The Laundry Room Mishap

When designing your own home for the first time there are bound to be some design issues.  One that, at the moment, I am totally bummed about is in our laundry room design.  And I really didn't want to share this, I just wanted it fixed and hidden but then that wouldn't be as fun and just maybe it would help someone else think of this and not make the same mistake.  When walking into our laundry room what do you see but all the wires and plumbing and vents behind the washer and dryer.  It's an awful sight to behold and will need to be covered with a temporary wall or a large decorative item such as a vase or something.  I had a picture of a laundry room as my inspiration for ours not considering the wall placement and view to where the back of their washer and dryer were hidden.  Oh well, we'll add that to the list of things to fix eventually (that list seems to be growing quite rapidly) and I'll try to ignore it in the meantime!

no this is not my laundry room.  this is the inspiration picture for the laundry room, notice the wall on the right (just barely in the picture)

my laundry room, the view is fine once you're in the laundry room but...

because our door opens directly at the side of the counter the view when you walk in is the 'behind the scenes view' of our washer and dryer!  ugh!  not pretty.

Flooring!

Flooring!  Flooring!  Flooring!

Flooring has changed my life!  Well that might be a bit of an exaggeration but I am really excited and grateful to have a floor in our house!

This honestly has been the biggest transformation for me and for our home in my opinion.

Prior to the floor we were just camping out in the house.  Now that a floor is in we can transition it into a home!  This truly has been what I have been waiting for.  Prior to floor you make do and don't put everything up or together, you're just getting by but once the floor is in you can move in furniture and turn it into a home.  All the other things that still need to be done can be worked around all your household furnishings.

Another thing that was hard about not having flooring in was that it was loud in the house!  Everything from the tiniest bump on the floor reverberated throughout the whole house, now that the main living area has flooring that problem has been cut down dramatically.

It is still dusty as our bedrooms still don't have carpet in them but it is so much better and I finally have something to clean!!

We brought up our kitchen table and ordered a couch which should come in a week or two and maybe this weekend we can make it turn into a home a little bit!

Well, I could go on and on about my floor but I'll spare you and just share some photos of the process of getting in put in this past week!

laying down the laminate pad

first pieces being put in!

oh la la!

floor to run and slide on!

my first thought was to have a solid very dark floor but then we saw this and it was much less expensive and I liked the look of it so we were sold!  I like the way it looks laid out.

excuse the mess, that happens quickly around here when another project starts and anything in the vicinity needs to be moved out of the way, but it's a picture of the floor growing

A Week Off

A blessing in many ways, Nathan was able to get a week off from work the week of Thanksgiving.  We had moved in two weeks prior and things were moving slowly, as there is just not enough hours in the day to get everything done and at this point in the construction process there are 20 things that can done at once.  A priority list is a must at this point and deciding what's more important for our family and what will make our living situation easier and what has to be done and then all the other things that can wait.
I was definitely excited to be moving into our house for many reasons.  We'd be together as a family, my kids would have room to run around and let's not forget we would have heat and water!  But at the same time I was a little reluctant knowing it would have its share of challenges as well.  One of the hardest things for me was the floor.  The amount of dust in and on everything was atrocious.  We were constantly dirty and we were left in a temporary living situation.  Our beds were laying on sheets on the floor and very little could be moved to the main floor.  And like everything, it takes time to do each project and I began realizing where we were at in the building process and how much more we still had to do and realizing how long everything took and I just wasn't ready for that.  We realized we hurt ourselves with expectations.  We had expected to be much farther along at this point.  Now here it was Thanksgiving and we had weeks if not months ahead of us just to get it to feel more like a home and I came to my end.  So thankfully instead of me heading 'home' (to the West Coast) Nathan was able to take a week off from work and pour all that time into getting our house further along.  What a huge help it turned out to be!

The main items on our list were to fix the plumbing and get a working shower, get the cabinets in so we could get the floor in (which was the main item I wanted done), and to finish cleaning out the camper and get it cleaned.

Thankfully all those items were accomplished.  We put the laminate flooring in our main living area; living room, dining room, kitchen, sun room, laundry room and hallway.  (Carpet will be installed in all 3 bedrooms later by a professional)

And the time we had with Nathan was just as much needed!  Even though it was a week for him to take off from work and work on the house we were still able to all be together during that time which made all the difference in the world!

kitchen cabinets up!

laminate flooring put in!

camper cleaned out! (and brought into the house, eek!)

snuggle time with Daddy, check!

What an amazing husband and dad we have!  He works tirelessly and never complains.  He has built our family the most wonderful and perfect home and we are SO incredibly grateful for all he has done for us!