While we chip away on a full house remodel, we have a few smaller projects to tackle, too.  Just starting, creating a finished laundry room and bathroom in an unfinished basement area.

Basements in old homes can be tricky, usually requiring working around load bearing walls/posts, low hanging duct work or goofy plumbing placement.  Sometimes, all three and then some obstacles are thrown in.  In this case, we have a strangely placed furnace, water line, and water heater.

These photos are from before framing, but after plumbing had been added.  That big pipe stack had to stay in place, so we set that as the edge of the bathroom we’d be adding.

Looking from that side to the other, there was a laundry area and then shelving.

We have air ducts to work around, but we were able to move the water heater to the other side to maximize the space.

Below is the area where the washer and dryer had been set up, with a window opening into a crawl space.

After meeting with the clients and discussing their needs and taking a bunch of measurements, I put pen to paper.  Well, more specifically, I put mouse to Photoshop to mock up a floor plan to work in all of the required items.

Adding a hallway to access a future but currently unfinished bedroom space was necessary.  The jog in the hall accommodates the furnace and water heater closet. With the remaining space, we added a five foot wide by 8 foot long laundry room and a bathroom to the left.  An unfinished space that tucks under a staircase will remain unfinished, but closed off with a door.

Framing and plumbing are underway, and the laundry room is taking shape.  The appliances will go on the back wall, with custom cabinetry above that will have a false back to allow access to the crawl space when needed.

Below, the photo shows the view from the unfinished bedroom looking into the bathroom door on the left and the new hall on the right.

Directly ahead of the bathroom door, a floor to ceiling shelf stack will take up the right corner with the vanity to the left.

The shower fits in the nook between the wall and new hall, against that big pipe stack that gave us a hard finished edge.

The home owners are excited to add a second bathroom to the house and we’re excited to see it all coming along!