Evolution of the Mudroom/Kitchenette

With Gabe working his day job every other week, we were able to accomplish more on the house than we ever dreamed!  Honestly, I had felt like the house to-do list was impossibly long and didn't think we'd get near as much done on the basement as we did.

First, let's talk about the mud room. The vision was to create a space that functions as a mudroom and a kitchenette so that when we have visitors down there, for a night or two or a short term stay, they can have a little bit of independence and privacy. We want to provide countertop space, a microwave and functioning sink. There is a fridge/freezer right outside the basement door in the garage as well.

We can start with a look down memory lane at we found the space in 2014 (after the furnace had been moved to the other end of the house--one of the first things we did when we bought the place in 2013):

The furnace would have been next to the door to the left

Let's go through the evolution of the mud room.

From the get-go, we had a large open basement space split up by this staircase that came straight down. Near the end of 2015, we worked to turn the staircase so that we could enclose a sizable bedroom in that area, with the stair entry and discharge shooting straight towards the basement/garage door.

More efficient, see?

In mid-2016, Gabe moved the water heater to the other side of the basement, to be enclosed in a utility room:

An old freezer was put in its place for temporary. Always nice to have extra freezer space!

As it can be seen, we housed our washer and dryer down partially behind the stairs. It was down there until around August 2018, when we had built a space for it upstairs in the hallway next to the master bedroom.

Before (10/2016) and after (9/2017) the doorway to the bonus room was built:

By Thanksgiving of 2016, we had moved downstairs to the basement bedroom and it would serve as the master bedroom until our major addition was done (we moved in to our new addition master bedroom Thanksgiving of 2018!) Zoe was downstairs in that room with us. It was a blessing that the room was large enough for all of us to be in there comfortably. We went from a 10'3" x 12'9" bedroom space to a 12'6" x 16'6" size room!

From the doorway of the mud room looking into the finished space:

Back to the mudroom.

It remained unfinished though, for quite some time! Through our major additions upstairs, from the end of 2017, through spring of 2020, we basically did nothing in the mudroom, besides infrastructure like plumbing and electrical which are hard to photograph into something meaningful :)

Finally, in the spring of 2020, when Gabe had some time off due to the Coronavirus pandemic shutdown, we had an opportunity to tackle the space and get it up to speed.

Here's the mudroom in March 2020, in all it's red lights and baby chick housing glory:

Not to mention housing (more or less organized-ly) shoes!

First order of business is to get the extremely heavy slop sink out of the space so we can drywall the back wall (he had already managed to put polystyrene behind for insulation).

Gabe keeping all the plumbing straight--I don't know how he does it!!

The metal base the sink sits on crumbled under the weight of the sink--thankfully it didn't land on my toe! --as we managed to set the thing on its side to get it outta there:

A little sweetie posing in front of the newly framed wall:

Another cutie "helping" daddy attach drywall to the stud wall:

Apparently I didn't get too many pictures of the process of insulating, drywalling and mudding the space. Here's one awkward one, and you can see some of the constant shuffling around of the furniture and tools in there until the flooring was down and cabinets were in to house all the things that were in there that needed storing.

We did the next part slightly out of order--we put vinyl planks down first and then painted. Chalk that up to my impatience to see how the flooring would transform further what had once been a dingy, dark, dank little intersection of a space!

Flooring going down as shown on the sink wall:

Panning right, you can see how Gabe handled the framing of the doorway/hall under the stairs:

First he put a header in under the stairs and cut away the triangular part that was jutting down into the walkway. There is a slight bulkhead in the ceiling where the supportive header comes down and panels cover it (the ceiling panels/trim are not entirely finished).

Stairs wall:

And then paint!

And then looking at the wall to the right, the door to the guest room:

Panning to the right again, looking at the wall adjoined to the garage:

We painted some panels to stick up on the ceiling:

Here's where it gets really fun! I have been staring at this UGLY window for a long time (over 5 years!) and it's super inefficient energy-wise. SO, imagine my excitement to get to REPLACE it!!!!  YAY!!!

Remember?

From the outside, before the deck covered it up:

It's not even glass--it appears to be some sort of shoddy plexiglas that will never fully clean off it's been scratched so much.

YESSSSS!!!!

Woo hoo! And that embarrassment of cords and wires in the upper left corner are our ethernet connections and routing for the entire house. Once Gabe wired the outlet that will go up in that corner, they will get neatly tucked inside a wall cabinet, as soon as we get it (it was backordered a few days).  You can also see the panels installed on the ceiling--just know the seams will be covered with a trim detail, in time, in time.

We picked up our cabinets, from our contractor friend who got them cheap from a wholesaler, in August (all except the backordered one), all for less than $1500. We had a few cabinets we re-used from the kitchen we tore out upstairs, but honestly, the base cabinet we were really counting on wasn't savable. Back in the throes of our major additions it was left out in the garage when we'd had a few floods in there before the drainage was taken care of properly. The cabinet got all warped and moldy on the back. So, it will be used in my pottery studio shed someday, but until then, we got a new base cabinet instead.

It's plain to see that we mis-aligned the cabinets and window, so that was a bit of a bummer. It will become more clear when the sink and faucet are in place on the sink base. I kept telling Gabe throughout the project down there whenever he'd fuss over some detail, "it's just a basement!" so we could get a move on and now, after I have harped on the mis-alignment, he likes to remind me of my statement, "it's just a basement!" Oh well. You live and learn. And you learn to live with your mistakes.

We bought a 12' walnut butcher block sheet at Lumber Liquidators mid-August and gave it a quick cut at 5' to transport it and will cut off the excess when Gabe's ready for the final install. For now, they are just resting on the surface, accumulating tools and junk. It will be a wider opening for circulation through to the bonus room, in time, in time.  The walnut butcher block choice is intended to be a more cost conscious nod toward the materials we have upstairs without upstaging them. I think it will come out beautifully once it's oiled and sealed up.

In the picture looking down the hall to the bonus room, you can see the slight drop in ceiling to accommodate the support piece that enabled Gabe to cut out part of the stairs.

Here's a little better picture of what the closet under the stairs looks like:

Looking back towards the door to the garage we installed a bench, some hooks and shelves:

This bench, Gabe worked to give a built-in look. Eventually, I'd like to replace or recover the cushion since white in a mud room is proving to be a baaaaad idea. The wall mounted shelf and hooks were not a matching set with the bench, but I think they marry nicely. The chrome hooks might get some spray paint at some point, but for now that's not high enough on the priority list.

Gabe installed some of the under cabinet lighting as well. One of the overhead can lights is flickering so we took it out and it's nice to have a bit more light on the subject! The sink will go right there in the middle and the bar with hooks will hold the fake herbs from Ikea :)

It's coming together!

And one more with the rug I bought! It's jute and should hold up nicely to the dirt and mess of a mudroom. The color is pretty homogenous to the flooring, but it doesn't bother me and feels like a subtle design touch without being showy. I am going to add cobalt accents to the space in the form of my pottery from college that have been in storage for waaayyyy too long ;)

You can see that the last panel that was missing on the ceiling above the shelves is now in place.

Gabe had to go back to work abruptly at the beginning of September so our plans to finish the countertop slowed down considerably.

First, Gabe filled a few small voids in the butcher block countertop with black epoxy. Then he sprayed them with shellac. Lastly, he painted on the polyurethane coating and they took up space in the garage for a week or so:

Did I mention we got baby chicks?

To say the kids are enamored would be an understatement ;)

Next, Gabe cut the hole for the sink:

And dropped it in!

You can see how wonderful the walnut looks here.

Getting the sink faucet and water hooked up were the next order of business:

We sorta buggered up the caulk around the sink by waiting to long to wipe it off the surface of the wood, so it's going to take some time to figure out what product to use to get it off, besides painstaking fingernail scratching!

I also requested the hooks bar to be installed so I could add some greenery to the space and liven it up from all the white on white on white!

There's still handles to install, light switch plates to install and ceiling trim to finish, but it's usable and very handy for when we need to wash hands after handling the chickens. Goodness, there are a lot of uses that come in handy that we took for granted when we were without a slop sink down there for a couple of months!

Not completely finished, but good 'nough for now!

One more close up of the chicks now they've matured a few weeks:

Their names are Maple, Flower, and Lacey, from left to right.

There are more projects accomplished this past summer that will be detailed in separate posts. 

And that's a wrap for the progress in the mud room!

2nd house Updates! Kitchen projects

Onward to the kitchen.

Last summer when I wrote, we had painted the kitchen cabinets, stripped & resprayed the handles and were working to lay a black and white checkered vinyl flooring tile.

Check out the upstairs floor plan from the last blog on the house here to find your way around.

A reminder of where things started for us:

Where we left off last time:

This was all before we moved in last July.  We were scrambling to "finish" the kitchen before moving in.  It was already functional, but we had gotten a dishwasher for free from a friend that we wanted to install next to the refrigerator on the opposite wall.  Also, the space had no existing pantry and I wanted to add a bit more storage too.  When all was said and done, we added a butcher block countertop, more cabinets, dishwasher, microwave cabinet, and pantry.

Here we go!  This is our process.

Some of the parts of the puzzle:

dishwasher laying on floor, 24" upright pantry and 24" base cabinet

Before beginning, Gabe had to do some creative work with electrical.  The existing outlet above where the counter was going to go was connected to the refrigerator, so adding a microwave to that wasn't going to be able to bear the load, so Gabe added another outlet/circuit nearby (ended up being hidden behind the microwave).  So before we could put the fridge back in it's spot, Gabe had to get all the electrical squared away.

Then Gabe moved the refrigerator back into its place in the corner:

Then a dry fit of the base cabinet and dishwasher in place next to the fridge:

And then dry fitting the butcher block countertop and pantry:

This really was a puzzle that just so happened to work really well.  The low profile pantry we already had, the countertop we bought was 4' long which worked with a standard 24" base cabinet and a 24" standard dishwasher.  The cool thing is that we had about an inch or two to spare along that whole wall :)

The butcher block was originally a table top that Gabe removed the legs from and gave it a good sanding and reinforcing of the individual slats.

The upper cabinets worked out too, because we already had the wall cabinet box from the first house project--we just needed to buy a door-so I decided to go with a glass door :)  And since we don't have as much countertop space to begin with, we decided to buy a microwave cabinet shelf, which fit nicely above the base cabinet.

Upper cabinets installed:

Then, Gabe worked to install and hook up the water line for the dishwasher that was going in.

Shown below, Gabe is almost done with the installation of the base cabinet and countertop support installation:

Also, the original outlet has been patched over because it fell right where the countertop was going and had to be moved up a few inches to be accessible once the countertop was secured in place.

Nearly finished, the kitchen, even though it isn't as much of an eat in kitchen still has an open feel to it.  A bistro table will eventually go under the window as an attempt at a partial eat in kitchen.  Around the corner from the pantry is the basement door, so there must be enough clearance to pass through comfortably.

Lastly, I bought handles like the ones we already had and spray painted them to match to bring cohesion from the old to the new.

It was at this point that we could move into the home because this was the last thing that needed to be done before we could do so.



Much later (months later) we were able to take the time to work on the backsplash.  This was a winter activity, since it would be solely an indoor job--not taking up valuable warm weather projects time.  I believe we tackled this around Thanksgiving break.

I had bought these a while back:

I somehow don't have too many in process pictures, but here is one:

The hardest part for Gabe was all the cuts he had to make with a utility knife around the cabinetry, outlets and exhaust fan:

And ta da!  I present to you the finished backsplash.  I like it!

I especially like this paired with the vintage stainless steel edged laminate countertops!  :)

And a detail shot:

we bought stainless steel outlet covers too

And, I don't know how I forgot to get a good before shot of the awful condition this exhaust fan was in before we spruced it up!

It was caked in many layers of paint and grime, so Gabe stripped the paint and sprayed it with a fresh new coat of paint and added new screen behind it as well.

I think this is a mighty fine transformation if I do say so!!

Additional shots of the fan:

And a view of the other side of the kitchen with the same backsplash tile to pull it all together:

And you can see that the countertop is all oiled up and ready to go with a walnut oil/butcher block oil to keep it from getting dried out.

The last update we made to the kitchen is the light fixture.  What we had was a ceiling flush mount fluorescent light.  This is the only picture I could find as a "before" pic of it:

This is what we came up with--a semi-flush mount light fixture with diffused ambient light for the kitchen:

Now to share a pic of the bistro table I bought for under the window in the kitchen:

The succulent plant stand is temporarily taking up space in the kitchen during the winter (so it doesn't die).  The table fits very well into this space--a perfect place to park and eat a quick meal in front of the window :)

Here is another view of the table, showing a little bit more context:

A corner of the pantry can be seen on the right as well as a door leading to the back yard.

The curtains on this window (and over the kitchen sink) I adapted from scarves that I bought at Pier 1 Imports.  For this one, I had a wide sheer curtain that I cut in half, hemmed one side, and attached the scarf at the top.  The only problem (that I still need to fix) is that even though I did both of the sheer pieces (seen behind the scarf) the same length, when they were both done and hung up on the window, I noticed that the scarves were different lengths...something I didn't consider as a possible problem initially, so I'm still scratching my head about how I might fix it.  Or I might just leave it because it's barely noticeable!!!! (but I notice..) :D

Moving around the corner for a closer look at the back door, you can see the curtains I made:

From the basement stairwell looking up:

This photo was taken from the top of the basement stairs looking into the kitchen:

You can see the profile of the bistro table from this vantage point.

For the curtain swag over the kitchen sink window I used the same scarf idea from the other window and had a sheer checkered (gingham-esque) curtain that I got that pairs up with the scarf swag quite nicely.  It is literally just draped over the curtain rod--nothin' fancy :)

Here are a couple more detail pics of the kitchen space--a few fresh herbs stayin' alive: basil and rosemary along with some beautiful roses from my sweet husband ;-)

Here's a pretty cactus flower by my sink that I got from a large community yard sale last spring along with some succulents chillin' on the sill:

Notice the condensation on the windows.  This is what single paned windows do.  Who knew?  It's absolutely gorgeous when it crystallizes in freezing temperatures and the morning sun hits it.  Yes.

And that is a wrap for the kitchen space!