"At the end of the day, it's just a laundry..."

Actually, it turns out it may end up being more than just a laundry, but we'll come back to that later. 

For now let me bring you up to date with the laundry renovation as it seems some time ago that we started this project. Our cabinet maker (who we used on the last house) delayed the job until just before Xmas, then said he needed to delay it until the first week of January. We hadn't heard from him at the end of the first week of January, so we contacted him and he said all my other jobs are taking longer than expected, and if you want to take the job elsewhere please feel free to do so! So we did - we gave the job to ourselves - a job which we had wanted to do from the start but time wise it was too hectic for us to tackle in the last two months of 2014. However the start of 2015 has given us the time, and our former Tradie has given us the motivation, to tackle this project ourselves. So read on to see how we are progressing.

The above photo is the 'before' shot, although the brand new integrated Bosch washer dryer was due to the old top loader dying weeks premature before its original intended demise!

This is me completing part one of the gutting work in November. The ol' guzzler hot water system is now gone and a new system has taken up residence outside. All the exposed pipework is gone as well (I don't know what they were thinking when they put that in?!)

After much deliberation, we decided to go for the Flatpack laundry cabinets from Bunnings over the Kaboodle range. While the Kaboodle range offers wider options in terms of cabinets and colours, it is also more expensive. We thought the white would tie in well with the existing floor tiles (at the end of the day, it's just a laundry...) and we would look to the bench top and splash back tiles to jazz things up a bit.

We were constrained to choices for Laundry tubs as the wall next to the door is narrow at 500mm, so doing an inset tub in a 600mm standard bench top wasn't an option. In the end we went for this Everhard 45L laundry trough and cabinet which will do the job just fine (at the end of the day, it's just a laundry...) 

Rather than the traditional wall mounted laundry tap and spout you find in older styled homes, we've chosen an Estilo side lever sink mixer to try and make things look a little more modern.

Once home I had the joy of putting together the three Flatpack cabinets, starting with the tall broom cupboard. I put it together in the garage and then had to man-handle it into the house with Kate's help - this thing is deceptively heavy! 

I have to give Flatpack due credit, these cabinets were real easy to put together, even the three drawer cabinet was relatively straight forward.

The joys of renovating, moving everything three feet to the right to do some more demo work. We decided to go with three wall mounted cabinets, and that meant chiseling the existing render off part of the wall so the cabinets would all sit flush.

This shouldn't take long he said...

Three hours later - finito!

Does anyone remember the painter lady?

Here she is making a guest appearance!

The first cabinet being fitted. I'll be building a bulkhead to fill in the space between the cabinets and the existing cornice (at the end of the day, it's just a laundry...) 

Almost finished part one of the fit out. Our plumber Ray returns this week to fit the sink and mixer, and then I can install the end panel between it and the Bosch front loader, followed by the wall cabinets and bench top, and then Kate and our tiler can crack on and install the splash back. There will also be a void ~900mm wide underneath which is where we plan to put a portable ironing trolley.

I know we keep saying it's only a laundry, but while we were looking at the laundry in this new layout and the position of the void, it dawned on us that this large laundry room could potentially do double duty as Kate's sewing room. You get a nice breeze through the screen door and plenty of natural light during the day, plus the mobile ironing trolley can be set up against the back wall for easy use whenever Kate is making one of her dresses for the girls. Which is pretty cool, because while it's just a laundry, it makes sense to make it more functional than remaining just a laundry.

Stay tuned because the next laundry post when we get to it will be the finished product!

Cheers, Col