Flooring Renovation: Laundry & 1/2 Bath Edition

The past weekend was a doozy. Obviously, since it's Friday and I'm just getting to this.

There has been one big, lingering project that needed to be completed before all of the demolition and major renovations were totally done (at least for any time in the foreseeable future. Of course, now that I'm motivated again, I'm already making mental notes for the master bath!). Okay, back to that one project: 

These two tend to go hand in hand, since they are across the hall from the other. Last month, I shared a little project I had done - making the laundry closet an entryway nook- within that I told you about 100000 times that the floors needed to be complete in order for the nook to be finished. First lesson in home renovations: the snowball effect.

My father-in-law was in the area last Friday, so he planned to stay the weekend and help kickstart the floors. We had purchased tile way back in November, chosen a grout color, already removed the wood flooring in the half bath, and the baseboards throughout both rooms. All of this space was begging for some love.

Here's the laundry room when we moved in:


And what it looked like before we got hammer happy:
The only things that changed were the removal of the base boards, removing the window shade and the closet/nook area.



The only additional demolition was taking out the wood flooring in the laundry room. Of course, that also means going without a washer and dryer. I was pretty adamant about NOT starting the laundry room, mostly because I didn't want to go weeks without the washer and dryer.
However, Big Kev (my father-in law), convinced me that we would get it done by Sunday. My weary attitude showed all over my face, but I trusted us to kick it into high gear.




Notice where our new hardwood stops? It's a tiny space between there and the door to the garage. We've had a rug over that area for the past few months, also waiting for this project ( It drives me a bit nuts!). We couldn't finish installing that section of hardwood until the tile was finished, as there would need to be a properly configured threshold for transition. (see: snowball effect)

Within an hour, the laundry room was stripped bare:





While that was happening, the bathroom's hardiebacker installation was in full effect:
The space is so small that we had to split the pieces of board in order for one of us and the board to fit into the bathroom at a time.




We seriously knocked this project out. When I say  "we," I mean I was pretty much the gopher. WHERESTHESCREWDRIVER, INEEDMOREWATER, WHERESTHEHAMMER, GETMETHATTOWELTHEWASHERISLEEKING, WHEREDIDMAIZYGO, HOLDTHEDOOR....Let's just say I'd happily hand over that position. I got the impression that I was not trusted with properly leveling mud, laying tile or using the wet saw. Clearly, these boys were not present when my brother, dad and I installed our backsplash. Ahemmm.






Please note Big Kev's hairdo. That's all.





By the end of Saturday night, the Laundry room was fully tiled and grouted, the fireplace hearth was grouted and the bathroom tiles were all laid. It was a beautiful sight. (Typically, mud needs to sit for 24 hours before grouting, but we purposely used quick set mud so that we could get everything done in the 2.5 day period.)





We had just enough time to drag our dirty selves out of the house for a nice St.Patty's Day dinner, then return home to promptly crash on the couch. Maizy included. Somehow, house projects always stress her out. It's amazing how distraught she gets over hammer sounds and disorganization.




By early Sunday, we reached our goal! I just kept dancing on the floor and talking about how prettyyyyy it looks! Because the half bath and laundry room are to the right and left of the door from the garage, they are the first rooms you really notice. The tile brings so much warmth and color to that entryway! AND THE CLEANING- SOO EASY! I love our wood floors, but boy those suckers really are a hassle to always keep clean. Tile, no prob bob!
I'll show you a picture once the 10 laundry loads of dirty rags are finished.

But, of course, this is a home reno post so it wouldn't be complete without a small list of to-do's before this ENTIRE project is complete:
1) install baseboards
2) install the thresholds and the last remainder of hard wood flooring
3) frame the entryway nook

Can you guess what our weekend will look like?!
Baseboards + nail gun, here we come!

Happy Weekending, Friends!