The Goodbye Tour: The Laundry Room

Continuing through the house on our little good-bye tour...next stop: laundry room.  A lot of the content of this post is a re-run from this one back in 2012 (apparently I did occasionally post finished room pictures instead of just progress shots back then), but I've updated it a bit and added some new photos.

Our downstairs bathroom was originally the master bedroom of the house.  When the previous owner became too ill to go upstairs, her bedroom was moved to the den and plumbing and a handicapped-accessible bathroom was built.

The washing machine (which was not sold with the house) had apparently been in the kitchen (where we later added a peninsula), and she did not have a dryer.

Justin was a little nervous, given the state of the entire house, that I wanted to renovate the only live-able room in the house.  Since it was converted within the last 5 years or so, it was a nice space.  The paint was nicely done (albeit not in my choice of color!), the fixtures were new, working, and didn't have years of caked on grime.  Longtime readers of the blog will know that all of these perks were not found throughout the rest of the house!

However, I knew that I wanted to have the washer and dryer accessible on the first floor and not have to install them in the basement, and the amount of space in the bathroom was really unnecessary.  We apparently don't have any pictures that show the full scale of the room, but here's a collection of before shots to give you an idea.

 

We spent several months doing laundry in a laundromat until the glorious day when the plumbing was revamped for a washer/dryer in the place of the old vanity.  (Remember that announcement, here).  In one of our biggest Craigslist successes, a woman drove from over an hour away to pay us $100 for the removed vanity.  

I stole the medicine cabinet for the upstairs bathroom, leaving us with a hole in the wall for much longer than anticipated.  My decorating and organization left a lot to be desired (but we were frying bigger fish at the time, like finishing the upstairs):

Then, I finally decided that it was time to make some things happen.  With 48 hours (or some other ridiculously short time frame) between that point and the pending arrival of my parents and siblings, I decided that I would finish the bathroom before they arrived to surprise them with the progress.  I think I finished the drywall repairs, painted the ceiling, and did half of the first coat (again, the huge size of the room and immense amount of cutting in took me by surprise) before the doorbell rang.  So, guess how my family spent a big part of their Ithaca vacation :)  (Thanks, guys!!)

Mom, helping to paint (and clearly acting on a dare from my dangerous-with-a-paintbrush sister in this shot!)

Maura and Colin, installing the sticky tiles I love - as a surprise for me while I was at work one day!

I revamped the cabinet that had been hanging in the kitchen and hung it here for cleaning supply storage

A new pedestal sink (on the previously empty wall), a mirror, new accessories and a new shower curtain, and now's now:

  

 

Project review:

- Removed vanity & added washer/dryer and new pedestal sink

- New paint

- New floor tile

- New shower curtain/mirror/towel bars/etc

- Added refurbished shelves/cabinets

Before, after, and one last look: