Back in the Closet!

As of last night we have officially moved into the new closet! We didn't photographically document the process, sorry, but I wanted to give you a brief recap of what we did do so that you can see how amazing this new closet really is!

Remember that when we started the original closet was poorly installed with only two tall shelves and hanging bars along either wall. Also, remember that the electrical box backs up to the shower wall. Yeah, smart. Not our fault, but we waterproofed and protected it from the backside. When the closet was originally installed the shelf supports were not attached to studs, so the supports, the shelves, and the drywall all buckled and sagged. It made for fun times when a large, heavy truck would roll by on the driveway above our unit - things would go flying. And imagine the fun when we had our earthquake. In the images below you have the initial status of the closet. Notice the middle image, where the support structure is peeling away from the shelving. Yeah.


So, we ripped out everything. The shelves were torn down, the drywall cut out where it was destroyed, the old tile removed, the light fixture moved to the middle of the closet (I know, clever, right?) and the whole closet was retextured, reprimed, and repainted. These would be the three steps illustrated below. SPF retextured with a fun little funneling texture spray gun thingy and I primed and painted. We also continued the gorgeous reddish brown tile from the bathroom into the closet. I did a lot of that.


Two major components are not pictured here, so let me describe them.

One, everything that was in the closet was taken out and placed in our spare bedroom for safe keeping until the closet was done. This was the case for months. The spare bedroom became a giant, horribly organized, desheveled mess of clothes, boxes, toys, equipment, gear, a dresser, and junk. It was insane. We no longer had a spare bedroom. Instead, we had another giant walk-in closet that was sadly intimidating. We didn't want to go in that room at all. It was icky.

Two, we ordered and installed a premade closet from the wonderful and highly helpful people at easyclosets.com. If you need a new closet, please go here. These people are wonderful. And be sure that you call them and talk to them before you order it because they have wonderful input and advice. The shipment came one Tuesday morning in fourteen boxes delivered by a very friendly, but initially annoyed, UPS man. He could only shake his head and chuckle when I flung open the front door shrieking, "Do you have fourteen boxes for me?!?" SPF installed the entire closet structure in about an hour, he says. There is no documentation because I wasn't here. However, there is also no documentation of the process of taking the dreaded closet room and transferring it back to the rightful location of actually in a closet. I had one rule. Nothing goes into the closet that hasn't been evaluated and determined that we are going to use it again and actually want to keep it. This process resulted in a car full of items to be sold to second hand clothing and book stores and given to the Salvation Army. My entire car. Bags and boxes, a dresser, a shoe rack, blinds (both vertical and horizontal), toys, frames, art, electronics. Anything and everything that we had been packratting for no reason at all. The result is a full, but entirely functional, closet that we both love and call our very own fabulous new closet.