more progress on the laundry room

baseboard painted

shelves up

texture painted, cleaned up

Well the laundry room is getting close. I finished cleaned up all the mess from the texturing and masked off the floor trim. Meanwhile Tom nailed up the shelf rails and cut cedar to trim the space between the wall and ceiling. I used some paint from the garage which doesn't quite match but it's close enough for the space behind a washer and dryer. Tom cut shelves which I will have to paint before we move the appliances into place.

We are still trying what to do for the sliding door. What we want is something with translucent panels kind of like a shoji screen. There are some beautiful sliding doors on the market but they cost a small fortune. Ikea has a nice looking metal/translucent door that is inexpensive and lightweight; unfortunately it was discontinued and the local store was out of the size we need. But they have a larger door we can cut down to size. Either that or take another pass through the Habitat for Humanity store and see if there is anything usable. That or build it from scratch.

texturing and painting the laundry room

I finished taping, sanding, plastering etc. on the sheet rock.

At last I taped off the edges of the walls and put paper all around the ceiling.


The first bucket had just a small amount of paint left from the last room. It was so thick that I wound up spreading it with a putty knife and using the roller only for even texture. The new can of texture paint was plenty liquid, so it went faster after that. But paint splashed and splattered everywhere. I was prepared with old clothes, plastic gloves, goggles and a head scarf (I know from experience that sanded paint is hard to get out of your hair). It's not as even as I would like but it's good enough for the inside of a washer/dryer closet.

Tomorrow we'll be finishing up so hopefully we can move the appliances inside. Note to self in future: do sheet rock and texture painting before laying down floor and ceiling materials. Also get some kind of mortar spreading tool instead of trying to use a putty knife.

cedar beam for the sliding panel door

This is the track for the sliding panel that will hide the washer/dryer or serve as a privacy door for the shower area. We had to add another board so the door will clear the wall as it slides by, and put the rails up twice because we forgot the cars.

putting up the track


view from west side of room


Tom used 3 boards to mount the track and covered them with cedar so it looks like a single large beam. The bathroom smells great in this picture from all the cut cedar.

cutting the cedar


attaching the cedar beam


finished view from north side of room

we have a shower!!!

For the first time in over a year we are able to bathe in the house again. It felt gloriously decadent to take a shower at home. Tom grouted the last of the shower and replaced the temporary drain with a rubbed bronze one.


Everything works, and the bathroom built up a nice warm steam. The house can be very cold (it's 58 degrees in the room where I'm writing) so we can use a warm room. (In summer I think the transom window will help the heat escape, and we won't need to use much hot water).

The experimental rain shower head puts out a generous amount of water, but it probably needs to be adjusted. Water only came out of the periphery even though there are holes in the center. After trying out the shower Tom is thinking about redesigning it so the spray covers a wide area. The overhead spray really complements the handheld shower.

It felt very spacious compared to the shower stalls and bathtub showers I've been using before.

We decided that we need a shower door. Initially we were hoping to avoid one -- the look is much cleaner -- but I think the "snail shell" design requires a lot more space. Tom mounted the shower head so it sprays away from the doorway, but with a hand held shower you are still likely to blast it in the wrong direction sometimes. I'm glad we are using marine varnish on the exterior door because it will probably still get a little wet. We talked about possibly tiling further up the wall, and varnishing the ceiling, but nothing firm yet.

sheet rock in the washer/dryer closet

I have been taping sheet rock in the washer/dryer closet and caulking cracks. There are some places that I will have to hit again with the sheet rock cement (putty? spackle?). I forget the proper name but I hate the stuff because it sticks to the plastic bag and dries around the edges. I'm still not sure when to use the paper tape and when to use the plastic mesh stuff. At the trim I gave up and used ordinary caulk, which is much easier.

moved the sink

The other major change this week is that we moved the sink from our W.C. to the big room so it is equally close to both toilets. Tom installed a towel bar today.

shower almost complete

Tom is grouting the shower at last. He's finished with the floors in all three parts of the bathroom, and this picture shows the bottom half of the shower wall. The only thing left is the upper part of the shower and we can actually bathe in the house again. Tom found a set of handles at Habitat for Humanity for a few bucks that he is going to make to match the bronze finish on the hand shower and water spout. With any luck we'll have a fully operational battle station by the end of 2009!