Laundry Room Progress

[vacfanatic]

Hey guys,

It's been almost 2 years in the making, but I'm pretty much 95% done with this project I've been working on in my spare time.

To recap, I started out with a plain Jane dungeon of a basement and turned it into something I can live with. Keep in mind I have another 25 years to pay on this mortgage so I wanted to make it suited for what I wanted.

I will start out with a couple of before pictures of the basement, and then current ones. I'm still not finished with the baseboard trim, but that's pretty much about all I have left to do. I've got some storage shelving to put in and need to order a table for folding laundry but that's about it.

I am a handy guy, and did everything myself. Minor electrical, plumbing, framing to enclose unsightly overhead and rear basement wall plumbing, drywall (NEVER AGAIN), texture, paint, lighting, tile, carpet, water softener, utility sink, custom lighted detergent cubbie, built a custom pedestal for the Mieles that you could park 4 semi's on - it weighs about 180lbs alone... and last but not least the Miele W3033 and T8003 vented dryer.

Grand total tops just over $10,000, a whole pot full of cuss words, sweat and about 40,000 trips to the hardware stores.

Here are a couple of before pictures for starters. Started to paint and was like no, this is not going to cut it.

Andrew

 

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This is what is hidden behind the utility sink wall (with access panels of course).

 

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Stick down tile... out it went. This is directly behind the Persil artwork and Miele washer/dryer now.

 

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Coming down stairs to basement - none of the ceiling was insulated or finished, steps were just wood and we had put down stick down tile to try and pretty up the concrete floor. Lighting was all run through conduit fixed to the bottom of the floor joists from the homebuilder. Pretty fancy - this is what I referred to as the dump basement. LOL

Left side is where the sump pump is at, now where the custom detergent cubbie is built around to hide the sump pump (with an access panel of course).

 

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Now for the transformation. Lots of work... never again. Note I have the pedestal pulled out as I cleaned the dryer vent last week and haven't bothered to push the near 500lbs of equipment / pedestal back...

Bottom left is the access door for inside to get at and inspect / clean out the sump pump regularly.

 

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Wall on right is a visual barrier to the awesome plumbing and such as depicted in first photos.

 

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Self installed carpet, trim, and tile.

 

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Whirlpool (Ecodyne) 30,000 grain water softener, and also a whole house sediment filter behind wall to left. (Prior dishwasher disaster warranted the need for both), but I decided to implement them into this project while I had the motivation. Easy to install - getting the softener home required unboxing in Lowe's parking lot and laying it in the back seat of the Accord - water sotener in an Accord, who'd of thought?

 

[cfz2882]

Wow,impressive transformation of that basement laundry!!

 

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Above the sump pump holds all of my laundry goodies. Lighted for fun!

 

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Makeshift seating area for some R&R in front of the King & Queen. A little to do list of laundry needs to be done as well.

 

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Self built custom pedestal - chrome drawer pull handles I found from Restoration Hardware (about the only thing I can afford from that place!) - thought they would tie the pedestal to the chrome trim of the W3033 nicely.

 

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Coming down from stairs.

 

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Washer (from Germany of course)

"You spent how much on a washer and dryer and from where?" x40000000 times already. I'm nuts, yea, I know.

 

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Dryer that I finally got put in a few months ago. She sat in the family room for months while I finished the basement.

 

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That's pretty much it! Lots of work and I'd promised an update for a few people and finally got around to posting progress. I'm very happy with how things turned out after all the hard work and money spent on the project is over.

Andrew