Laundry Room:
Our laundry room previously had some awful white tile with thick grout lines. A few tiles were cracked, the grout was missing in a couple places, and the remaining grout had darkened over the years from dirt. There was also a built-in desk space with a few cabinets, but it didn't make a lot of sense because it was located right outside a bathroom! Not an ideal place to get work done. Here's what it looked like before:
Not a good use of this space since the cabinets and drawers were so small and you wouldn't actually use it as an office area.
Built-ins are gone!
Built-ins are gone!
Already loving the extra space after removing the built-ins, but that tile still had to go!
What inevitably happens when you start a remodel? You find other issues! We discovered this lovely leak when we moved the washer and dryer out.
Whew! Once we got that cleared up, we could get back to replacing the floors.
Ta da! Bye, bye ugly white tile. Hello, gorgeous travertine.
No more useless desk space. Now we have room for our full-size second fridge!
Master Bedroom:
Our master bedroom had carpet in it when we bought this house 5 years ago, but it was already showing a lot of wear and tear at that point, and adding a couple years of two dogs hanging out in there made it even more undesirable. We ripped it out in advance of some foundation work and just lived with concrete floors while we awaited our remodel. No before pictures here, but I did take pics while the installation was in progress. I'm so glad we went with real handscraped hardwood and picked a dark stain. It gives such a beautiful, dramatic look.
Play Room:
The kids' play room had the same awful white tile as the laundry room and had a random pole in the middle of the room. (We assume it used to be an outside patio and that was one of the posts holding up the awning). It wasn't load-bearing, so we had the contractor remove it while they installed the new flooring. We went with the same neutral travertine we used in the laundry room, which also looks very similar to the travertine we previously had installed in the kids' bathroom. There were so many different types of flooring in this house when we bought it, so it's nice to create some consistency!
Not easy to place furniture when this guy breaks up the flow!
I hated this tile so much!!
Adios!
The new tile in progress.
Such a different looking room! We're very happy with the tile and the extra space created by removing the pole. We also feel confident this room can become an upscale sun room or reading room or office down the road, once we don't need it for toys anymore.
These changes were awesome in themselves, but the most dramatic changes took place in the kitchen/dining/living areas. I look forward to sharing those soon! (See that post here).
