to use tile in the laundry room. we came across a great deal at the habitat restore and found several cases of tile. or we may use some tile leftover from other homes we have rehabbed. which ever we decide to use, we know we need a sturdy sub floor! nick spent a long time painstakingly leveling a previously very un-level floor. he then put down a layer of heavy duty sub floor. the floor already has never felt so sturdy. go nick! now, for the tile backer board.

(sorry for the not so stellar picture, i took it this morning after we had dragged the refrigerator into the room friday night and then back out again today).
you may remember that when we replaced the roof on the house we also raised the roof in this room to be as tall as the rest of the house. with the room empty, we  decided now would also be a good idea to go ahead and rip out that low ceiling. here are some pictures of the roof lines, before and after:

before

after

and this is the laundry room as it was, in all its glory!

laundry room

well wouldn't ya just know it? our washing machine has bit the dust!  

renovation conundrum: 

do we A) freak out and get really mad that everything keeps going wrong (um, okay, maybe just for a second) or do we B) keep that glass half full and find the positive in this situation?

 that's right boys and girls, we went with option B. (important side note- choosing option B is really really important. this is how to maintain sanity during an epic home renovation!)

remember that girder we just replaced underneath the house? it was directly underneath the laundry room. and let me tell you, that floor was a mess! rotten-VILLE! mushy everywhere. so, with the washing machine out, we are taking out the dryer and everything else and building us a new floor.

ripping up the floor

now we all know that there wouldn't be just one layer of flooring underneath that laminate (that IS why this blog is called 18 layers of wallpaper!).  nope there was five, at least. not counting the floor we have seen everyday since we've been here or the sub floor, there were three layers of heavy duty flooring and at least two layers of laminate! 

layers upon layers

it appears that this room was once a porch. the bottom layer was slanted like the old porches used to be to keep water away from the house and facilitate cleaning. when the porch was enclosed, they built up the floor to make it level and then added more layers of flooring as necessary, maybe for aesthetics? maybe to cover rotten spots? who knows...

nick ripped up all of the flooring and supported the utility closets in the room and added and leveled some new floor joists. it was a long day!

 i left to go make pots and came home to this:

our new floor!

just kidding! this is not the new floor, but we had to have a way to cover the floors for the night. we considered just putting a board across across the floor to create a bridge from our newly created den, to our kitchen. but with an adventurous cat, an arthritic senior dog, a spastic schnauzer dog, one really good dog and a fairly clumsy wife, nick decided it would be best to cover the whole floor for the night. tomorrow, getting ready for tile!