New Laundry Space

When we moved into this house, the laundry was in the mechanical room and the machines were dated enough that they were harsh on our clothes.

We decided it made more sense to bring the laundry up a floor, just off the garage, because we would never use the wet bar /liquor cabinet that was there. Also, the bedrooms were on the top floor, so having the laundry three floors away was less than ideal.

This was one of the first projects in the new house, and I didn't think to grab a photo of the sink area before we started ripping it out, but you can see a little bit of it in this photo here:

It was just a stainless steel sink in a laminate countertop with a couple shelves above it. There was a folding door in the space too that came down quickly after moving in.

We were told that the original space for the laundry in this house was just to the left of the sink area, but had been since turned into an additional shower. This was a good thing to hear because it meant it was likely possible to put in the new space to the right.

Once we ripped out the old sink and shelving, there was some wall damage that would need to be fixed, but first we had to have it plumbed and wired for the laundry.

We had hired an electrician to put the appropriate plug in the space, and a plumber to set it up for new machines. It went smoothly for the most part, but the beams behind the drywall proved to be an unexpected road block for the plumber and he had to cut out a significant amount of drywall and go around the supports. He was so great though and worked longer than expected to get it to work for us.

The flooring was being replaced all at once by a contractor we hired to tile the bathroom space. As we learned from a previous home improvement project in our townhome, it's best to hire someone to do the tile work.

This was a great space to experiment with drywall because it would eventually be

covered by a stackable washer and dryer.

Piecing together several smaller pieces of drywall was Drew's first solo attempt:

After showing my dad on FaceTime, and talking it over, we took those pieces down and started again:

He told us it'd be better to have less pieces of drywall so there would be less mudding at the seams, so we worked together this time. (You can also see the drywall patches and spackle drying in the photo above)

I created a template out of construction paper:

It was an unusual shape and we cut it out of one large piece together using an oscillating multi tool and circular saw.

The first piece of drywall snapped when it was being cutout with the circular saw, fortunately, we bought extra drywall to work with and the second full piece was successful.

It took three attempts of holding it up and marking what needed to be trimmed before it worked in the space, but it went pretty fast because we were working together. I was very nervous around the more fragile parts of the cutout.

Then came the mudding of the seams:

And finally, the texturing and painting:

Is it the best drywall job? Absolutely not. Did we learn a lot along the way? Yep. Sure did. Fortunately, it is going to be covered by the machines, but we learned enough to do smaller patches and coverings with drywall on future projects.

Getting the appliances delivered and installed was...less than ideal:

First attempt: We had to reschedule on our end because we were exposed to someone with COVID (we did not contract it, fortunately, we were outside at the time, but better to be safe)

Second attempt: They didn't bring a stacking kit for the machines and I needed to order that separately so they took our old machines, and left the new ones in the boxes in our garage. Measured the space, and said it would work.

Third attempt: They cancelled on their end because they didn't get the stacking kit shipped

Fourth attempt: We apparently didn't have the proper ventilation in the space so we needed to get a contractor to install that first. (This would have been nice to know from the previous guys that showed up so we could have decreased the number of times someone had to come out here) Measured the space, and said it would work.

*hired a contractor to reroute the vent from the old location to the new space, that wasn't cheap*

Fifth attempt: They showed up without the cables needed, but then tried to say the machines wouldn't fit in the space. (after they left, we measured the space again, and there's plenty of clearance to fit in the space)

Sixth attempt: They called to say they were on their way again, but when I asked them if they have the cables needed, he said "they didn't leave that behind before?" mumbled a little more, and then hung up on me without saying anything else (and didn't show up)

Seventh attempt: They got it installed! It juts out more than we had hoped, but it sticks out because of the vent system- the other option is a more fire hazard style of vent.

Honestly, having laundry in the space is huge for us, we don't mind if it sticks out a few inches more than we anticipated.

This was a long and expensive process.

Looking back, the things we'd do differently are:

• Find a contractor that specializes in laundry placement so we could have found out about the vent situation sooner, and just made the process smoother/faster

• Not let them take our old laundry machines until the new ones were set up (we spent a good amount at the laundromat after waiting a month in hopes that it would show up)

• I will not order large appliances from Home Depot again. That process was a nightmare and took far too long. Lots of miscommunications on their end. (Drew also said he had issues with them for the townhouse kitchen appliances, which I don't even remember, so it seems to be a pattern with them.)

I'm so glad this is over. It didn't go according to plan at any step, but we now have working laundry in the space, and updated machines that won't wreck our clothes like the old ones.