Wednesday, May 21, 2008

NEW CLOSET DOORS - WHO KNEW IT WAS THIS MUCH HASSLE??????!!!????

Join me in mind boggling trip of a tiny, little remodel!!!

We decided to enlarge the openings to the closets in the studio and the master bedroom. They are wide closets - with very narrow closet doors - so most of the closet is hard to get to. We are putting wide bi-fold doors in the bedroom - and turning the closet in the studio into storage shelves.

We have to get them done this week because the installer tells me that the carpet is here earlier than expected and he will be here Monday to install it.



This is the tiny door in the studio closet - with a view of the top shelf with a few things on it, just a small section of the closet shows - there are about 4 feet on either side of the door, inside the closet. I should have taken a photo of the closet filled with plastic boxes and tubs.


To access any of the tubs and plastic boxes in the closet I would have to first remove the middle stack of them - and then pull the side ones out - unstacking everything whenever I needed something - and of course, I always needed something that was NOT in the middle of the closet.

So our handyman (I can almost call him our resident handyman, he has been here so much since we bought the house) started to take out the doorway in the studio and enlarge it so we could put in bifold doors. As he was taking part of the wall out I got the neato idea to take the WHOLE wall out - and have it just be an open shelf space.





Here it is with NO closet wall - and a funny slanty wall at the end. I will put a wonderful set of drawers that our son built for us, in one end of the closet - tall and narrow with 7 drawers - and then the rest of the area will have shelves - and an extra shelf that we couldn't have put in if there were closet doors, up high, for storage of infrequently used items.

There are tubs and plastic boxes from the studio closet stacked in the laundry room - and in the studio - I'm sitting in a little space left for my chair and computer. There are clothes lying on both beds and more things from the master bedroom stacked in the master bath.


In the bathroom - you can see it all through the bead curtain


We sort of wiggle our way around through things like snakes.


The floors are becoming unbelievably messy - even though handyman is handy with the shop vac and cleans up when he is done at night. He's now been here three days - and I'm about to go nuts living like this.



The bedroom closet - almost ready for the bi-fold doors and new carpet.

Then this morning - after two days here - handyman tells me he can't do the drywall - he has called in a contractor to do that, and the contractor will be here any minute - but - but - but - I'm not paying contractor - I didn't hire him - - - - so we agree that the price doesn't change, and contractor will come in and do the work this afternoon.

But first, before contractor gets here - handyman tells me he went through a red light last night on the way home and hit someone and wrecked his car - so he isn't going to have reliable transportation to finish the job.



Next stop - Crazyville!!


So - next - contractor arrives - says he can't finish the work this afternoon - and can't come back until next Tuesday - but next Monday the new carpet is coming - we have to have the closet finished in the bedroom before the carpet goes in. So we chat and we agree they will both work late tonight - and come back tomorrow morning and finish the job. Ok - crisis averted - for now.


Then handyman steps out on the back porch to haul out some of the old drywall - and this happens.......


He checks the wood and says it is just rotted from water dripping from the roof (no gutters on the house when we moved in - we have since remedied that) Just had to make sure there weren't any termites in there - cuz if there were - some inspector was going to be in a little hot water - he had given the house a termite free certificate when he did the inspection in December.

So handyman is going to bring wood tomorrow and repair the porch. But he doesn't have a ride - so contractor says he will pick him up on his way in to town ( he lives in the next county).

Now things settle down - I've got a meat loaf in the oven (meaplope to our 3 year old grandson) and potatoes are baking. A salad is chilling in the refrigerator and peas are just waiting to be heated up. Seems things are going to work out - I sure hope so - I'm not enjoying this as much as one would suspect. I am anxious to get the house put back together - but I have to work the next two days (10 hours each day) so it looks like we won't get to the putting back together until the weekend. We do have to rehang the clothes in the closet each night and unhang them each morning because there is no place else to put them except on our bed.

Well I thought things were settling down - then youngest daughter drops by with a pair of dark purple velvet black-out curtains that she would liked hemmed so they can get some sleep. Oh sure - I'll just whip that out - now where did I put the box of thread? - and the scissors, oh I can't find the scissors, and the ironing board is behind a stack of tubs and besides there is no place to set it up. My FW sewing machine sits here - just waiting to be dusted off - guess that is the next project.

Don will be home from work in an hour - for dinner - and then he goes back to work until later tonight. Lucky him - he gets to escape handyman and contractor putting in drywall and plastering tonight after dinner. I think I'll go make me a cup of tea and be glad this isn't a whole house remodel.

At least the sun is shining!!!!

3 comments:

Donna said...

may it all turn out the way you have envisioned, and your sanity outlast the work :-)

Anonymous said...

I love that Crazy Woman sign. Where did you find it?

JoAnn ( Scene Through My Eyes) said...

Judi - that is from a campground in Wyoming - I thought it was the perfect sentiment for what was happening in my house.