Mud Room Upgrade Final (...for now..)

With an exception of a few "tweeks" left in the mud room, I'd call this project complete. 

Move In Day (so many doors!)

For a review, here's what we did....

• Removed door and trim adjoining mud room and kitchen
• Added tile flooring
• Swapped the oak flat-panel closet doors for white six-panel doors
• New white closet trim
• New paint (same color as the rest of the main floor)
• Added custom bench, shelving and trim
• New light fixture
• Added wall hooks for jackets

Flooring done, wall taped off to visualize hook spacing

Closet: Final View

Final view

The bench provides a nice area to sit while putting on your shoes. It's also a great place to leave your purse or to stack up science projects/baseball gear/library books so they're ready to go out the door with you in the morning. Everyone has their own "zone" and a place to leave their daily jacket. Other coats are kept in the closet.

The shelf was placed near the ceiling so that we didn't block the window. Its tall but perfect for beach towels, extra mittens or other items you don't need on a daily basis. Eventually we'll move the adult hooks up higher toward the shelf but we installed them before we had all these great plans. The boys hooks are perfect for them to reach right now and we'll move them up as they grow. I'm very pleased with the final results- it feels spacious and functional!

          Before

After

Deck Overhaul: Phase 2

The second phase of the deck overhaul has begun. If you remember from my previous deck post, we made the decision to split the huge deck into a two year project to better manage the cost and time commitment. The dining area and the stairs were completed last year while the doorwall space and the sitting area will be completed this summer.

The original deck:

Move In Day

Phase one of replacing the stained wood with Trex decking and glass railings:

Removing the walkway along the side of the garage, reinforcing the supports:

Garage walkway "before"

Dark Trex along the edges with a lighter brown plank:

Trim around the bay window

Fixing the uneven spacing of the planks so that all boards are in long, symmetrical runs:

Boards butted up to each other with uneven spacing (upper right)

Straight runs of long boards

 

Eventually one long visual line from one
end of the deck to the other

What do you do with all your scrap wood?? Give the shorter pieces to your family so they can build a dock at their pond. With the longer pieces...build a tree house!!