Utility Room Done

It's been a while since I reported on a finished room as we ran out of cash a few months ago!  But we're ready to get going again - and so is the bank account - so here's the utility room.  

This was left unfinished after the kitchen - we'd had the ceiling plastered, but following a few issues with the contractor over the towel rail installation, we'd left it for a bit.  Phil sorted out the plastering touching up & wall prep needed, but we then decided to bring in Tony as the biggest update here is invisible.

The washing machine was vibrating so much that the room (and house!) shook.  Tony took up the floor completely, fitted additional beams and then put in new floor boards before underlay & the same tile effect laminate flooring we'd used in the main kitchen.

Under the washing machine, there's an anti vibration mat made from recycled rubber to help minimise spin cycle earthquakes.  And it's worked!  The washing machine is much quieter and the floor feels stable.

We were going to decorate ourselves but Tony was a little speedier than we anticipated, so bar some trim paint, even the painting was non DIY!  The advantage is that he did bits we may have been tempted to skip - like the wall behind the tumble drier.

It's a laminate worktop & splashback in here as it is where we intend to do anything too messy for the lovely beech kitchen worktop.  Phil's rather cleverly found & fitted an aluminium extruded bar to finish the top of the splashback.

The unit doors are gloss white like the kitchen but from a cheaper B&Q range - it's a utility room after all.

New hooks on a repainted board on the wall - we did that bit!

The walls are the same colour as the main kitchen.

We still need to put a better light bulb in - it's a very slow CFL and I'd rather have the instant light from an LED.

I'm also after a wall mounted airer.  In summer, the conservatory is a perfect drying space on rainy days, but no drying seems to happen in winter out there.  Our floor mounted airer fits in under the hooks here, but a wall mounted one will be a better use of space.

We bought a freestanding unit from IKEA for bags & cleaning cloths - as well as giving a home to bottles en route to recycling.

Nearly as exciting as the utility room is the kitchen bin situation.  I grabbed a pedal bin at a B&Q sample sale that's just waiting for a recycling sticker to help us remember which of the 2 bins is for which waste!

Bye Bye Egg Box Doors

The perfectly functional sapele effect eggbox doors are now in the wood-to-be-recycled skip at the tip - thanks to Mum & Dad for helping us get them there!
Instead, we have 9 oak veneered doors (FSC full CoC of course) with stainless steel furniture & heavy duty hinges.  We've owned them since December as I bought them when on offer.  I talked Phil out of fitting them himself - he is perfectly capable, but it would take him about 1 day per door with lots of swearing & frustration.  Found a chippy who gave a great quote, but his order book was full - hence only just fitted!  It took him 2 days to do all 9.
We then varnished them all with a satin clear varnish.  "We" was mostly Phil - I only managed to do 1 due to time constraints.
Very pleased with Mel & Tony's suggestion to put a glazed door on the kitchen which gives a weird dark corner in the hallway a little bit of natural light.
One more to sort out - the carpenter found out that although B&Q don't do the 2' width version, the manufacturer does, so we can get the airing cupboard done too.

4 unfinished rooms

John the Builder finished his first stint with us yesterday - so we now have an unfinished en suite, unfinished bedroom, unfinished lobby & an unfinished utility room - note the theme.... 


The lobby & utility are waiting for new exterior doors (John's sourcing).   Everything else is now at the level where we need to get the paint brushes out & ask Tony to start the flooring.


The main priority is to get the utility room finished as much as poss before John comes back in a couple of weeks as that will be our mini kitchen whilst proper kitchen is destroyed & replaced.

However, I think we're going to focus on getting out for a day this weekend - and then maybe some gardening.  Even I have to accept we've been jamming too much into weekends recently.


We spent most of last weekend shuttling green wardrobe doors, old bathroom & utility units to the household recycling centre (aka tip).  


Really appreciated Sunday's lunch guests taking the corner bath there for us in their estate car as I don't think it would have fitted into the Panda even after husband sawed it in two...