Welcome to Week 2 of the One Room Challenge! If you are just joining us for the first time, let’s catch you up quickly! We recently moved into a 25 year old home and are renovating our laundry/mudroom to make it a more functional and beautiful space that works for our family of five.
Last week, we posted TWO posts to showcase the start of this renovation: the BEFORE and Inspiration for the renovation is over on the Lowes.ca site and I shared our first video vlog on our site. So if you haven’t had a chance to check those out, make sure you do before reading on!
This week’s update is all about demolition how this project became much more involved then we originally anticipated. Before we dive in, here’s a quick list of all that we tore down and rebuilt in the space this week:
Demolition:
•Tore up 2 layers of tile/flooring with their accompanying glue, mortar and wire mesh reinforcement
•Tore down closet
•Tore down bulkhead above washer/dryer
•Tore down cabinets above washer/dryer
•Removed utility sink
•Tore down wall between laundry room and powder room
•Removed vanity from powder room
•Tore down all drywall in the laundry room
Rebuilt:
•Rebuilt new wall between laundry and powder room, allowing for more space in the laundry room
•Moved venting in the wall up to our daughter’s room into the new powder room wall
•Moved and rewired electrical switches for powder room and entry from the garage
•Added a second light fixture/switch
•Moved the dryer vent that was halfway up the wall to the bottom of the wall (insulated the old vent)
•Tiled the entire space
•Put up new drywall in the entire space
Our project is now well under way and I can confidently say that it’s caused my hubby and I a great deal of stress already. Here’s why: when we first decided to renovate this space, it was going to be more of a cosmetic job. Although we knew we were going to remove the closet and do a built-in bench with a cubbie/hook space, as well as remove the tiles, we never thought we’d be tearing down all the drywall, let alone REBUILD A WALL!
But…that’s precisely what has happened.
Have you ever gotten into a renovation and one thing led to another and you found yourself in so deep you weren’t sure if you would make it out alive?! Ok, that’s a little dramatic, but that’s kind of how it’s felt here the last few weeks.
Here’s what happened. As you know from last week, the space is small, like really small. 88 square feet kind of small. Now, I get that that is bigger than just about any other laundry/utility space we’ve ever had but this space is not some laundry/utility space in the corner of an unfinished basement. This space is a multi-purpose, multi-entry space that needs to function well. There are THREE doors leading in and out of this space: one from the garage as an entry point to the house, the other as a side door which is also another entry door to the house and the third is an interior door that leads to the hallway. So on top of it being a laundry room/mud room, it also functions as one of the two main entry points to our home. So the room NEEDS to have space and a good layout to facilitate good traffic flow.
As Chris had started demolition, he couldn’t help but be bothered by this large, protruding wall to the left of the garage entry door, that backed onto the wall of the powder room. He commented a couple of times that it would be nice to tear it down to which I always said “please don’t!” because I was scared about what he would find in there and didn’t want to start renovating a second space.
Well, one conversation led to another and we soon realized that our powder room was much bigger than it needs to be and it only made sense to tear down the wall, remove the oversized vanity from the powder room and push the wall further into the bathroom, making more space for the laundry room.
Problem is, once Chris opened the wall, he found a vent that ran from the furnace up to our daughters room as well as a bunch of electrical that had to be moved. One of the things I do love so much about Chris is that when it comes to handy work in the house, he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty, both physically and metaphorically. At each step in this week (or two) of demolition, he’s encountered a number of new obstacles as he took various walls down but was never afraid to educate himself on how to make it work. While he has some very informal training from when he worked for a contractor during high school, most of what he knows, he’s taught himself from asking questions at the hardware store to watching YouTube tutorials.
So when it came to the vent to go up to our daughters room, it took him a minute (as in several hundred minutes), but he got it figured out. He also moved our dryer vent that went through the exterior brick of our home! There isn’t much this guy can’t do!
Finally, another challenge Chris faced this week was electrical work. While he had an electrician friend teach him the basics a number of years ago when it came to swapping out light fixtures, it was a whole new ball game when it came to opening up walls and installing brand new switches. Thankfully, my brother-in-law, who is a licensed electrician was visiting for Thanksgiving and was able to instruct Chris on what to do. Without his help we definitely would have had to hire someone in, but thankfully he saved the day.
The main point I wanted to drive home after this week or so of demolition is that renovations can turn into a beast of their own. Timelines often go out the window as things take far longer than anticipated with new challenges constantly presenting themselves. It’s ok to slow it down and take it one step at a time. It’s ok to ask for help. It’s ok to pause and go learn from the pro’s…that’s what they are there for.
For all the progress we made the last couple of weeks, it doesn’t really show it on the outside, but we know that inside those newly drywalled walls, work has been done that will ultimately help us transform this space into a fully functional space!
That’s it for Week 2 of the One Room Challenge update! Make sure to stay tuned for our video update and come back next week as we continue with the renovation!
Love & Blessings,
Christine
