Inspiration Board - Laundry Room

I don't have an inspiration picture for my laundry room like I did for the kitchen. I know that I want it to be mostly white. I love the idea of an all white laundry room, I just think it is going to be so clean, bright, and fresh.

Here is the layout of my laundry room:

I love the two big windows in the laundry room. I think the laundry room actually has some of the best views in the house. Not that you need good views in your laundry room, but it is what is. I also love the clothes hanging station (basically an open closet). I hang dry most of my clothes and I am so excited to have a good place to do so.  In our old house we had a closet in the laundry room but it was full of other crap and it just didn't function properly.

I am really liking how our laundry room is coming together so far. Maybe this will motivate me to do more laundry? Probably not. Let's be honest here. Anyways, here is what we have picked out for the laundry room:

1. Even though I want a mostly white laundry room I love this light aqua frosted glass tile for the backsplash. I think it still looks clean and bright while adding a little pop of color without it being too much.

2. I am loving Electrolux appliances for the laundry room too. I can't decide if I should do silver or white though, I am leaning towards white right now.

3. The tap we chose is Torq by Kohler. I seriously love this tap too much. So far it is my favourite thing that we have picked out for the house. I don't know what it is about this tab, because, well, it's just a tap. But it is perfect for my laundry room.

4. we are doing tile floors in the laundry room. We have chosen Daltile Fabrique Creme Linen. We are actually using various colors of the Daltile Linen line throughout the house so be prepared to see more of it!

5. For the countertops we are using Silestone Blanco Maple. It's white with grey specks in it. We are using the same alabaster cabinets that are going in the kitchen, in the laundry room.

Do you have a dream laundry room?

What color do you think I should pick for the washer and dryer? White or silver?

 (This question is intense isn't it? ha.)

Thanks for reading! 

Insulation Part I and Some Plumbing Stuff

Okay so the first part of the drywall is completed and so is the first part of the insulation. We had a delay with the insulation because of the weather though. Shocking isn't it? We are doing spray foam insulation, which can only be installed above -10* C. Of course the one week we want to insulate is the one week of the month that it was below -10. So we lost a week due to the weather, again. We must have hired the right insulator though, because he showed up on a Sunday to make up for lost time. How often does that happen?

Just a little bit about spray foam insulation for anyone who isn't familiar. I honestly don't know a whole lot but I'll share what I do know. It is sprayed on where you would put a more traditional fibreglass insulation (the pink stuff). The pros to spray foam insulation is that it doesn't deteriorate like fibreglass insulation so you never lose your R value (the amount or measurement that your house is insulated). It doesn't require a vapour barrier ( a plastic that is installed on the inside of walls to help with moisture control), so it is a quicker and more seamless system and install. In theory, there should be less places where moisture can get in so there should be less of a risk of mould.  The cons of spray foam insulation is that it is more expensive than a fibreglass insulation (but you don't have to pay for vapour barrier). Another con is that you need to hire a reputable, licensed installer for spray foam. This could also be adding additional costs to your budget because you could install fibreglass insulation and vapour barrier yourself.

The husband and I decided to go with spray foam because you never lose your R-value so your house should run as efficient in 20 years as it did on day 1. Obviously this also depends on maintaining your HVAC system and doing regular house maintenance but you should never have to take down your drywall and replace your insulation.  When you Live in Northern Alberta keeping warm is important!

According to our schedule we were supposed to have our plumbing rough-in done, but it's not. This is another delay because of the weather. The plumber was supposed to come sometime between Wednesday and Friday last week but his schedule was delayed due to the cold weather so he is now supposed to come sometime between Wednesday and Friday of this week. So there is another week we lost because of the weather. Grrr. Hopefully I have a Plumbing RI update in a week or less!

Drywall - Part I

Because we live in the sub arctic and are building our house over the winter we have had to change things up a bit. Normally, when building a house, you would finish your framing, complete all of your rough ins (electrical, mechanical, plumbing), insulate and then drywall. Now in order to get our plumbing RI (rough-in) completed we need to run lines under the ground.

Sounds simple right?

Well the ground is frozen right now, which is why we are drywalling and insulating in two separate phases. If we drywall and insulate the ceiling first we can then heat the house (we could heat the house without insulating the ceiling first it just wouldn't be very cost effective) which will thaw the ground so that we can get our plumbing RI done. We will finish insulating and drywalling the rest of the house once all the RIs are done.

That sounds like a lot of work just to do some plumbing.

To be honest it kind of is. It has set our schedule back by probably a couple of weeks and if we would have planned this out a little bit better we probably could have avoided the delay. You live and learn right? I would say that we will know better for next time, but we won't be doing this again. If we ever build another house it will be because we won the lotto and we can hire someone else to build it for us.

Also, we have stairs! Looky looky: