Coming out of the closet

With the kitchen mostly done, other areas of the house have started to seem in urgent need of assistance. For instance, our bedroom, and in particular, the phenomenal mess that is our closet. 

As you may recall, I fixed the light in August, which was fantastic, but it didn't really help the fact that it's more of a squeeze-in closet than an actual walk-in. Plus, the ceiling is mostly sheets of MDF that are so thin, they almost qualify as wrapping paper. 

Also, the previous occupants left some awkward teenage graffiti:

I realize gang violence is hardly a laughing matter, but I get the feeling that if you're the sort of person who writes "Krip Killer Bloodz" in your closet with sharpie, you're probably not the sort of person who's killing anything larger than spiders on a regular basis. (Just my guess.)

So the closet obviously needs a facelift, and our huge pile of clothes needs an organization strategy. After much mental rearranging with little success, the solution hit me: this is our house, and if I wanted to move a wall, by golly, I can move a wall. 

By moving the wall 36 inches out into the room and rotating the door, I claim valuable floor space (previously reserved for the closet spillover) for actual organization. 

Plus, it wasn't a load-bearing wall, there weren't any mechanicals, and half the drywall from the back side was cracked anyway. 

Things came to a head on a Thursday night. Jesse was out with friends, and I had a crowbar. Only later did I realize that a) moving the bed and removing a wall was perhaps not a brilliant idea on a night when my beloved was likely to come home at least slightly inebriated and b) just because we'd talked about it once or twice didn't mean it had solidified as A Thing That Is Happening. We talk frequently about things (and by we I mean me) and 90% of these things are merely passing fancies. This had suddenly become A Thing. 

Luckily, it all worked out.

On Friday, I took half a day off work and finished demolition. Saturday was supposed to be all about framing, but my original plan to reuse the existing studs was abruptly derailed when all four of them split during removal. Oops. So we had to go acquire more building materials. 

Also, I accidentally found a load of brick. In my defense, it was illegally dumped in the public right-of-way. It was my civic duty to clean it up. If I happen to reuse it, well, that's recycling, right?

Despite the mishaps and distractions, by Sunday I had successfully framed up the new wall, and despite the angle of the picture, it's actually evenly spaced and square. 

By Monday night I had the drywall up and successfully mudded. BUT CAN ANYONE TELL ME WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Answer: I have four corners coming together. I shouldn't have done that. (What I REALLY shouldn't have done is buy a drywall book at Mr. Plywood two days AFTER finishing the drywall. Research first!)

Because I didn't want to paint right before going to bed (and thus marinating in a lovely cloud of VOCs all night) I had to wait until the following Saturday to paint the walls. And THEN, when I did get the first coat of paint on, my drywall tape promptly absorbed all the moisture and started peeling off. NOT COOL. Cue several hours of frustrated snarling, one phone call to Mom, and several re-mudded seams. 

But it all worked out, and I got the black bedroom wall I've been craving. I'd originally painted half of the bedroom in Metro's Storm Cloud, but much like the Misty I had tried out downstairs, it wasn't so much a gray as a very neutral blue. I still had most of a can of the mismixed Benjamin Moore black I used in the kitchen, and it's exactly what I wanted. 

This is the contents of the closet. It's blurred because...well, it's blurred for no good reason, other than it's a hideous mess and I didn't want to burn your eyes. 

It was unseasonably warm here this weekend. (59 degrees in February???? What is that???) I think Jesse may have even mowed the lawn. 

The ceiling of the closet posed a particular challenge. Part of it was covered with the tongue-and-groove decking that comprised most of the bedroom (our fabulous cabin atmosphere). Part of it was covered in thin MDF sheeting, and part of it was bare insulation. There parts that were bare insulation didn't seem to have any visible rafters, and I certainly wasn't about to go digging through the insulation to find them. The easiest solution was to acquire several 4ft x 8ft MDF beadboard panels from Mr Plywood and put as many nails as possible in the available rafters. It's certainly not perfect, but it works, and there isn't insulation lurking over our heads anymore. (At least, not visibly so.) 

My original goal, once the closet was framed/painted etc, was to make a closet organization system out of metal pipe like this one:

Source: Pinterest

HOWEVER. The thing about Pinterest - stupid, beloved timesuck that it is - is that there are never any price tags, just gorgeous pictures of things that inevitably make my budget look laughably small. I'm quickly learning that the more I like something, the more money it will cost. (I have expensive tastes. Sigh.)

Pipes were definitely one of these. A wooden closet rod? Like, $10 at Home Depot, and in our case, literally free, because the previous owners used them as curtain rods. But I figured since I built the freaking wall myself, I deserved something nice, so I drew up my plans and bought $150 worth of greasy black pipe. (Had I used non-greasy galvanized pipe, it would have been more like $250, but I have paint thinner and dish soap, and the grease washed right off, leaving a cool antique-looking finish.) 

Vacuum up all the drywall dust, slap on two coats of Metro Mountain Snow, add a $9 rug from Ross and some random basement shelves, and voila! We have a walk-in closet!

I am so pleased I can hardly stand it, and Jesse can actually stand, period. 

The other side looks pretty good, too:

Not bad for two weekends' work. (The next ten days will be spent putting the monstrous clothing pile in order. Yikes.) 

Into the closet

I am feeling incredibly bad-ass tonight. Hulklike, even. Why, you ask? Well, just the tiny little matter of I CONQUERED ELECTRICITY, THAT'S RIGHT I'M LIKE THOMAS EDISON PLUS MCGYVER.

Ahem. This project concerns the closet in the master bedroom. After five years of cramming all of our clothes into a single tiny apartment closet, I am thrilled beyond mention to have a walk-in closet, despite the bare sheet rock and the graffiti in the corner announcing that a previous occupant, Justin, is a "Krip Killer". Really, the only problem with the closet is that it's so unfinished it's basically a glorified crawlspace, but around here, "unfinished" just makes me salivate.

 

Source: Pinterest. Eventually, it's going to look like this, only BETTER.

In the meantime, it's still a massive work in progress, and until tonight, basically unusable. There are no "before" pictures of our closet, because you couldn't see. There are two fixtures in the closet, a regular bare wall-mount bulb that burned out the day after we moved in, and a 24-inch fluorescent tube bracket with no tube. I'd installed some brackets and rods a couple of weeks ago, but I quickly discovered that if I can't see what I'm grabbing, it all just ends up in a pile on the floor. (Yes, Mom, let's be honest - the pile was going to happen anyway, but the dark only aided its development.)

So tonight, after a little experimentation with the circuit breaker box and my trusty voltage tester*, I braved the risk of shock and death to enlighten our closet.

*Seriously, everyone should have a voltage tester. It's the best. Cutting a hole in the wall? Make sure there's nothing live behind it. Moving an outlet? Make sure it's not active. Moved into a house where absolutely nothing is labeled in the breaker box? Shut things off one by one and find out!

 

IT WORKS AND THE HOUSE ISN'T BURNING DOWN.  Those are definitely my two criteria for a successful project. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. We had a horrible instructor for my electrical class, and even though I studied as best I could, I left that class feeling like I knew less about electricity than I did going in. But we neeeeeeded a light, so I read about a million articles online, and obsessively followed the directions inthe box. And it worked! And nothing's on fire! AND WE CAN SEE IN THE CLOSET!

Seriously, it's amazing. I'm not so keen on the light itself, but it was $7 at Home Depot, and Goodwill occasionally has cute schoolhouse shades for ~$3 (rather than the $45 ones at Rejuvenation or Schoolhouse Electric). I drool over the fancy ones, but really, the Free Box Goodwill is more my budget.

 

Source: Pinterest. If I keep my eyes open, I'll find one of these eventually.

I've seen them before.

In addition to not starting electrical fires, I've also been busy sawing holes in walls. When we first started on this remodeling adventure, Jesse was very concerned - bordering on alarmed - at my tendency to wing a project. (In my defense, the plans are all IN MY HEAD. I've got it all figured out. I just need to do it.) After the garage doors, the screen doors and the table, he's starting to relax, and when I say, "I'm going to buy $200 worth of cheap pine dressers from IKEA and tear down one of the bedroom walls," he just nods and offers to drive. (Seriously, I have the best husband in the universe. I am an incredibly lucky lady.)

Our bedroom has very large crawlspaces. After years of trying to utilize every last cubic inch of apartment space, my brain is still very much attuned to creative organization. Plus, I love the look of built-ins, which are very much in keeping with the age of this house.

Source: Pinterest. SO MUCH STORAGE. SO MUCH CLASS.

For ours, the cheapest and most efficient way to do built-ins was to buy a bunch of unfinished pine dressers from IKEA, and modify them so they fit between the studs. (I am 90% sure the studs are not load-bearing, so I probably could have cut them and not had an issue, but because the fasteners are buried beneath sheet rock and insulation, I opted not to investigate. Plus, that 10% uncertainty is kind of a big deal when it comes to our roof.)

Enter the RAST, beloved of bloggers for its solid construction and teeny, tiny pricetag:

Source: IKEA. Do a search for these things. The internet loves 'em, and for good reason.

 At $35 a piece, the RAST was much cheaper than the next comparable dresser anywhere else, and much cheaper than the wood I would have needed to buy to make a dresser myself. (Not to mention my carpentry skills, while steadily growing less horrifying, are nowhere near the competency required for this.) I bought six of them, and so far have only used four. My original goal was to construct them and just slide them in between the studs, but the dressers ended up being about three inches too wide, so I used my miter saw - I mean, Dad's miter saw that I'm just borrowing - to trim down the necessary parts. As anyone who's ever assembled IKEA furniture knows, there are lots of tiny holes for screws and other joining hardware, so I had to make an emergency trip to Home Depot for a jig to keep my drill straight. The jig definitely earned its keep on this project. I'd have ruined everything without it.

Halfway done. The vacuum is for domestic tranquility, via sawdust mediation.

I'd originally wanted to stack two dressers, but the pitch of the roof precluded that, so instead, I added an inset shelf area on the top of each dresser. I had leftover boards from taking down the wall, so I used those to line the insets.

Like our tiny electric stove? It was another gift of free furniture.

 It's so cheesy with its fake flames, but I totally, totally love it. It'll be so cozy in the winter!

Sadly, I've come to the conclusion that despite my love of stained natural trim, I think it's easiest to do white trim in this particular house, especially in our cabin-esque bedroom. I've been vacillating between painting the planks a nice, clean white or leaving them as they are, and mostly out of my sheer laziness, I think they'll stay the way they are, which means white trim and white built-ins. And while trim is definitely next on the to-do list, we're going to Montana for my cousin's wedding this weekend, so everything will stay naked and un-trimmed for at least another week. 

In the meantime, I'd also like to state for the record that Pecan is a disturbingly strange cat. I hauled the miter saw upstairs to expedite RAST trimming, and instead of running from all the noise like a rational creature, this cat was SLEEPING IN THE HALLWAY the whole time. I'd say she was deaf, but she definitely hates the vacuum cleaner, and is convinced that any kitchen sound means an imminent meal. Sass, on the other hand, has spent most of the week napping in the basement. It's been pushing 90 degrees here in Portland, so frankly, I don't blame her a bit.

 

Mooooom, what are you doing in there?

Why'd you lock me owwwwt? I'm only trying to help.

Take My Breath Away

(Does the title give you a good Friday earworm? You're welcome.)

We've been moving stuff one truck-load at a time over the last few weeks, and we were SO EXCITED to go see the progress on the floors last night. 

The good news: our contractors had finished filling and sanding, and had applied at least one coat of the Swedish finish. (what is it, Swedish or Finnish?)

 Fir changes color when exposed to light, so I don't expect these colors to be as vibrant forever, 

but they're still gorgeous.

I'd forgotten we'd asked them to refinish the upstairs hall closet, so that was a nice surprise.

 The bad news: we'd of course done our research on what finish we wanted, but in the excitement, had forgotten there's a reason that Swedish finish (what is it...oh never mind) is banned in at least one state. We'd brought a load of stuff over with the intent to put it in the basement...but you could smell the fumes from outside the house. We braved them long enough to pop in and take pictures, but there was no way we could stay in for more than a minute or so. We ended up putting everything in the garage. According to the internet, the fumes are worst during the first 24 hours, but can linger for up to six weeks after, depending on the ventilation. We've got all the windows open, and will probably hang out (outside, of course) over the weekend with the doors open and fans going, but hopefully it will dissipate quickly enough that we can get moved in soon!