Transmogrifying the Mudroom: an essay in photographs.

20100928.Tuesday

Gently-used fine panelling and carpeting. For sale by owner.

A good piece of advice for home builders is to not carpet the main entryway. But if you must, go ahead and use a sponge floor covering since that will produce identical results, at much lower cost.

Also for sale by owner: this wobbly metallic monstrosity.

A place for everything and everything in its place. The wooden shelving unit survived the transmogriphication, as you'll soon see. Oh, the suspense!

Sodden grey carpet...Begone! Faux imitation Corinthian burled elm panelling...Begone! Alien autopsy fluorescent light fixture...You stay right where you are!

Ah, panelling. Warp-free and classy to the finish.

The Aspen cabin look is starting to come together, if the cabin's logs were stacked vertically, and if the logs had regular, repeating widths.

The hardest part of any tile job is to avoid tiling yourself into a corner, and then just keep on tiling up and around you until you cut off your supply of air. True, the grout spacers might save you.

A do-it-yourself tiling job is the most satisfying project in home renovation, right up until the next step...

I think "grout" is the ideal term for a certain deviant sexual act. You know the one.

Aaah! My beautiful tile floor! Will it ever be clean again?

It's at this point in the chapter that the helpful handyman's guide shows a clear illustration of which vein to cut in your forearm.

The answer is no. As in, "No, my tile floor will never be clean again."

And the light shone from heaven and a thunderous voice said: "Buy IBM at 124 and an eighth."

Seventeen hours of polishing on bended knee later...it's Miller time.

Brass switch and receptacle plates just holler "swanky."

Ah, trim. The shield atop so many of life's minor seam-related sins.

Installing a pegboard implicitly urges one towards identifying the most attractive tools to put on display.

Organization, illustrated. But for how long, do you suppose? (September update: not that long, actually.)

Why is it that I always need the thing in the box under the other box when I only have one hand free?

The final results speak for themselves, but not in the same way that I'll speak for myself on my deathbed, when I utter to the loving family assembled around me, "I wish I had spent more time napping on the couch and watching televised golf."

Archived Comments

Meandering Michael on 20100928.Tuesday:
"Alien autopsy fluorescent light fixture" My goodness! I never knew five words could be combined with such eloquence, beauty, and entertainment!
Fawn on 20100928.Tuesday:
Seriously, I laughed out loud at the very same spot! But I stopped laughing further down because I was far too busy admiring. Oooh! Ahhh! Pretty!
Dave on 20100929.Wednesday:
Michael & Fawn: Thanks, and yes, it did turn out well, except that the panelling started warping soon thereafter from the August rains and now the September snow. We'll probably have to take it down next summer and either repair or replace it. It's all my fault for having this idea: "Panelling, now there's a good idea."
Kara on 20101004.Monday:
Wow!! That looks awesome. Please come do my place next!
Dave on 20101004.Monday:
Kara, you can thank Carole for the tile floor. That was all her idea and it's the best part of the room.

dave rogers

Archived Comments

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