The downstairs of the
Rested Dog Inn....

For a good part of the month of August 2004 we were busy finishing up the renovation of the laundry room. When our old washer for all intents and purposes gave up the ghost (truth is we couldn't find anyone to work on it any longer 'cause that's how old it was) we decided to take the bull by the horn and not only get a new washer and dryer, but while we're at it, why not remodel the laundry room itself. Precious little had actually been done to it since we moved into the house almost 30 years ago and it was badly needed.

The new washer and dryer are of the new European style frontloading variety from Whirlpool. We opted to go with these for two reasons, they're much more energy efficient and when they are stacked they free up precious floor space in the laundry room. That meant moving water supply, install a new drain pipe, move the electrical for the dryer, install a new wall vent and, while we're in the mood, why not make and install some cupboards!

To make a long story somewhat shorter, this is the end result: floor cabinets with drawers for hiding and storing stuff, and cupboards.

The tile you see here on the backsplash is the same tile we used on the floor, as well as the counter on the other side of the room. The exercise with the tiling of the floor is not one we care to repeat. Because of an unfamiliarity with the choices of floor leveling compounds it became the job from hell, but we persevered and we will know better the next time we go through this again. In the end it worked out so that the level of the laundry room tile and the hardwood in the hall were the same: it looks great and impresses people you managed to do that; little do they know is was a fluke:)

The cupboards were built around some old doors Waita's dad rescued from a house demolition next door to his old house on McCallum Road. They are basically an arts and crafts style door, complete with the original hinges (art deco style). We were fortunate to find two sets of doors that would do the job and set about a design where they wouldn't look out of place, and while we're at it, why not incorporate some of the design elements we used in the closet/armoire conversion in our first bedroom remodel!

So, here you see the end results: the new laundry room sink and it's set of drawers below it, the cupboard above it and the counter, drawers and cupboard on the other side of the room!

The electrical panel will get a tidier look and the space you see to the left, just below the counter top, will eventually house a small tool chest, on casters, with a set of shallow drawers to accomodate a wide variety of tools.

It's not that visible in this particular shot, but the drawer on the far right bottom was designed to basically serve as a pull-out tray for the recycle bin, with the one directly above it intended for paper recycling stuff, such as newspapers, flyers etc. The bottom drawer on the left has sufficient size and depth to accomodate a variety of power tools: drill, jigsaw, sander, router and things like that.

The two pieces of tile you see in the corner at the back of the counter were just put up temporarily to get a rough idea of whether or not we should do a short back splash here as well, just to keep the wall from getting damaged. And, it looks as if it'll get done, likely sooner rather than later.

Note the vac's cannister, it became a concern by the middle of September '04.

As you noticed in August, the laundry room is continuing to undergo renovations and changes and, much to Waita's delight, is gaining us some very useful storage space.

Waita was looking for some old fruit crate labels we have carefully and safely stashed away- somewhere -. They're very safe indeed, so safe we cannot find them:) Her idea was to use them as a decorative accent on the preserves cupboard doors. So, look on the web and see what you can find.

There's alot to be found on the web in terms of fruit crate labels, mostly American of course, but a few choice Canadian ones as well. Even though the downloaded files were NOT of terribly high resolution, they were quite adequate for our purposes. The resultant prints were 'heat set' by pressing the print with a dry, hot iron and than given a thin spray coat of satin finish Varathane, glued to the doors of the newly built preserves cupboard and given another coat of Varathane to help further seal them and make sure they're on the doors to stay...

When you study them closely and focus on the various brand names, you will find a few brands reflective of the vocabulary of their day; brands which today would be considered politically incorrect. In this small picture you might make out 2 of the 3 brands that certainly today would NOT be a good choice for a brand name. They're on the right hand door, one towards the top, the other almost at the bottom.........

When you start a renovation project with only a rough idea of what you want to see when it's all over, odds are you'll find yourself doing a lot of 'If I'm going to do THAT, it makes sense to do this and this first'. The renovation of the laundry room is one of those projects. When all's said and done, the whole project really got it's start because of our need to replace the washing machine and it's a text book case of one thing leading to another, and another, and another.

Here I thought this past weekend that I was very close to putting up the screens that will hide the furnace and hot water tank, when I overheard Waita chatting with one of our neighbours about possibly moving the central vac cannister into the carport. That seemingly innocent comment set off a whole new thought process that went from here to there and back.

So you wanna move the vac to the carport? Let's see, we'll need to build into a new cupboard to keep it both sheltered and to reduce the amount of noise when you run it. That means you also have to move the electrical and move the vac duct work to the outside. With the newly found spare space in the laundry room we should really take advantage of that and use it for a built-in ironing board. That means you have to put a convenient electrical outlet nearby, and if you're going to do that then you might as well make an allowance for another duplex plug on the other side near the ceiling, where you might need power for your cable/sat distribution amplifier. What started out as moving one outlet, has transformed into moving the one, creating two new ones on the same circuit, connect a fourth one which had never been powered, and provide a light inside the new cupboard in the carport.

Similarly, the vac piping needed not just re-routing to the new carport cupboard, but one of the feeds, the one from the living room, had to be lengthened by about 5½ inches to align it with the new junction........it never bloody ends, just when you think you have it all figured out, something else throws a monkey wrench into the process.

Fast forward a couple of years -this would be October 2007- and here is how the hallway downstairs ended up being done. In order to maintain access to things like waterpipes and electric feeds etc. it was decided that rather than go for the typical suspended ceiling that we'd do something more decorative that would allow us access if so desired. This is how it ended up. Those are actually removable panels of drywall that have been painted and then covered with anaglypta wallpaper to simulate beadboard. The only 2 panels that are not removable are the ones with the potlights in them.

To the right of the right hand door we have started to build an extra storage cupboard that will be part shelves and part doors. This will house the bulky tools on the shelves and the drawers will serve as linen storage, quite the diversified use, what.