The Walls Came Down!

We had all intentions of waiting until Chris was fully healed to start demo-ing the old fourth bathroom/new laundry room, but plans changed and we couldn't be more excited to see and share some quick progress in that area. Before we start on the kitchen renovation, we wanted to get the laundry moved to its new place, so we could recess the wall for the fridge and frame out the new pantry. Here's a refresher floor plan so you can make sense of all that.

If you follow me on Instagram, you know that last week we had a bit of a set back when it came to installing our new window in the living room. While we got that mostly worked out and a new date set, we felt bad telling our contractor--one that finally seemed reliable and anxious and on time!--that we now needed to be the flaky ones. So, we asked him if he was up for doing some demo instead and he was all game. This little 4th bathroom off of the kitchen looked like this a year ago:

Since we have another half bath right off of the entry, we decided to basically gut this whole bathroom/laundry area off of the garage and make it more suitable for our needs. Before our contractor arrived, I snapped a few pics with my phone:

And the next thing I knew the wall was down and it felt huge!

When he left last night, in addition to the walls coming down, the return vent was moved to the side, the washer and dryer hookups were in place, a new dryer vent (lower left) was installed and vented out the roof!, a new 220 outlet for the dryer was installed, light switch was moved, floor was patched and probably a few other things I am forgetting. He has a few things to finish up today like moving the plumbing for a tiny sink we plan on having next to the washer and dryer and grouting the floor, but we are blown away with how quickly he was able to have everything checked off of our list--something that would have taken us weeks to do, he had done in just two days. This all set us back $500--which feels like a steal and more than worth it.

We plan on patching the drywall ourselves and putting it all back together once Chris is in the clear, but that's not stopping me from getting a plan in place. Finishes for this little laundry room/mudroom are making my head spin! I want it to coordinate with the adjacent kitchen, but not necessarily match. I think dark cabinets for this little room would overwhelm, truthfully. I'm figuring it out, putting together a mood board and gaining inspiration from unlikely sources--excited to share all that next week!