One Room Challenge: Laundry Room – Week 3

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Welcome back to the One Room Challenge. Today marks the halfway point of this 6-week makeover journey, and things are looking pretty good in my new laundry/bathroom…even though the photos in this post (and my week 1, week 2 posts) are full of dirt, dust, and mess!

This week, I’m sharing what happened after the plumber gave my pipes a makeover. He installed a shower, as you may recall, so when he left there was a big trench in my room. The floor needed patching, the walls needed insulating, and there was still a bunch of plumbing to take care of.    the beginning of a beautiful shower

check out those pipes

insulation installation

My drywaller patched up the floor with cement(I keep calling him my drywaller, but, honestly, Chris can do everything!). Once that was dry, my electrician (aka my dad) and my tiler got to work.

drywall installed

In terms of electrical work, quite a bit needed to get done. Dad installed new lighting, updated outlets, and did the prep work for my floor heating system. He also installed a new fan.

new electrical

In terms of the floor heating system, I’m very lucky to be working with WarmUp on this project. The people I have been working with from WarmUp have been phenomenal. Really informative and great communicators. I was so pleased that they were as eager to work with me as I was with them!

To get the floor ready for the heating system, my tiler first installed the WarmUp insulation boards. These insulation boards not only prepped the flooring for the heating mats, but these boards will also ensure more energy efficiency.

WarmUp insulation boards installed

After the boards were secure, my tiler laid down the heating mats – the DCM-PRO membrane.

Dad was then able to install the cables on the mats. The cables were tested before, during, and after installation to ensure the product’s resistance had not been altered. Dad let me know that the installation of these cables was eaaasssy! Good to know, right? He liked the simplicity and straightforwardness of the DCM-PRO system, and he liked the contrasting colours, too, because this meant that everything was really easy to see.

WarmUp floor heating mats and cord installed (no heating on the right side of the photo because that’s where the toilet and vanity will be installed)

Stepping out of the shower onto a heated floor is going to be divine!

 

After everything was installed and tested, the tiler put a skim coat over the WarmUp floor heating system, so that it would be ready for tiles.

I encourage you to check out what the One Room Challenge guest participants and featured designers have been up to during week 3.

If you’d like to see more of my ORC progress, see my week 1 and week 2 posts. Thanks to WarmUp for supplying my new floor heating system. All opinions are my own.

One Room Challenge: Laundry Room – Week 2

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Well, my first impression of the One Room Challenge event is great! I have been enjoying learning about the people and the projects in this new-to-me community. There are so many creative people out there doing beautiful things, and I encourage you to have a look at the One Room Challenge featured designers and guest participants to be inspired about home renovations and interior design.

As you may remember, I’m currently tackling a laundry/bathroom renovation (see my Week 1 post for before photos). I keep calling the space my laundry room, but, in fact, this space serves a dual purpose. I primarily use it for my weekly laundry sessions, but it is also used as a guest bathroom. I was fortunate to have a finished and functioning space when I moved into my home five years ago, but it was beyond dated.

A refresh has been in the pipeline for quite some time.

The layout of the space – laundry, sink, toilet – will not change in my new space. But I have broken down a wall to squeeze in a shower. This is major. This has required quite a bit of plumbing.

While my family and I tackled the demo, I have four people working on putting things back together: a framer/drywaller, a plumber, a tiler, and my dad (aka pseudo-electrician). Each person is super skilled, and while I hadn’t worked with three of these people prior to my project, they have each lived up to my standards of high quality craftsmanship. These people are gems, let me tell you! I feel very lucky!

My framer, plumber, and electrician were the first people on the scene. My framer took down existing doors, installed (or reinstalled) studs, and installed a pocket door.

While the framer took a bit of a break, the plumber got to work. I had a lot of items on my plumbing to do list on this job: installation of brand new shower plumbing, switch out/clean up of old pipes, installation of new ball-valve switches, etc. The space got dusty and messy, and I enjoyed watching the progress each day.

This laundry/bathroom turned open concept!

a grid of pipes and 2x4s

This p-trap makes me happy because it means a more efficient plumbing set-up for my laundry and sink.

I lived with a trench for a little while.

There wasn’t much left of the original floor. No loss there!

And because I know some of you like to see pretty things during the One Room Challenge recaps, here’s the art I’m going to use in my new room:

Clothespins (c/o)

I encourage you to check out what the One Room Challenge guest participants and featured designers have been up to during week 2.

Note: See my Week 1 post to get updated on my One Room Challenge project.

The Friday Five: Faves from the One Room Challenge

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If you’re in the design or blogging world, you’ve likely already heard of the One Room Challenge. The ORC, as it is also called, gives designers, bloggers, and design enthusiasts a challenge to make over a room in a 6-week period. Challenge is right. As an observer, I love to see the transformations. I think just about any before-and-after is dramatic, even if they don’t include professional photography sessions that sometimes happen with the ORC rooms.

There’s a select group of 20 designers/enthusiasts who are officially ORC participants, and then there are another 200 or so (I think) who are guest participants. It’s all very fascinating, if you ask me. People really get into it, and the participants are fairly open about sharing their design vision and process.

Here are five end products that really caught my attention, but I would encourage you to check out all the ORC featured designers and guest participants if you’re looking to be inspired by traditional/modern/interesting design!

powder-room-reveal-20

powder room, Wife in Progress (that floor!)

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sun porch, Worthwhile Domicile (those shelves! that ceiling height!)

VF_WinterCres_Maya1126_WEB-700x800

teen room, Vanessa Francis Design
(I love the addition of the trumpet and the story that goes with)

one-room-challenge-love-on-sunday

bedroom, Love on Sunday (I love Amy’s use of textures in her white bedroom.)

marblesteamshower

bathroom, Simplified Bee (such a luxurious shower space!)

A 6-week timeline for a room make-over…could you do it? Have you done it?

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