Episode VIII - The Last Details
By now, you probably know more about the trials and tribulations of the plumbing project we initially referred to as the laundry room / half bath project than you likely wanted. As our readers know, we are trying to restore, not renovate, the Retro Ranch. There are so many cool and subtle design features of the ranch that to do anything not in keeping with those features would be a design faux pas or downright shame.
The woodwork in the house is mahogany but when we did the bathroom renovations (yes they were too far gone to restore) in 2017, we didn’t match the trim. That bothered both Beth and I, so with the help of Gordon at NWHC, we had a die made to match the baseboard molding and 100’ of mahogany trim made. This took a bit longer than anticipated but by mid-January, NWHC was ready to complete the project. The NWHC team did a masterful job of matching the stain and were able to bring the original windowsill in the (now) half bath back to its original splendor, undoing years of stains and neglect. In addition to matching the baseboard molding, NWHC was able to match the door trim by milling some stock mahogany trim. As an added bonus, Gordon replaced all of the baseboard molding in the two bathrooms with the “new original” mahogany trim and it was the perfect exclamation point to an already outstanding job.
The NWHC trim work simply looks like it was always in the house. Amazing! Did we mention that we used the original towel bars from the renovated bathrooms in the half bath? We had saved the mid-century fantastic cabinet from the master bath which was installed in the half bath and trimmed out masterfully by NWHC. It still needs some TLC from Beth and I…soon.
With the trim work complete and a quiet dryer we were able to (finally) assemble the laundry room cabinet from Easy Closets - the 16 boxes of materials occupying the garage for a couple of months. It went in place like it was designed for it, which it was. Beth has become a master at the Easy Closets designs and I am almost okay at installing them.
The only thing left to do on the laundry room half bath project, besides the mid-century fantastic cabinet work, is some sanding and staining of the door and trim of the door that was repositioned and flipped between the laundry room and garage. I promise I will get to it…soon (this year). The current project is finishing the garage remodel (which is our next Retro Ranch blog, coming soon). However with things greening up and more rocks to unearth, landscaping to refresh and some trim painting to redo, it is time to get back outdoors and enjoy spring in the Pacific Northwest.