Time for another remodeling project! I have to say, one of the big draws for me in buying this crazy old house was the potential for a mudroom. With four boys running around, it’s inevitable that you’ll get a LOT of clutter. We really needed a space that could handle all that “boy” madness. When we first walked through our house, I saw this room and knew right off the bat that it could be something awesome.
Take a look at the before pics and forgive the somewhat poor quality of the photos. I was taking these with my iphone and having no idea I’d be using them in a blog post a year later. 🙂 Can you believe the difference?
In addition to all the beauty up above, there is also a very bright, very sterile fluorescent light on the ceiling.
Now see if you can spot all the dirt. You don’t have to look very hard. Eww, ick, yuck. This room reminded me of something out of a horror film. Check out the up close and personal of the linoleum with all it’s lovely holes and scratches.
Despite how nasty this room was going into the project, with a good wash and a little tlc, I knew we could make the space smile again.
The biggest piece by far was the tile. If you’ve never done tile, it’s not that terrible. Just hard work and a bit dirty. I’ve done it once before but it was on a concrete slab. This time I was dealing with wood planks.
Aside from what you see there, the linoleum was secured well to the wood so I decided to reinforce the loose areas and tile straight over the top. A brought a friend in for reinforcements and we laid a product called ditra straight onto the linoleum.
After the ditra was finished, we started placing the tiles. We began in the middle and worked our way out to the edges so that everything would look even. It’s already looking a thousand times better wouldn’t you say?
Next up was to grout. How pretty is that?!
I finished up the room with the addition of some new quarter round, a coat of paint on the walls and bead board, and a brand new light fixture. Adios fluorescent light.
All in all, the tile project cost about $350, the paint was about $30 and the new light was $125. Not too shabby! The exterior doors still need to be painted but aside from that small task, I’ve called it done. So what do you think? Positive change?
And a couple more views for good measure….
I personally love the way it came out. But then again, if I can get my kids to hang their jackets up at all, I usually consider myself a step ahead of the game.
Next up…. tackling the bonus room. Eek!
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