Day 79 - Boring Flooring

While things were getting prepped for the chickens in the barn, other projects had begun in the house. We knew that we would be updating the majority of the house after moving it. That first step was transforming an empty room just off the kitchen into a more user-friendly laundry room. Upon moving in, the washer and dryer were squeezed into a narrow room connecting the kitchen to the back patio. With a family of five needing an endless cycle of washing and drying, a more comfortable and spread out space would certainly be appreciated.

Removing the brown carpet brought back memories of a similar carpet-removing experience at our first house. Unfortunately, we didn't find hardwood under this carpet. Instead, there was a lovely orange and yellow patterned linoleum floor that screamed 1970’s. After removing screws and staples, we covered this blast from the past with plywood in preparation for an installation of luxury vinyl planks. Sounds exciting, but it was chosen because it looked nice and is easy to clean, very appropriate for a laundry room. We did our homework and were prepared to install the floor ourselves. But with our schedules and three active children, we decided that it was best to have more experienced and much faster professionals handle the job. Once installed, we worked with some plumbing and electrical friends to get everything ready for a functional laundry room.

We added a larger utility sink, an updated washer and dryer, and even managed to install our own cabinets and shelving units. The laundry room was ready to go.

In an attempt to work smarter, not harder, we combined jobs. While the laundry room was being prepared, we also removed the vanity and toilet in the gold-themed bathroom and replaced them with newer, present-day versions. We also removed the burgundy carpet from the living room area. While vinyl, wood-like flooring was installed in the laundry room, brand new hickory hardwood flooring would be installed in the living room and updated bathroom.

And if that wasn’t enough, we also needed to remove square, white porcelain tiles from the bathroom and front hallway. For various reasons, this was both the easiest and toughest step.