Sunday Sweats: The Walk-In Closet Gets a Face Lift

When I told you about our walk-in closet here, I told you that we were not done with it. It was a beginning.  Now we are somewhere in the middle with our recent add-ons. Excuse the crappy iPhone pictures, I will take more quality pictures when I fill up the closet (can you say SHOPPING?).

Remember that by the closet door and window there was empty space? Not anymore.

There are shelves and a lower hanging bar near the closet door and shelves under the window. Now every wall is covered in some form of closet shelving/clothes bar unit.  Can you see the "real" closet door peeking out there on the right?

What you are looking at below used to be a ceiling to floor shoe rack as evidenced by the shelves that still have shoes on it. We added some drawers there as it was really the only place we could feasibly add drawers and I moved my shoes to the other ceiling to floor shelving unit.

When B asked me what other things I might be interested in, I did not ask for this. However, it is certainly something he needed and it is pretty cool.  A little organizational rack for belts in the area by his shirts (to the left of the window):

What I did ask for was a valet, or a pole that would pull out so I can hang the next day's outfit from it:

Like so:

It should be noted that I have only used that pole so far one other time. I am not that much of a planner. It should also be noted that B immediately said "why does this suit still have tags on it?"  Huh. 

Another thing I *had* to have was a hidden/retractable ironing board.  We had the regular ol' kind and I hated putting it up and taking it down every day or so, which meant that I inevitably just left it up in the middle of the room all the time which B *loved*.  So we got one that can disappear. Can you see it?

It pulls out and to the left like so:

Then you just pull the legs down and it is good to go:

My only minor complaint is that it is really half of an ironing board, but since I am not entering any ironing competitions, it seems to get the job done.

Another view point of the room:

See where those sweatshirts look like they are about to fall off the shelves to the right? That is because they are making way for my shoes. That is the unit where I moved all my shoes to. It is not because I am sloppy and cannot fold properly. Not at all.

Don't you just love it??

*UPDATE* I was just watching the show SuperNanny and saw that the Nanny was wearing that exact same suit that I hung to show off the valet. I mentioned this to B and he stated "it probably WAS that suit since you are not wearing." Whatever.

Sunday Sweats: Surprise! We Were Burgalarized...or Were We?

So this is what I came home to a couple of months ago. Well, actually a lot of a couple of months ago when it was very warm. Sensing a theme? Yes, I am reliving warmer times. I hope Phil is right. I need some spring.

Anyway, I came home, parked the car and headed into the house when I was stopped by this view of our back porch:

Who broke me?

I remembering standing there so confused. My first thought was "Someone tried to break into our house!" I then immediately figured out that was stupid.  Why would someone push in the screen (and unsuccessfully might I add) when they could just open our screen door which is not locked? Also, why would someone break into a screened in back porch, but not the rest of the house?

I then thought someone drove into it. Yes, you read that right. The porch faces our yard which faces a fence which faces the long grassed neighbor's house and then his yard. It would be physically impossible for a car to drive into this porch unless it was a special UFO car.  That did not stop me from looking for tracks or looking quizzically at the long grassed man's yard like he might materialize at any moment and explain this all to me.

Turns out that none of that was the problem. The problem was rotting wood. I would rather have UFOs actually.  And so down came parts of the back porch:

They all fall down.

Guess who had to create new pieces? B. Isn't he a champ?  Want to see rotting wood pieces?

This is rotting wood.

So is this.

And a weird side view of the rotting wood. 

We like to take pictures of rotting wood.

Turns out the porch wasn't level either. Look what B had to do to the bottom just to get the top to work:

That's odd looking.

In the end, it all worked out. I would like to show you pictures, but somehow we cannot find them. Let me just say that B fixed that side piece and all of the front pieces. Maybe I will take pictures in the spring and supplement this post. For now, pretend it is all fixed:

Pretend I am the final version.

Home ownership is a lot of work - B.

*So I totally looked at when I saved this post. May of 2009. Um, more than a couple of months ago or even a couple of couple months ago. We are talking almost two years people. I need to catch up to my photos!

Sunday Sweats: The Walk-In Closet Edition

Alert! Picture heavy post here folks.  That's because it is about clothes or, more importantly, where we store our clothes.  Yes, finally. We have our walk-in closet!  It is not 100% complete, but pretty close and we can use it.  How fun is that?

Remember when I told you back in July (note: when it was very warm and not freezing cold like now) that we had plans? The plans were finalized and the closet "built" although not by our hand.  So maybe the title is a bit of cheating.  We have found, however, that when it comes to walk-in closets hiring it out is best.  Also, no one wants to work. Seriously. We can explore that issue in another post.  Right now let's enjoy the closet.  I feel so SJP in SATC!

First a trip down memory lane when we first got the house.  Here is the closet, formerly a bedroom, formerly a cat room or something:

I am going to be a closet some day!

Then we repainted it and it quickly become a storage area or as B would probably say a "trash dump":

Look at all my junk!

Okay, this looks like trash.

So first we cleaned it out:

So shiny and clean!

And then we called in the professionals.  Can I just say that there is a weird trend between B and I that whenever I am going to trial, he has something big that we need to take care of right at that moment.  He does not plan it. It just happens.  I find it very strange though.  During this trial we needed to refinance. During this trial we needed to buy a new car.  Two days before this trial we had our holiday party.  And during this trial I had to approve plans for the closet. Hmmm...maybe I need to try more cases?  They seem to result in some good stuff.

So in went the shelving:

Look at all that wonderful shelving!

More shelving and some drawers:

Look at that nosy cat!

Then we got to fill it up. First B's side (with some overlapping by me) which you see when you first walk in:

Yep, I like to take up space.

The view when you look right in the door.  Did you notice we also replaced the light fixture?  Also, we are going to expand under and next to that window. Soon.

More closet space? Yes please!

Then my stuff, including a space for all my shoes:

I need more shoes!

I found those little red boxes and Bed Bath and Beyond, but I need two more. They are perfect for holding smaller things like gloves:

And a place for my formal dresses and my purses:

I need more purses!

The top pair were placed first a la SATC!

I added those two jars for buttons and safety pins which I seem to have an abundance of:

The view with the real closet door open. There is still space for more closet. Can you see it?

See all my space?

We are in love with this closet and it is not even done! We will probably add carpet since we are going to dress in there and bare feet get cold.  Also, an island in the middle would give us more space and a place for me to iron clothes rather than the bulky ironing board that just takes up space.  We also are going to add a valet which pulls out for dry cleaning or outfits for the next day.  We are also thinking about more drawers.  For now, though, we are good.

What do you think?

It's Like If These Walls Could Take Pictures, But It Was a Person and That Person Was Outside

Remember when I told you that the former owners of our house had a son and he was kind enough to drop off a CD of what the house looked like before the people before us bought it? Well this is the second, and last, part of that series. These are the outside pictures:

Here is our house now:

And this was it then:

Look at that HUGE tree! It takes up most of the house and entirely covers up the dining room window. In fact, if you look closely at the dining room window in this picture, you can see the tree in it.

I told B that I am not sure I would have been able to see past that tree if we were looking at the house back then. Luckily for us, the people before us could and one of the first things they did after moving in was tear out the tree. Thus leaving the dining room window visible:

And, later, after B tore out that bush, we discovered something even more beautiful that should have never been covered up. Look at the side brick work:

It totally matches the brick work around the door. So gorgeous. Much better than a sunblocking, neighbor watching blocking, and HUGE ass tree.

They also did a little more with the back porch than we do:

This is what it looks like now without all of the plants*:

They had plants everywhere:

We just have cats:

So there you have it. Crazy how things change and how different everyone's vision of how their house should look like really is. I love that we were able to see the different ways our house has been used and decorated.

*Okay it really looks better than that. We have grass and it is green. I chose to use an old picture probably right after we moved in and the snow melted. Don't want you to think B doesn't take care of the yard. He does.