Closeted

Hack! Snort! Achoo!

Winter is the time for indoor projects. Unfortunately, it is also the time for colds and flu. I get a cold about once every 5 years and when I do, it's a doozy.

But I rallied from the sick bed and we got the door wall of the closet built and installed.

"Built and installed". Another simple statement that does nothing to convey the sore knees from putting in screws while on the floor or the joy of hitting the frame with a sledghammer because an old house is uneven and measurements don't equal reality.

But, yes, the door frame is built and definitely installed.

Next day, since we have always shared everything, Tom came down with the bug. So that was a construction day lost to the couch.

The day after that, he figured he may as well get something done while feeling poorly, so we put up the final wall.



And wallboarded the outside.

I  hate wallboard. The 4' x 8' sheets are too big to handle easily, it breaks if you give it a dirty look, and it's a pain to cut. Seems about time someone invented a good alternative but I haven't heard of one. At least we have walls, however rough they look.

We're not rushing with the next step (the final goal is to finish this wall off with trim and build bookcases along the big, blank area. We'll be moving a solid wood door from another room for the doorway.) We're just going to enjoy not having construction materials and tools all over the living room for a week or so.

And maybe finally get over these colds.

In the Closet

We're closet preppers.

In our case, quite literally.

When you mention southern Indiana, New Yorkers usually respond with "Oh, that's tornado country." It came as a surprise when I was looking at properties in this area that few had basements. The place we bought not only has no basement but doesn't even have an interior room.

We looked at the ugly, open stairway and decided that enclosing it would not only give us space for lots and lots of bookshelves, enable us to seal off the upstairs to save on heat, and we could also expand and reinforce the under-the-stairs closet for a storm shelter.



Open stairway with construction materials at the ready!

January is the perfect time for an indoor project so we drew up plans and made a pricey trip to the hardware store.

I thought we would start with an 8' section but my saner half reminded me that we were indeed capable of building something we couldn't lift. We built two 4' sections instead.


For strength we put in double beams and in one case (my mistake in measuring) a triple beam.

As with any project, problems arise. In this case, an outlet that was in the floor and had very little play in the wire to move it.

We pondered and jiggled and tugged and cursed and finally got it to the point where we could work it through the wall.

In the middle of the first day of construction, I discovered I was coming down with what seemed suspiciously like the flu. We knocked off for two days while I sneezed and coughed and moaned around on the couch. Today I dragged myself off of my sick bed and we put up the drywall for this section.



 "Put up the drywall". Sounds easy, right? Let's just say, you are very glad you weren't here. Nuff said.

Working inside during winter means you store your materials inside, so everytime we start and finish for the day we end up moving 2"x4"s and sheets of drywall. That in itself is almost as much trouble as the actual work.

Next, we start the extension part, but not until I'm fully recovered 'cause it ain't no fun trying to run a screwgun while you're sneezing your head off.