Master Closet & Laundry – Getting close!
Last summer, I developed a detailed plan for the master closet/laundry. See the post here:
Master Closet and Laundry Design July 3, 2012sv
I really like the design and I’m even more convinced of its utility. The idea is to put raised front-loading washer/dryer in the corner of the room and use 3 Ikea Expedit shelves as the bones of the shelving units.
The wall with the window and the laundry units would be situated like this:
with the adjacent wall looking something like this:
Now that drywall is getting close, it’s time for me to start thinking about the details of the space. For instance, the ends of the purple clothes rods in the above picture. Should I have a vertical piece of lumber to frame in the space? Or should I have a clothes rod bracket that just free-floats?
Insulation
We ended up going with Foam insulation in the open areas. The cost was quite a bit cheaper than what we could get for the net-and-blow cellulose. I think as the job gets larger the cellulose gets cheaper but for this job, the foam was less than half the estimates we got for the cellulose We had open cell foam sprayed in the closet/laundry, the exterior wall of the master bath, and the rear wall of the 3rd floor bath. We didn’t have anything in the eves done. We are still trying to figure out just how to do the roof.
A quick lesson on foam after the jump
(more…)Weekend Update Jan 9&10 with extra snow!
First of all, I’ll start with a bunch of snow pictures:
This was Friday at about noon-ish.
and by Saturday morning:
We got about 25-26 inches. It’s really hard to tell because the high winds created drifts as high as about 4 feet. Neither Stefan or I went into work on Friday. Saturday was all about snow-blowing. It took for-ever. Stefan did most of the work but the hour or so of shoveling the porch and deck was enough to wear me out. The governor issued a driving ban starting at 2:00 on Friday and lasting until 4:00 PM on Saturday. There was also a parking ban in Arlington. That made clearing out the driveway difficult. Generally, we pull the cars out into the street, snowblow the driveway, and pull them back in but with this much snow and the parking ban, we spent Saturday snowblowing around the cars. Sunday we dug out the cars and shimmied them around in the driveway so that Stefan could get the snowblower through the remaining snow on the driveway. The parking ban is still in effect as of 10am on Monday. Our street desperately needs to be plowed again and could handle about 6 feet of widening. The difficulty is where to put all the snow. The banks are 6-8 feet tall in places which limits visibility and the smaller plows the city generally uses just don’t have the power to move a 6 foot snowbank not to mention we’re running out of places to put all the snow!
To top it off, we’re supposed to get about half an inch of rain today. Talk about bad driving conditions!
Sunday evening we braved a trip to 5 Guys and Home Depot. After our trip, we got some help from this website and worked on plumbing and electric in the 3rd floor bathroom for about 2 hours. That was the extent of the work we got done on the house this weekend. We did get lots done in those 2 hours. The electric is done and the plumbing is about 75% of the way there, just need to install a butt weld. Another 2 hours and we’ll be DONE with PVC!!! At least until we re-do the first floor bathroom. That just leaves putting in the vent fan, running Pex to the appropriate locations, and the attic stairs before we can call the 3rd floor bath ready for insulation and drywall.
I’m hoping this is the end of the winter but there’s another snow event on the horizon for next weekend. I’m already exhausted just thinking about more snow!
Stay warm!
Sarah
Weekend Update Double Feature: Jan 26&27 and Feb2&3
I seem to be on an every-other-week schedule. I did post a bit of plant news so hopefully that makes up for my silence.
Jan 26&27 my sister Bekah was in town. She had a business meeting in the Boston area on Friday and stayed for the weekend. It was great! We did a bunch of electric in the bathroom, talked paint colors, planned out the third floor bathroom, decided on light-fixture placement. It was a great trip. I took no pictures but instead just had fun with my sister and did a little of this and that. Stefan did get a good bit of the bathroom plumbing worked out on the third floor and cut all the beams in the ceiling of the master bathroom to make room for the duct-work to the half-bath fan. It was a great weekend with Bekah.
On Feb 2, we didn’t do much. It was an extremely rough week but I won’t get into that now. We read a bit and relaxed and did a bit of this and that. I winter-sowed a couple more jugs with Pansies and Black Eyed Susans. I also spread cardboard over the grass where we’re planning on planting the privacy hedge of Arborvitae. It’s the easiest way to kill the grass. In the spring just cut holes where you want to plant the trees and let the cardboard decompose. It really works great.
While I was out there, I saw something exciting:
Remember when I planted a whole ton of bulbs last fall? Probably not cause it doesn’t look like I mentioned it on the ol’blog. whoops! Anyways, this is a crocus bulb poking it’s head out of the ground. Yay! Crocus are really early bulbs and they will naturalize in a yard if you let them. I planted a whole bunch along with some tulips and daffodils under the weeping cherry tree. Bulbs are a bit of a new thing for me. They are a colder climate phenomenon and they fascinate me. Now I just have to keep the squirrels off the tulips. Yay bulbs!
The Washer and dryer we ordered on Black Friday was delivered.
You can imagine we aren’t quite ready for it. Oh well. I covered them in a thick blanket and wrapped them in plastic to protect them until it’s time to unwrap them and put them in their home.
In the afternoon we worked on the toilet drain in the 3rd floor.
This picture really tells the story of what we’re doing. A big tangle of wire, a bunch of PVC fittings, plastic on the ceiling to keep it warmer at night, a dust mask because everything is dusty. I think this might be a photo we frame just to remind us of this time.
Sunday we worked on tying in the sink drain in the 3rd floor. We’re almost done with PVC. I can’t wait for the day we can call that done! Stefan also had a late-night burst of energy and buttoned up the PEX supply on the second floor. I also put up this awesome shelf:
That should keep the cat out of my plants. The Bromeliad and Lemon tree will stay on the counter but Vector doesn’t seem to bother those as much as the succulents. I LOVE this shelf. It was meant to be a temporary thing but I think I may make it a more permanent fixture. I’m thinking perhaps a glass shelf supported from the ends. How thick would that glass have to be? Preliminary research indicates 3/8″ glass 4′ by 6″ would hold about 30 lbs. That’s about what I’ve got on that one now. I’ll have to visit a glass place and see what we can do. Hm. I’m liking this plan!
Well, that’s the update. I hope you’re have a good February. I’m liking the fact that it’s a short month and after February is March and with march comes the first bit of spring!
Sarah
