Our Laundry Room Half Way Mark
One thing I can tell you, HGTV is totally a crock on getting homes in great shape in only 48 hours. We have been working on Our Laundry room for 5 months now and although the light is shining bring at the end of the tunnel, It has been a long process.
I remember doing our initial walkthrough with this home back in June 2018 and knowing that the basement laundry just WOULDN'T work for our family (the basement is just one up from a rocks and dirt). When we finally got the keys mid August, Rob, my dad and I walked around trying to figure out how to get a laundry room on the main level. Most of it involved a stackable washer and dryer and bumping walls out in already cramped spaces.
Within a month of living in the home, we realized that the mud room was too small for us to all fit in at once when returning home, and that the family room, was awkwardly large and a lot of wasted space. So, we came up with the plan to move the wall in between to cater to a smaller family room and a laundry and mudroom combined. It solved the laundry issue without resorting to stackables shoved in our downstairs powder room.
So, next was pricing it all out. We knew we needed to have a new roof in the near future and replace our oil tank so budgeting was huge. Just as we started that process we heard of a design and contracting firm in halifax called Invogue. Not only do they help you with designing your layout, but they also have a showroom for you to pick out your products in, and a team to do all the work. They were our first stop (and somewhat last).
After they came and took measurements of our future space, we sat with them and came up with a layout, an overall budget, and chose our flooring and cabinets. For them to take on the entire project from start to finish, from moving the Wall, electrical, plumbing, flooring, and cabinetry, as well as all of the finishing work, they layed out the budget of $17,000 which to be honest what was kinda what we expected. We didn't want this to be a rushed DIY. Our home has been here for over 100 years and we wanted to keep that quality of work in all aspects that we added to it. That being said, we had saved by keeping the original cabinetry in the Kitchen and only replacing the countertops so we knew our budget was around $7000 for the project. We took that to Invogue and started picking away at the project and figuring out what we could take on by ourselves, or do in exchange with friends instead of paying out of pocket. Invogue was fantastic through the whole experience and really helped us get the project into our price range.
One huge help to our budget what having a friend do the whole construction of the room, framing, drywall, and plumbing in exchange for their wedding photos. Having the ability to do that shaved over $2000+ off the overall cost and got us to the point where Invogue was able to come and do their part which was install our new hexagon white tiles, MDF wrapped cabinets (less chance of chipping) and our butcher block countertop.
One thing that we weren't expecting, when we removed the wall and closet from the mudroom to the family room, we found out that the two rooms had about 8 inches difference in ceiling height. To solve that, we were able to grab some rough milled lumber for free from up the road and add it in to make it look like a beam that has been there for years and also make sure it's all structurally sound. Problem Solved.
So, What did it all cost is one of the biggest questions we have gotten. To answer, I'm going to do a break down on each element of the room.
WHAT IT COST:
- Demolition ($1000)- Free thanks to my brother in law and his trailor
- Framing, drywall and plumbing($2800)- In exchange of Wedding Photos
- Electrical ($1800)- We used a friend of a friend's Company BDev Electric and was able to get it done for only $1000
- Subfloor install and prep ($450)- Rob did it with $150 of material
- Schluter DITRA Floor Membrane ($400)
- Hex White Matte tiles and grout ($1000)
- Flooring Installation ($1200)
- Cabinets ($1800)- this was our big splurge as we wanted them to last
- Cabinet Pulls ($70)
- Cabinet install ($600)
- Butcherblock countertop ($800)
- Painting ($900)- Free as we had leftover white paint in our basement and did it ourselves
- Washer and dryer install- Free as we did it ourselves
Total Cost: $12,820 What We Paid: $7020
We were able to save over $5000 by doing a lot ourselves and having friends help in certain areas. But, that also meant having it take months to complete. If we had Invogue take over the project from start to finish, the whole thing would have taken 8 weeks ( if you have the ability to I WOULD) and be finished. But, by doing this way, it allowed the room to fit in our budget as well as paying for each step along the way be broken up to help.
So What Is Next?
As you can see from the price list, as well as the photos, there are a few things still not done which are apart of our phase 2 of the project. If you remember my Inspo blog post about the space, we are wanting the room to look less modern and suit the overall feel and age of the home. In order to do that, we are going to be adding thick baseboards around the room, bead-board style wainscoting, and toping it with a thick shaker peg rail through the entire room to aid in wall storage and to match the rest of the original woodwork in the home. We are also going to paint all the new wood work in the same grey as the cabinets to give it a monochrome feel. EEK!!
But for now, while we save up for phase 2, I'm going to enjoy having a laundry room that feels good doing laundry in, and a mudroom big enough for a family of 5, plus Zeus our dog.
Links To Items In The Room
- Washer
- Dryer
- Drying racks (Smaller version here)
- Basket (custom made)
- Rug (vintage)
- First Aid Kit
- Tile
- Similar Pulls
