Going in the closet.

Today was closet day, the office closet, part of my extended excursion into getting this office in tip top shape.  It's gettin' there.  What with the newly papered wall and all the spiffy paint, it's at least fifty trillion times better than it was.  And I fifty trillion times like it way better too.  Wow, looking back at what it used to look like....holy cow, I wonder how I survived this long in that room.

After some measuring around in the closet, checking my drawings, measuring things I wanted to get inside the itty bitty weirdly shaped thing, I determined I could indeed get my printer in there.  Boy, did that made me very happy.

I had picked up a 15x48 shelf last week hoping I could get two shelves out of it for the closet but alas, nope.  I obviously didn't measure everything.  Doh.  I had to run back to Menards and get another one, ugh, not on sale!  It was ok though (as having to run over there always is) as I picked up some screws for the closet knob and some fancy paver block edging stuff to hold all our upcoming efforts firmly in place.  At least that stuff was on sale, harumph.

Anyway.

After I figured out how I wanted to do the closet up, things went surprisingly smooth.  Except for getting that darn freakin' knob on the door.  I still am baffled.  I only slightly scratched myself once with a drill bit; no big cuts or bruises!  Amazing.

There's a shelf the flipper people installed in the closet which I was hoping to use as a template for my other shelves but shockingly, they actually really tacked that sucker in there.  Yes, they used door trim as shelf support.

I grabbed a piece of brown kraft paper and made a template over the shelf in order to find the angle.  I should have remembered that nothing is square, nothing is straight, nothing lines up in this house, anywhere.....Ah well.  So my shelves are not perfect but hey, they're in a closet so it's not like I'll be staring at them out in the open all the time.  What's more important is that there are now a couple of shelves in there, increasing its usefulness, and my printer fits.

It was a pretty easy install.  I used some furring strips and tacked those to the wall.  Interestingly enough, who knew 1/4" drywall existed.  Huh.  Nice to know they really went the extra mile and used the good stuff on this house....cough.  I found all of two studs in the walls and not anywhere where I thought they might be.  Whatever.  That's what wall anchors are for, right?

I have all these hanging items, bags, my camera, bags....

Yes, that's Butters.  Don't ask.

......a crazy cool jumbo clipboard the art director had made for me as my going away gift when Sirens was done.

So I thought I'd pick up a dowel and make a sort of closet rod out of it, using these cutie little curtain hooks I had from another time and place.  And it worked out quite well, though I didn't get the holes to line up despite my measurements.  

(Is there something going on in the universe where math skills are affected lately?  I seem to be having much trouble.  Although Mike will probably say I always have math problems.)  Menards had two carabineers for $1.88 so that worked well for my camera bag and the big Butters clipboard.

In the end, I'm quite pleased with the way the closet came together.  It is soooooooo nice not staring at the huge gigantic printer while I sit at my desk, working on the computer.  Seriously nice.  Way nice.  Beyond nice.  Worth every bead of sweat and effort.

Pretty basic stuff.  Not terribly extravagant.  But, job done!

Oh yeah, that knob.

I seriously am baffled.  I picked up both 1.25" and 1.5" screws, just in case.  When I hold the 1.25" up next to the side of the door, it barely sticks out.  Yet when I thread it through their messed up hole, it sticks way out even though the head of the screw is flush with the inside of the door.

In the end I used a 1.5" with a small washer on the inside and a nut on the outside to help fill up the hole behind the knob.  It's still not sitting correctly, it's still a bit loose, and I'm still confused.  I'll have to tend to it a bit more, unfortunately.  It's a cool knob nonetheless and way better than the contractor grade lame-o white plastic one.

All that's left in the office now are a few shelves for the walls, some cable management, hanging up a few framed items, and organizing the pile of stuff yet to come back in the room.  I opted to use those old Ikea shelves for our new fancy swanky library since they're so hefty, so shelves for the office walls are currently TBA.

Gettin' there!  Yay!