- The design had to actually create more storage because we couldn't afford to lose any space.
- The price had to be right.
So we moved everything out and the husband got started on demolition. I took the video below because words could not do the extent of this step justice.
Thursday night and we're making a trip to the hardware store for drywall patching equipment and materials then we headed home to finish demolition and removal of debris from the house.
Friday night we looked at flooring options. 2 hardware stores later and we walked out with an engineered laminate wood that clicks and locks into place which means no gluing or nailing. We head home and moved onto step 2...patching the holes and uneven drywall. This was a little more challenging. We had picked up joint compound as suggested by my father, but the stuff we got was more spackle than compound AND we didn't get enough of it. The drywall where paper was ripped just sucked the moisture out of the compound and rippled the edges of paper that remained. Sanding the thick stuff down after it dried didn't go so well either.
Saturday, Christmas Eve, we were off the Sherwin Williams to pick up REAL joint compound, primer and any other supplies we thought we might need. Then we still had to go to Home Depot for drywall repair patches. New joint compound went REALLY well and sanded a lot better too. We applied that in areas to smooth where sanding was just not successful and areas that hadn't been reached from the first compound. We had also picked up "ceiling white" paint for the ceiling and completed that painting. There is something about paint that makes everything feel new...or I could be high on paint fumes. Here is the video showing progress through step 2.
Step 3 Remove flooring. We pulled the carpet, tack strips, and padding. Where padding staples didn't come out, they were hammered in flush and we hope the underlayment compensates. At this point we definitely committed to the flooring installation. I'm not sad to see the carpet gone (it was more gross then I could have imagined...see the cream under the closet door track, that was the original color, not subfloor). Photo shows that primer covers quite a bit and lack of flooring cleans the place up a bit.
Step 4 is to apply drywall conditioner or sealer...nope, no time for that...paint primer. Okay...moisture from primer also soaking in. Hmm, perhaps we shouldn't have skipped a step. Well too late now, hopefully the paint will cover enough to make it passable. So we're moving onto PAINT. We were so ready for this step and are so sore from the previous steps. When we moved into this house the husband wanted to paint every room (something about being sick of white from military housing and wanting to pick the colors himself). We overcompensated on some of the paint we selected and stashed it away for future projects. So Valspar ecru is what is going up. This seems more yellow than we remember and more yellow than it looks in the guest bedroom and bath. Is that going to clash with honey oak flooring and cherry wood shelving? Why oh why didn't we ask to keep a sample of the laminate shelving.For tonight, we have a sense of accomplishment and are sleeping with a few windows open for ventilation. Yes, we are aware that it is December. Good night all and Merry Christmas!
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Boxing Day 2016....We were unboxing, you guessed it, flooring!
I took another look at the paint in the morning and decided that it had definitely mellowed to a nice light cream color. The single coat of paint did the trick and we were ready to move onto flooring installation. We were both excited and trepidatious about this portion of the project.
First stop was our local Home Depot to rent a table saw for the day. We actually scheduled to rent it for 3 days because we weren't sure how this was going to go and thought we might need the extra time. The guys were great and showed us how to set it up. As I was waiting with the saw and John from Home Depot to load the equipment into the truck, he mentioned that the blade that comes on the saw is meant for ripping more than fine finish work. After he helped us load the saw into the car, we went back into the Home Depot to purchase a finish saw blade since we were going to be cutting laminate flooring with this contraption. We did not purchase any floor base on this trip but did note that to purchase a compound mitre saw was the same price as 2 hours rental and decided to think on it until we did purchase base.
We got home and had the saw set up in no time at all. We measured and both went down to make the first cut. As we were trying to cut the long edge of the board it got caught on the backside of the saw guard. No adjustments we could make were going to allow that board to pass and I was instantly reminded of the guys telling me the guard was in the way every time I chastised one of them on a construction site for removing it. There was nothing to be done about it...the guard came off and stayed off. Shortly thereafter my husband mentioned that he was placing bets that one of us would end up in the hospital before the end of this project and I couldn't disagree.
The first cuts done we ran back upstairs to the closet to install and realized that in our excitement we had forgotten a critical step - underlayment. Setting our freshly cut boards to the side we set about laying out the underlayment. We splurged on this step and got the stuff that has the graph boxes on it for easy cutting. Although it probably took longer than it should have we were pretty excited about how smoothly the underlayment step went. You can see the pretty gold with boxes of the underlayment in the picture to the right.Underlayment done, we moved onto installing those first boards. The first thing we figured out was that the gap between the bottom of the drywall and the floor was too big for the wedges to be of any use. They continually got wedged at a diagonal or fell out completely. We followed the directions and laid the first row, cut the piece to finish that row and used the leftover to start the next row. About two rows into the left side of the closet I thought that we would probably need to do the right side simultaneously because when it got to the open part in front of the partition wall it would have to join up. About 3 rows in one board got cut a little short...oh well, the base board will cover that.
I have to say big KUDOS to my husband and THANK YOU for running up and down the stairs from the master bedroom to the garage to make all the cuts we needed. He did say he enjoyed working with the table saw and felt a little like Tim "The Toolman" Taylor while using it - more power! I did a lot of the fitting of the boards together which required a lot of crawling around on the floor. Also, we are big fans of the "floating floor" because every time we needed a few millimeters of space to place a board near the wall we cheated and shifted the entire laid floor just enough to make it fit.
When we got to the front side of the partition wall, we noted that the two sides of the closet are not even, or the boards are not, either way it took some fudging to get things to look like they line up. The baseboard will cover that (hmm, I sense a recurring theme). Once we got to the open space it started to go quickly, less cuts except those made to purposefully avoid lining up seams, and we started to think we may be able to finish the project in enough time to take the saw back. The front edge caused some headaches because it was short with a lot of cuts to allow for the entry and some piecework. After some recuts, mistakes started getting made the closer we got to the end of the project, we quickly cleaned up the saw and loaded it up in the truck. I'm happy to report we returned that bad boy 2 minutes before Home Depot closed for the evening! Double bonus...neither of us ended up in the hospital (a few smashed fingers did occur however).We were so proud of ourselves that we rewarded ourselves with a milkshake as part of dinner. Such a sense of accomplishment! We keep commenting to each other how nice it looks...usually followed by how much we hurt.
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December 27th....Full day at work for each of us and then the next step of the project. We went to Lowe's to return the 1 unopened box of flooring and the extra underlayment tape roll. While there we reviewed baseboard options. While we had our measurements we failed to remember the sample of existing baseboard. We made a selection we felt was close enough to the previous style (remember our closets have been precut for the base we had) and sufficient lengths to assure us the capability of mistakes. While there we picked up paint for the base boards, a compound mitre saw, and Christmas storage because eventually I will have to put away the few decorations we put up this year.
After running our supplies home we opted for dinner and decided that starting any portion of this project at 9 PM would be a bad plan and we deserved a night "off". Tomorrow night we should be able to start right up. We were anxious however to see what the base will look like in the room, so here is a sneak peak.
Good night all!
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December 28th....Full day at work for me and a half day for the husband. He decided to take the next 2 days as half days because he is feeling the crush of the impending installation deadline. One he got home from work and changed into work clothes he brought the mitre saw, base moulding, and a folding table upstairs to the master bedroom from various parts of the house (garage, basement, etc.) and unboxed the saw and it's directions. It didn't take long before we realized the flaw in our plan. The set up instructions indicated we needed to bolt it down to something, so after reviewing our options, we decided the best was an old cabinet/countertop that the previous homeowners used as a workbench in the basement. So husband migrated the saw to the basement and then made a trip to ... you guessed it, Home Depot ... for suitable bolts.After spending some time on that errand he set about drilling additional holes in the "workbench" counter (some holes were already present just not spaced correctly for our model saw) and securing the saw. Then he migrated all materials from the 2nd floor to the basement for cutting along with his sketch the master closet with all his carefully measured dimensions. First cut he decided to make was for the long wall and on the only 12' baseboard we had purchased. After he made the cut he brought it up to double check his dimensions - it was a little long - so he ran it back downstairs and recut and back up again to check and now it was a little short. We had the forethought to purchase spare baseboard with the understanding that we may misjudge cuts. We decided we would splice two pieces together for the long wall and move on.
Husband remeasured a different wall and went to the basement to make the cuts. Then back upstairs to check the length. It was also slightly off. At this point he was frustrated and I couldn't blame him. Part of the issue was that the laser guide didn't seem to line up correctly and so cuts were off by distance of the level or distance of the length of the blade. All these things you probably get used to adjusting for if you use this piece of equipment frequently but we were band new at it. I left him to it, since I was working from home and needed to be doing my work, but kept checking in to provide encouragement. I really should have put my step counter on my man for this project because he ran each piece up and down the stairs as he cut them to make sure he had the right lengths, angles and everything. He started to get the hang of the saw it started to go a little better for him. There was a little less frustration and a little more smiles.
Once I wrapped up work, I headed downstairs to start dinner while he continued working on the baseboard. I believe I have failed to mention until now that not only are they installing a closet system for our master bedroom, but also for our pantry. We did shelf removal of the pantry and patching of the drywall at the same time as the master closet but had failed to get back to it for painting/finishing. This was my task for the evening - prime the pantry to prepare for paint. So, after dinner was in the oven, I cracked open the primer and got to work while my husband continued to run from the basement to the second floor with each piece of baseboard he cut.
Ten minutes before dinner was due to be out of the oven, he hit a snag and needed to pick up a piece of baseboard to finish (other pieces were too small for what he had left to finish) and he headed out to Home Depot as I wrapped up the painting supplies from successfully priming the pantry. When he returned he headed downstairs to make that final cut and back up to the master closet with his final piece before sitting down to dinner. After dinner he headed up to start nailing baseboards in place. After I had finished dishes I unwrapped the painting supplies and put another coat of primer on the pantry. To the left you can see the fitted piece he designed to compensate for cutting one board too short too many times and refusing to make a third trip to the hardware store for more baseboard... I thought it was brilliant.While nailing the baseboards there was one casualty that needed to be recut but overall not bad. My husband declared he was pleased but "wouldn't quit his day job". After cleaning all the painting supplies for the night, I headed up to see his handiwork. There were some gaps in the corners and I could sense his frustration but we both wanted this project to be DONE so no rework was going to happen. Overall, he did a great job for not having done trim work before. Everything that was so obvious to him I knew would be near invisible with putty/caulk. Most of the issue was nothing to do with his handiwork but was the walls or floors not being even or areas that just needed some more nailing.
I put a few more nails in while my husband started the caulk. I tried putting wood putty into some of the larger gaps but it wasn't happening and was making a mess instead. So, I gave up on the putty and we opted to fill with caulk. Bad puttying can be seen to the right.
Once we caulked it looked pretty darn respectable!!
Tomorrow night we finish paint the pantry and paint the baseboard.
Ooops...one area the baseboard didn't cover the flooring misfit....and it wasn't a location that I thought was going to be an issue. Everywhere else, the flooring edge is under the baseboard!
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December 29th. Today is the LAST day we can do any improvements to any of these areas before the installers show up. All we need to do is paint the pantry and paint the master closet baseboards. I'm on pantry painting and husband has the master closet. Whatever we have at the end of the night is what will be!
Is it wrong that both my husband and I are pleased as punch at how well this turned out? We both keep walking into the closet and saying how nice it is.
What is wrong is that both of us are feeling such a sense of accomplishment that we are tempted to tear up something else and continue our DIY home improvement. We are each working on keeping the other one reminded what a chore this has been and how sore we are.
And here is your look at the pantry all painted! No flooring replacement here, thankfully.
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December 30th - Installation Day!
The installers called around 7 AM this morning to let us know that they were making good time on the roads from Maryland and would be here around 7:45 AM. We both flew into preparation for their arrival and were glad to see them!We knew of our two cats, Trinity would be underfoot or trying to go out the front door while they brought in supplies and Shiela would be hiding under the bed the entire time they were here, petrified with fear. So we grabbed Trinity and locked her in my craft room which is also where I have been working from home all week (and again today). She was not pleased to be locked away from the action and kept from her supervisory role. Eventually she settled on the window seat to watch them unload the van.
Within a couple of hours they had the master closet all installed. The closet system is pretty cool. There is a bar that is bolted to the wall the entire length of the wall and the uprights pieces hang from it with some adjustable hardware built in and there are leveling feet built into the bottom of the uprights as well for the support on the floor. Here is our newly finished closet (very shiny).
And our new pantry shelving...see how the lower part is deeper and the upper part is less deep. My priority with this installation was not getting things buried at the back of the shelves. The sales rep said if we shortened how deep the shelves were it would not only help that issue but would also allow us to have accessible storage above the header. He was right!! Once he started to design it in the software however I thought about my cannister storage (flour, sugar, etc.) and wanted to have a few shelves at the original depth to allow for those bigger items. 
And the entire thing works perfectly with my Elfa door spice storage racks. We got everything back into the pantry that we had in there before with one bonus...we can see what we have. Nothing is buried.
For the big reveal of the master closet with us moved back in, I had to take another quick video. We still have yet to put the doors back on the closet but it made it easier to take the photos/video and we're not ready to shutter the closet from view quite yet.
May any DIY you undertake go smoother than ours! Tomorrow, we sleep in!
