Is it possible to remodel a laundry room in under 48 hours? Apparently yes (with the exception of some trim work here and there.)
It went down like this. The Wife was going on a weekend trip, so on Friday afternoon Jeff and I made a clandestine trip to the local multinational big-box Swedish import store and picked up a few boxes of laminate flooring. We waited until she left and immediately set to work clearing the laundry room of everything -- including the washer, water heater, and late 70's-era avacado green dryer. Then, a mad dash to prep the room and paint it. The next day, the floor went down in a marathon session. 9:00 AM to 10:00 PM. Jeff came back on Sunday morning and we got the quarter-round molding put down around the baseboards, painted the baseboards, got the washer, dryer, and water heater back in place, reconnected all the pipes, and put the new table and cabinets together -- working right up to 5pm, when it was time for me to shower (for the first time in 48 hours) and to rush off to the airport.
Sure, it's not the most perfect remodel in the world. But the Wife was quite pleased. Plus, if I had asked for permission to shut off the water heater for the whole weekend while she was still here, she never would have let me do it.