Moments of Momsanity: room re-do

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Closet Re-model

The last pain-in-the ass project for the girls room was the closet. I thought it would be a simple project but of course I had a pregnancy moment measuring the length wrong, and then I had a few moments of momsanity. I measured the closet at 60 inches wide and knew that was 5 ft but for some reason when I went to Home Depot my brain computed that 60 inches to 6 ft and that is what I bought. The shelf stayed in a corner of the living room for 2 weeks until the last day of my mom's visit. Of course when I went to put it up with her I realized what a mistake I had made. We took a trip to Home Depot to have them cut it down to size but while there I decided a whole closet kit with different size shelves would be better. There were only 2 kits and both were open. One was obviously missing half of the kit and the other, after me, my mother, and the clerk, checked the box, seemed to have everything I needed. I never understand how people get things at a discount because it's broken, missing, floor sample, etc. I asked if I could get a discount because the box was open and I couldn't be sure everything was there. I got a plain and simple N to the O. After all this I was ready to exchange the shelf for the kit and my receipt was nowhere to be found. I looked in the kit box, I looked in the bags I had come in with, I checked and double checked my purse-I even checked the garbage at the register. I was seriously ready to just cry. The clerk was able to pull up my receipt on her computer so it was all ok in the end. I still have yet to find that receipt. I am convinced I gave it to the clerk and she forgot.
Anyway, I didn't get to put up the shelves until the next day. It was very tedious. It involved a lot of measuring, marking on the walls, leveling, hole drilling, and nail hammering. I was almost at the end when my husband had to leave to work. Luckily all the heavy lifting and such was done already. Just when I thought I was done...I was in fact missing a piece from the kit. The side brackets that anchor the fronts of each shelf were missing. I had to wait until the weekend was over to contact customer service, then I had to wait 5 days for it to be delivered. Everything is a story...that's why I have so much to blog about ;-) So after about a week and a half I finally put the finishing touches on the closet and organized it. I am happy to say that the girls now share one closet and everything has a place. Each girl has one whole row and a small half row for everything I could possibly think of. I am also equally happy that there are no more PROJECTS to do for their room...best part of it all!!!


Closet before

Closet after :-)

Finally done

I am finally done with the girls' room and all the projects I wanted to do for it. Now I can focus on redoing the glider...something that is probably going to require a lot of focus and time. Here are the pics I already posted of the room when we got the bunk beds and moved all the toys in there. You can see them bigger here http://momentsofmomsanity.blogspot.com/2011/02/big-girl-room.html

Soooo, here are the pics of my handy-work and adventures after that.
First thing I did was re-vamp the curtains that were in the room. The curtains were the first thing I made when I bought my sewing machine. I made them into tab curtains by sewing different colored ribbon on the top to match the colors in Kayla's comforter.

Next I put up a shelf above the toy bins. Of course, I decided to put up the shelf at the most inconvenient time, 1 hour before bedtime, and when I was all alone. I just wouldn't be me if I had the patience to wait until the morning when my husband was home to help. It was quite an adventure, let me tell you...I cursed myself a few times for my impatience. First I had to drill holes in the shelf to attach the brackets. Naturally I attached them all the way on the edges. Then I started drilling holes in the wall to put up the shelf. Long story short, there are about 10 holes in the wall due to the fact that I have a crooked eye and I happened to be trying to drill into a wall that is part of the outside of the house and is reinforced with steel. I finally had to redo the brackets on the shelf in order to avoid the steel beams. Then I couldn't figure out how the hell I was going to put one side up and then get the other side up all by my pregnant self. I wasn't willing to admit defeat and wait until the morning for my husband to come home...mostly because he would have freaked out when he saw all the holes. So this is what I devised...

See the holes in the top right?

That is a very light book shelf, placed on top of the toy bin, and the only other sturdy thing I have 2 of in the house...sterilite storage bins. After I did all that it took less than five minutes to complete the project and I seriously wished I could have smacked myself for not thinking of it an hour earlier. I'd like to add that this whole hour I had the girls running circles around me, trying to touch the drill, the hammer, sitting on the shelf, and asking 50 million questions about what I was doing. But it came out great and level so I guess it was worth it...kinda.

Luckily I KNOW my husband will never touch anything on this shelf so I have time to eventually cover up the holes. He of course said I did a good job putting it up, right after he said "O, more holes in the wall." The rest of my projects (except the closet, which I'll post separately) weren't as complicated. I made a toy bag for random homeless stuffed animals, a hamper for behind the door since there really isn't any other place for a hamper and these kids need to put their dirty clothes somewhere, and new basket liners. Overall, I'm happy with the end results, especially because it gave me something to do after the kids went to bed.