I have gotten my first rough estimate to finish my craft room space and… I’m kind of speechless.
Hubby and I did our research, so we had a kind of broad price range to expect this project to come in around, or at least a close ballpark figure. Remember, I’m supposed to be doing a large portion of the work myself, some of the big expense portions if you consider the cabinet work.
The number I was given today? It was 4 times higher than I’d really kind of hoped, but maybe only about 3 times higher than the top of what I expected. That wasn’t including the VERY high estimate I got from our HVAC people to take care of the ventilation portion of the project (again, wasn’t expecting that cost, though I will note part of their estimate included things I did not ask for, so this number isn’t completely accurate).
I’m so shocked and discouraged right now it isn’t even funny.
I know that a portion of this, the electrical, is going to be kind of a beast because we are going to have to expand our panel to accommodate the new load. I fully expect this piece to be on the bigger end, but… just wow! Not even CLOSE to what I was figuring.
What makes it even harder to swallow is the fact that this bid was from the only company that I have liked so far. Partly because the others haven’t even bothered to return calls. Or show up. What is left in my line up is Misogyny Guy and two other companies that haven’t returned calls to even set up appointments yet. I never heard a word from No Show Guy.
I have no clue what I’m going to do from here. One option is to have an electrician come in and take care of that part, but still do everything else myself. I’ve not done any framing before, but been around projects that have had it done, so I understand some basic (though probably not nearly enough). I’ve helped with drywall in the past, but not done it all by myself. What parts I did, I really disliked and is why I wanted to hire out that part.
I really need at least one other number before I can make any decisions, but there is a very real chance that this project, that I’ve already bought stuff for, may not get done. Or at least, not done in the way I want it. I may have to completely rethink my plans.
I spent the bulk of my day yesterday working out cabinet and shelf layouts for my craft room. I got probably one of the hardest spaces worked out, the one that ties all the sides together. It was kind of like trying to figure out an extremely difficult puzzle and the most obnoxious brain teaser combined, but managed to do it. I still have several sections to work out, but they aren’t as tricky or problematic.
Once that is done, I can finalize my lighting and electrical layouts, which means I can move forward with finding contractors to start the parts I can’t do myself. I still have the specific interiors and storage elements of those cabinets to do, but that can be done at any time and won’t impact any contract work.
I have all the tools I’m going to need either here or on their way and Hubby and I went ant picked up my counter tops the other day. I learned that this is so NOT going to be a one person job and that I just might die before it is all finished and I can enjoy it because those suckers are HEAVY!! I’m still feeling it a couple of days later. And that was with help hauling all 4 pieces to the basement.
It feels amazing to finally be making progress!
*There isn’t any context and the colors aren’t correct, but this is going to be the layout of my back wall.
We have been in this house for a little over 15 years now. I have spent the entirety of those 15 years irritated as hell at myself that I didn’t demand a better design in the laundry room. It is plenty big, just a little poorly laid out so that there is a ton of wasted space.
Hubby and I discussed having someone come in and do some work, including building a pantry cabinet and adding a couple of other shelves. We even started looking at people to do the job. Then we realized that getting our back door and framing around said door replaced couldn’t be put off another year or we would potentially have it fall out of the house because all the wood around it is rotting out. Have I mentioned that our builder did a shit job (I’ve lost count of the major issues we’ve had in this house)?
I did some math (yes, it actually hurt to do the math part) and some planning and decided I could hold off on a bigger project for a while if I could just get the shelves in because attempting to keep everything on the tiny little counter or the floor just wasn’t working. Those issue get made worse every time laundry is done since both BG and I hang up a huge portion of our tops and other things rather than dry them in the drier.
So I really had two different issues to solve. The first was shelving to get some of the stuff off the counter and floor. The second was figuring out a way to expand the room for hanging clothes up.
Laundry Room Project – Before Clothes Drying area
Again, this space is decent, but it isn’t well used at all. I did some research and found an expandable drying rack that you could mount to the wall. Once I got it ordered, I discovered it has the same problem as most wall mount products. It does not take into account that the wall studs you need to mount it to aren’t in the location you need. To fix the issue, I got a large 10 inch wide board that I cut to length, painted and attached to said studs. I was then able to mount the rack to the board without any worry that this is going to get ripped off the wall the second a couple of shirts gets hung on it.
Laundry Room Project – After Clothes Drying area
The fact that this is expandable means that I can keep it against the wall when I don’t need it or if I have something long that needs to be hung up.
Laundry Room Project – After Clothes Drying area
Expanded, this gives me probably close to twice the space, if not more, than what I had before. It also means that there aren’t shirts hanging off of every available surface on laundry days, including laundry baskets and over the small step ladder I have in there. That leaves barely an inch of space to get to the washer.
Laundry Room Project – Before Sink Area
Ignore the mess, that is part of the problem, as you can see. This is the second part of the project. I wanted a small, shallow shelf directly above the sink for all the smaller things I use most in that area. Detergents, stain removers, a couple of cleaners and a few other small bottle type things. I also wanted a much deeper shelf higher up that would span the entire space so that I could store some bigger things, often the back up items or bulk items I use to refill smaller bottles (like cleaners).
Laundry Room Project – After Sink Area With Shelves
The smaller shelf is only about 8 inches deep and only goes across the space above the sink. It was fun attempting to get it to work with where the studs were, but I managed to pull it off. The higher shelf is a 12 inch deep shelf and needed additional support in the middle because it is much longer. I did use a support that can hold a bar if I decided I still need a bit more space for some shorter hanging things in the future (BG’s dance clothes would be perfect for that space).
Both of these were made with really inexpensive lumber that I just painted with my trim color so it would blend with what I already have in there. I probably need to caulk up a few places (where the screws are and a couple of bigger gaps in board seams), but for the most part this is completely done. I am going to add a no slip liner to the smaller shelf to help protect it. I was also able to get it all done in a day, painting, cutting and mounting all boards. I do still really want a cabinet in there, but this is already a hundred times better than the mess I had before.
As with pretty much every single project I work on, I now feel like I’ve been hit by a truck. It also means that I didn’t get to read because it did take all day. At least the temps dropped a bit so it wasn’t crazy miserable in the garage while I was working.
The next project is going to be that back door, but that is way outside my DIY ability and I have some great guys scheduled to work on that in August.
The day started with Hubby giving the dog a chew treat this morning when he went to fix us coffee. Turns out, that treat ended up making a nasty mess on the carpet in the living room where she decided to chow down on it. I go to clean it up and I now have a lovely clean spot in a mess of a high traffic area. Typical me, this doesn’t work and I just decide to bite the bullet and just shampoo the whole living room as I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Noticing a pattern here?
So, the photo doesn’t fit with the season, but it is still perfect for today. My HVAC system finally got completed. We’ve been running at nearly 100% for several days, but were still waiting on the last damper for the zones which got put in today.
Upside… We have a working AC. Downside, the temps dropped and it hasn’t needed to be turned on yet, though we did close up the house and turn it on to test out how well it removes the humidity even when it doesn’t need to cool (awesome, awesome, AWESOME feature).
Yesterday, I moved the small, portable AC my guys dropped off for us into the living room when the kids got home because the house was up to 90 inside. Get it set up and running and I go to move the fans around and the unit dies, my ceiling fan stops and I’m thinking I tripped a breaker. Go to reset it and all the breakers are on. Nothing has tripped.
I unplug all the fans in that room and move them to other areas I know are on a different circuit, unplug the unit and as soon as I do, my ceiling fan starts back up. Everything runs fine for a while. It isn’t until hours later that I realize my fan is off again. At this point, a storm had moved through and dropped the temps drastically, so I just unplugged the unit. Fan starts working again.
Hubby goes to shut down some things outside for the night, comes back in and tells me the lights are off on the chlorinator for our pool. That is on its own circuit so it shouldn’t have been affected by whatever was going on in our living room. Checked that breaker and it is also not tripped. Even try flipping it off and back on, still no lights. So, we either have yet another piece of equipment in our house that just decided to up and crash, or we have a nasty electrical problem on top of EVERYTHING else. Or, quite possibly, both.
A couple of weeks ago I had ordered a new rain gauge online. The day it was supposed to show up, I get an email saying I needed to authorize a change and that I’d be lucky if I saw the thing by the end of September. I had thought when I saw it and the ones like it that there was zero reason why I couldn’t make my own other than needing the right materials, so I just decided to cancel the order and figure out a way to make my own.
What a crazy, chaotic, mess of a weekend. I am glad it is over, but it seems it was just the beginning of more home improvements and repairs. All unplanned, unwanted and kind of stunning.
I. AM. DONE! Not mostly. Not kinda. But done. What was really just supposed to be a kinda big, but not major project of moving stuff from one space in my house to another turned into this crazy, spider web of smaller projects that kept spiraling out to pick up other small projects along the way. It was kind of hellish and hard and tiring and a shit ton of work, but I ADORE the end results and I’m so stinkin’ pooped, I want to sit and not move for a month.
Stick a fork in me… I’m done! Well… with the painting part anyway. Tomorrow will be starting to move all my craft supplies from my office upstairs to the newly painted corner in the basement.
Most people probably wouldn’t see this and think it was a beautiful thing. For me, it represents getting rid of 18+ years of accumulated life detritus and FINALLY feeling like I now have a house filled with only one household’s worth of stuff.
I’m on day 2 of window replacement and I really couldn’t be much happier with it all. We have a stunningly amazing crew of guys that are doing such an amazing job. They have been courteous, kept their messes way contained, and been conscious of the cats as they have worked when they needed to access the area we had them confined in, which is damn near impossible with so many people in and out, carrying things and destroying others. There honestly isn’t much I can complain about. I really only have one issue and I’m pretty certain it was just an oversight that will get corrected today.
So, I’m in my last day of getting the house ready for the new windows tomorrow. I’m taking down the last of the curtains in the living room when I notice something on the ceiling. I turn to look and I have a nice line of water spots, nearly across the entire length of the room.
Yesterday was the start of a huge, deep cleaning and tossing out project. FINALLY after way too long, Hubby and I went through the basement and created our piles of trash vs. donate vs. keep. We are now ready for someone to come and get years of stuff we haven’t known what to do with or how to get rid of it.
