Bless This Mess › Life on the Farm › Building Our Dream House

Our Biggest Mess: Nasty Bathroom turned Laundry Room

By Melissa

on Jan 29, 2013, Updated Jun 27, 2024

Remodeling, remodeling, remodeling… do you think I’ll miss it when it is over?! Sometimes I can’t even remember life without a huge remodeling project to fill in all of our free time and to consume all of our energy (and money!). I dare say the project is coming do an end and after almost 18 months of working on it all of the time, I’m not sure what we’ll do with ourselves when it’s over. Wait, that’s a lie, I know plenty of things we’ll do when it’s over, starting with a nice long nap! Thomas really thinks we could be done in 6 to 8 weeks which is just crazy to think about. I’ll probably cry the day we put the for sale sign out as much as I’m ready to move on.

Here’s what Thomas has been working on lately. He tore the little back bathroom out, fixed the floor, replaced the back door and windows, and that space will be a mudroom/closet/laundry room. It’s going to be beautiful and such a nice use of the space.

Here’s what it looked like after I took all of our things out, moved into the new bathroom, and put all of our coats and shoes into the pantry. That’s the side door we use to come and go to our cars. We took the ceiling out a month or so ago, but it originally came to the top of the closet and door.

Here’s a look at that little yucky bathroom we used for over a year. I was so glad to see that shower surround hauled off… The toilet and sink you can’t see well and then that green is a shower curtain.

And here’s what it looks like today! I should have taken a picture while the floor was off.

And here’s a look at the new door. It’s so much better than the old one. None of that room had insulation either, so new windows and doors, insulation and drywall on the walls, and a new floor has made it so much warmer.

The blue tarp that you can see there was screwed up over the doorway to help keep some of the cold out, the kids out, and the dust out. After a week of using only the front door he took down the tarp and the kids were amazed at all the changes! Thomas is adding a closet to the left, then some cabinets for a folding table, and then the washer and dryer with more cabinets above them. Across from the closet is the perfect place for coat hooks and such. And the light that comes from the new door is just marvelous. The kitchen and living room are already very bright and have lots of natural light, but I noticed the added light right away. You can’t really have too many windows in my opinion.

Thomas needed to transition my washer from its creeper hole downstairs to this room when he hooked up the plumbing from the new bathroom and the mater bathroom. This room wasn’t quiet ready though, so I went a full 6 days without a washer (that’s a long time with three little kids and a working husband in the house). The dryer is still in the hole though, so I pack up clean clothes, carry wet clothes downstairs, take dirties into the new laundry room… and it’s all more adventurous with my one laundry basket. Really, I only own one laundry basket (when it’s full, it’s time for a load). All I’m saying is don’t take for granted the fact that your washer and dryer are sitting next to each other 🙂

The only drywall Thomas needs to hang in the whole house is in the closet in this room and then he is completely done with that. The downstairs bedroom, parts of the hall downstairs, the master bedroom and bath, and the laundry room all need to be mudded and taped and then we’ll be ready to paint. The carpet is ordered, we have all of the flooring for the mudroom; we are getting so close to being done. Mind. Boggling.

Thanks for letting me share this nuts-o project with you. You all take some of the crazy out of the process and help me to step back and see the fun in it, so thanks for that. You all are the best.