How long has it been?

As you can see, quite a blow out.

Summer seems to be the time that projects get done around here, and this summer is no exception despite my being in grad school.  This year the washing machine decided that it'd had enough and blew up.  The center tower had rusted out, and that was that.  And since we had to replace the washing machine, why not remodel the laundry room while we're at it?

This means new paint, new fixtures, new hanging cabinets, new floor, and of course, a new washing machine.

It's a rather straightforward sounding project, and we have a majority of the items on hand including the paint and the tile so with a week before the arrival of the new machine, we should be able to get the whole project completed.

The first things first, everything in the room comes out including the toilet, the shelving, old cabinets, and the shop sink.  

Next we strip the walls because we're going to paint and put up a new tile base along with the flooring.  And despite the previous owners not being solid in repair and upkeep, we are pleasantly surprised and relieved that they used greenboard in the room.  This will make life easier.

More prep work with the two machines being removed.  The big white spot was where the previous owners decided to paint around the old toilet rather than remove it to do the job correctly.  And the water hookup is quite low, so now is also a great time to move it to a more reasonable height.

A better shot of what I'm talking about above.  That outlet on the left is pressed up against the toilet which means to run water to it, we had to run to the outlets on the right with a flexible hose.  It works, but it's about as low rent as you can get.  Some drywall and plumbing work and we can make that outlet useable.

This picture was from several days later, as we prepped the room for painting.  What's transpired in between was the moving of the outlet (see above), and setting the insulation in the wall on fire.  The builders installed it backward, and while we were cutting the pipes in the walls, a spark set the paper on fire.  It was quite exciting putting it out, and that is why you should always have a fire extinguisher handy at all times.  But that excitement aside, the plumbing went quickly and we even managed to remove a massive clog.  I have my suspicions that the previous owners were heavily involved in some nefarious schemes including "cooking" based on what the clog was made of.  I believe you get my drift there.

Well it wouldn't be a Stark project without some sort of hiccup, and this project has had plenty.  We had to replace two tools - a dual action sander, and tile saw - and then just as we were prepping the floor for tiling, we noticed that it was peeling.  No big deal, we can just pull it back and cut it and is that black mold?

The previous owners hadn't installed the old toilet correctly, nor did they know how to install a floor.  So the toilet leaked terribly, and to counteract this, they used gallon upon gallon of glue to try and create a barrier with the old flooring.  As you can see, this doesn't work.  But it does make tearing up the old floor incredibly difficult.

This is where things stand now.  Luckily the black mold looks worse than it actually is, and we've done a great job cleaning it up.  It's nearly gone so we'll be able to install the new floor this weekend.  The room is also completely painted so all we're waiting on is the flooring and we can start putting the place back together.  And not a moment too soon since we've had to have the house opened up for ventilation, a wonderful thing when it's been 90+ outside.  I'm done with trying to go to sleep in a house that's hovering around 85.