Master Closets

Not at all uncommonly, I spent another national holiday working on my house.  Such is the trek of the home renovator.  While many are out enjoying time away from work, we're putting our tool belts on once again.  Not that I'm complaining or worse, bragging.  No, we actually like doing this sort of thing.  No pity party here.

As you can see from the panoramic photos combined into one (you should be able to click on them to make them larger), this master bedroom is in desperate need.  One of the major problems with 100+ year-old houses is lack of closets.  People had a lot less clothes back then.  It was back in the days before American consumerism had buried in our minds that we shouldn't wear the same outfit often enough for people to remember it.

Anyway, the goal is to put in two closets, a "his and "hers" if you will.  In between these will be a cozy little cushioned window seat with storage inside and a bookshelf up front.  We started the project last Monday (Memorial Day) and we have all the major building behind us at this point.  Jodi and I just got the first round of drywall mudding done last night, but I don't have any photos from it here.  I still need to put it some trim, the closet doors, and do all the painting and staining.  But, before all that I have to get the mudding and sanding done.  Hopefully I can contain all the dust during the process.  If you've ever sanded drywall in a house you live in, you know that it's quite the messy ordeal.

  (On a sidenote, I noticed this in Haiti.  Of the seven days we were there back in March, I noticed that many of the men only cycled through about 3 shirts.  They did their laundry every day by hand and their clothes were cleaner than mine.  I had packed so that I would have on a different outfit every day we were there as any American does, but I wondered near the end of the week if the apparent excess was noticeable to my Haitian friends.)

In the process of having the closets in place, we will be able to eliminate two of the three dressers, get our clothes off display by getting rid of our "open-air" makeshift temporary (6 years) closet, and finally get a bedroom that isn't an eyesore to an otherwise interesting home.  More photos to come as we continue to finish these out.

Posted in: autobiography,Before & After,home renovation