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The Walls Came Down!

February 18, 2015

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Befores, afters, mood boards, plans, failures, wins. We’ve done a lot of projects, and they’re all here. 

We have a long-standing relationship with DIY, and love rolling our sleeves up and making it happen. 

Even when you don’t want to rip down a wall, you can make that space in your home better. Right now.

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We had all intentions of waiting until Chris was fully healed to start demo-ing the old fourth bathroom/new laundry room, but plans changed and we couldn’t be more excited to see and share some quick progress in that area. Before we start on the kitchen renovation, we wanted to get the laundry moved to its new place, so we could recess the wall for the fridge and frame out the new pantry. Here’s a refresher floor plan so you can make sense of all that.

current kitchen Floor-plan

new floor plan

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that last week we had a bit of a set back when it came to installing our new window in the living room. While we got that mostly worked out and a new date set, we felt bad telling our contractor–one that finally seemed reliable and anxious and on time!–that we now needed to be the flaky ones. So, we asked him if he was up for doing some demo instead and he was all game. This little 4th bathroom off of the kitchen looked like this a year ago:

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Since we have another half bath right off of the entry, we decided to basically gut this whole bathroom/laundry area off of the garage and make it more suitable for our needs. Before our contractor arrived, I snapped a few pics with my phone:

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And the next thing I knew the wall was down and it felt huge!

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When he left last night, in addition to the walls coming down, the return vent was moved to the side, the washer and dryer hookups were in place, a new dryer vent (lower left) was installed and vented out the roof!, a new 220 outlet for the dryer was installed, light switch was moved, floor was patched and probably a few other things I am forgetting. He has a few things to finish up today like moving the plumbing for a tiny sink we plan on having next to the washer and dryer and grouting the floor, but we are blown away with how quickly he was able to have everything checked off of our list–something that would have taken us weeks to do, he had done in just two days. This all set us back $500–which feels like a steal and more than worth it.

We plan on patching the drywall ourselves and putting it all back together once Chris is in the clear, but that’s not stopping me from getting a plan in place. Finishes for this little laundry room/mudroom are making my head spin! I want it to coordinate with the adjacent kitchen, but not necessarily match. I think dark cabinets for this little room would overwhelm, truthfully. I’m figuring it out, putting together a mood board and gaining inspiration from unlikely sources–excited to share all that next week!

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What do you think?

  1. Angela says:

    Just came across this while searching for ways to remodel our bathroom into a laundry room. Yours turned out fantastic!
    I have been searching the how-to’s on what to do about the toilet pipe in the floor. Does it need to be blocked off, can you repurpose it for the washer drain, etc?
    How’s did you all address that issue?
    Thanks

    • Chris says:

      We just capped it off under the floor, which is fine to do. We actually used the drain from the sink that used to be in place for the washer drain.

      I hope that helps!

  2. Erin says:

    Traveling contractor for hire please? ! Also, if this has been said before, please excuse me ( I read you on Feedly so I don’t see comments often ) but I love your design decisions like, 100% of the time, which is why I’m having trouble with the full cabinet surround on the sink wall… I can’t see it. I think it’s crazy heavy and I know it’s balanced by the fridge wall and contrasted with the windows on the stove wall, but if you’re looking for more storage maybe an under cabinet shelf would help? Or even the single door to the counter cabinets give less of the heavyweight feeling?? Check these out…http://thehousediaries.com/blog/2014/6/13/june-16-before-after-kitchen-breakfast-nook ok, sorry, just had to go there!!

    • Julia says:

      Haha. I TOTALLY get it. I really do. And nothing is set in stone yet. But in my gut, I FEEL like it will look good. I do. Especially with glass fronts on those cabinets. Squint?;)

  3. Joseph says:

    nice work for 2 days. Really amazing

  4. Meagan Briggs says:

    Does Charly fit through that doggie door?

  5. Um, will your contractor come to Chicago? That amount of progress for that sum of money is unheard of here!

  6. Emily says:

    I am so jealous about the cost! You can’t get anything done in Boston for $500! I can’t believe they accomplished that much!

  7. Darcy says:

    WOW!!! $500 does seem like a steal — that is amazing progress in 2 days — I wish that man was in Colorado!! LOL!

    LOVE the Greta photo-bomb!! She seemed as surprise by the progress as much as we are!! :-) Can’t wait to see your mood board!

  8. Kates says:

    You totally took a lemon of a situation and made some amazing lemonade out of it! LOL! What progress!!

  9. Megan says:

    I can’t wait to see what you guys come up with!

    P.S Did Greta’s head peeking round the door make anyone else jump? Haha!

  10. Wow, amazing changes in just two days! (even Greta looks surprised!)

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