Monday, November 16, 2009

Where have all the flowers gone...

WAIT.. WHAT IS THIS?!?!? AN ACTUAL POSTING!!!!

Yes, yes, yes... its been quite a while since a posting so here we go with another exciting adventure into home rehab / repair...

To bring everyone up to speed, we have had quite an eventful summer and fall; one which drew us away from the home on many a weekend. Now, as the leaves have fallen and the chill of New England fall / winter settles around us, we find ourselves in the home during the weekends more often.

Our eyes and ambitions focus on the interior and how we can slowly make our home more "our" home. One location that has been on our shortlist as well as a thorn on our side for quite some time now is the first floor bath / laundry. In case you have forgotten the beauty which is this small room, please take a moment to reflect on the images below.


Serenity was not precedent in this decorating scheme - and we sought to bring a tad of calm to the space, be it that it is so small and being asked to serve multiple tasks ( "public" bathroom / laundry )
I had a week free from work recently and decided to attack the space head-on! One major hurdle in working in the small space was the large washer and dryer, that remained in the space during the rehab. I'm a limber guy, but not THAT limber; so sufficient to say, certain joints and muscles are still expressing their discomfort. First task - rid the space of the oh-so-beautiful floral pattern.




There seemed to be a feeble attempt at a base board and chair rail that the previous owner threw on the walls. That too was out!

Discovery is a wonderful thing, and past, patched holes in walls, tight piping joints / runs and large gaps between floors and walls were par for the course. We briefly toyed with the idea of removing the drop ceiling ( which WILL happen in the future ) but we soon found that it may take a bit more time and money that we had originally allotted to this rehab.




After priming and patching, the room was ready to receive its new color - Mountain Haze~ a subdued light green ( that we felt could work with the dark green and white tile floor which was to remain )


And why, you ask, would we chose to keep that lovely GUT-WRENCHING-OFF-GREEN lower wall color? Because we LOVE IT! .. no... because we decided to cover the lower wall with a proper white wainscot, baseboard and chair rail - once again, trying to unify the room, and brighten up the lower, darker floor area.





Working in the tight space / with no-true 90 degree corners, around pipes and laundry machines, trying to cut the board and trim angles correctly was quite a task, but in the end the result is quite nice.


We also replaced the cabinet hardware ( along with putting the doors on right side up - if you are interested, look back at the old pictures and notice that they were originally installed upside down... don't ask... ) We also said goodbye to the shell-shaped toilet seat. You will be truly missed.




To freshen up the space, all the trim along with the new woodwork received a fresh coat of pure white paint ( Wife is always right! ) Future minor updates will include a new wash mirror, probably a tall oval one, old laundry prints in frames, and a some sort of curtain divider between the laundry equipment and the washroom space ( for parties and such ) I will post additional images when those amendments arrive.