Laundry Room Reno

When we bought the house about 3 years ago our laundry room looked like this. Complete with green and yellow cabinet doors.

 

And multi-colored shelves in the closet.

I painted the cabinet doors awhile ago when I just couldn't stand the green and yellow any more. And in preparation for the rest of the renovation Andy removed the old sticky-back vinyl tiles and repaired some of the drywall.  The plan was to get new vinyl flooring, paint the walls and trim, replace the utility sink, and get a new washer and dryer.  We would love to replace the cabinets and possibly even enlarge this room at some point in the future but this first round of renovations became a necessity when we decided it was time for a new washer and dryer.  The old ones still worked (barely) but they were quickly dying and we wanted to have time to do some research and look for sales before one of the old ones died and we didn't have a choice.

I was very happy to see the old sink get removed!

Ready for for paint and flooring.

Andy painted all of the walls and trim a few days before the new flooring was scheduled to be installed so that we didn't have to live without a washer and dryer for too long.

The flooring was installed and the next day the new washer and dryer were delivered. 

Andy got the new utility sink hooked up and we managed to get the rest of the room put back together the following weekend. We found a cantilevered sink so that we could get rid of the legs in the front and open up the space under the sink for storage.

This is where Kodak eats so he thought he needed to help take pictures just in case it was dinner time.

I like the new vinyl floor but it is very light.  We new we wanted vinyl since this room is a dumping ground and we wanted something easy to clean.  The rugs help keep some of the dirt off the floor and out of the family room.

The closest didn't get re-organized but it's just nice to have shelves that are all the same color.

And some day I'll make/buy a window treatment for this window.  I think I'd like to make one but I haven't been able to find any fabric that I like.

Powder Room Progress

When I last posted about the powder room back in November we were in the process of finalizing our plan for the renovation and finishing the demo work.  Despite my delay posting all of these updates Andy continued to work diligently on the renovation through December.

Andy wasn't a huge fan of the Ditra mat the first time we used it in the upstairs bathroom. It's a lightweight alternative to cement board and it's supposed to be much easier to work with.  We had enough leftover from the master bathroom renovation that Andy decided to try it again.  This time he has great success  -- so much so that was actually just bought more it for the upstairs hall bathroom.

We decided on a simple thin metal transition between the new tile and old vinyl in the kitchen since we don't know what that floor will be in the future.

You really should work out of the room as you tile but Andy wanted to make sure that the pieces at the transition were perfect so he worked from inside and I handed him the tiles he already had cut.

It was a multi-day process since he had to wait for the first round of tiles to set before he could finish the area under the toilet.

He also managed to paint the walls and grout the new tile (all while I was probably asleep on the couch).

 

The final portion of the renovation didn't happen until this January so that will be a separate post but it was nice just to have a toilet on the first floor again!

Amazon Green

After what seemed like months of samples and trips to paint stores we decided on a color for our new front door.  The door was installed in January but we needed to wait for warmer weather to paint.  It took me so long to pick a color and find time to paint it that I almost missed my chance. We decided on a Benjamin Moore Color called Amazon Green but I think it looks more teal.

Here's the original door.

And the new door after it was installed in January.

Andy took all of the hardware off more me before I painted.

And it looked like this after two coats of paint.

Painting Cracks

With the fireplace doors removed and all of the brick cleaned it was time to start priming the fireplace and walls.  The whole process took a lot longer than we had planned because we had to paint every single crack between the bricks and all of the paneling.

 

We used a very nappy roller for textured surfaces on the brick.  This may or may not have happened.

This also may or may not have happened.  We call it painter's crack and I did NOT paint this crack.

We also had two helpers for the entire project (Kodak and Fozzie who was visiting for a few weeks).

We were so excited to paint over the brick but this was most definitely the point of no return.

Andy used the roller and I followed behind with a brush to fill in all of the cracks.

Once the fireplace was done we started priming the paneling.

We were so happy with the white walls we weren't sure if we could paint it!

Walking the Plank

Painting the upstairs and downstairs hallways was a relatively boring but necessary task.  I couldn't settle on a color since it's visible from just about every room in the house so we went with the white color we have been using on the ceilings and trim (Sherwin Williams Creamy). The walls were ugly and marked up from the installation of the new heat pump when we moved in and we wanted to get them painted before the new carpet is installed.  We painted all of the trim when we worked on the bedroom so we taped off all of the trim and started painting the walls and ceilings.

Stairwells are the hardest.  Andy setup this plank propped up on a ladder...

And started painting...

I refilled the rollers on the other side of the knee wall so he didn't have to walk back and forth on the plank.

 So, here it is...in all of its clean brightness.  A bit boring, but so much better than dinged and marked up walls.  Once we get carpet we'll put something fun on the walls.

And a sneak peak of the new doors.  A painful and tedious job for Andy, but totally worth it. 

Rolling On

Andy and I both took some extra time off around New Year's to focus on getting the bedroom and hall painted in preparation for new carpet.

We want to add some color to the rooms (no more contractor cream or builder beige) and we have big plans for some bold color (coming soon) but in the bedroom we decided to keep it simple.  We decided on Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige. 

The current painting projects include EVERYTHING -- ceiling, walls, and trim (oh, how I hate painting ceilings!), so it's a multi-day process for us.

The first day we removed all of the old carpet in the hall to make painting the new trim easier. First this happened.

 And then this happened because Kodak is somewhat terrified of hardwood floor and wouldn't come upstairs. What you can't see is that I even had to put a non-slip mat under the rugs to get him to come up.

The real prepwork started early the following day. We moved the furniture and tested some paint on the area where the border used to be.  Andy had to use vinegar and some sanding to remove the residual glue. We painted the ceiling and trim the same day.

And the next day were were finally able to paint the walls and reclaim our bedroom.