An Unusual Sighting

Honestly, nothing really super exciting happens around here.

Yesterday was pretty cool though. 

While doing homework, my son yells out "There's an owl in the tree!" Honestly, I'm just thinking and even said "Whatever, no there's not." He saw it, said it was a Great Horned Owl. (yes, he knows what they look like) My daughter then yelled out that she saw it too. Anyways, sure enough, sitting 15 feet from our sliding glass door in the tree next to our deck, on the lowest branch, so just above eye level, is sitting a Great Horned Owl. It's 3:45pm for goodness sakes! These things are nocturnal.

Not only is it sitting there, it is awake! 

So we got the camera and got some great pictures.

To get a super sharp picture I had to slowly, VERY slowly open the sliding glass door enough to get my camera through the opening. This, however, resulted in some awesome pictures because it caught the owl's attention and I got the stare down!

Craft Room closet

So from the last post you saw this closet:

I wish I would have done a full before picture that included the plastic shelves and rolling plastic drawers that were holding all my sewing/craft stuff. You could have seen the doors that were always getting stuck and didn't even allow access to the whole closet. But unfortunately, I didn't get those pictures. You do get this one however. You can see the sagging top shelf and the not much to it tiny closet. The top shelf was thrown on top of those brackets that hold the clothing rod when we moved in. We added some side supports but the shelf just wasn't made to really hold any weight at all. And obviously, we have the shelf loaded. We have a small house and not a whole lot of places to store things.

Anyways.....

So after returning from the trip with my sewing table, I was ready to get my room organized and everything. But as I tried to put things away, I really had no idea where to put everything. I was totally against putting those closet doors back on so I didn't want the cluttered mess we had before to be in there and visible for the whole world to see (or seriously, just me honestly). I wanted a closet organizer and honestly spent a couple days trying to find one that had what I wanted or that I could make work. They all cost so much (not a ton really) for what I wanted. It was either cheap and missing a lot of what I wanted or it cost over $200. I decided to draw up plans and see how much it would cost me to make one.The price was definitely better so with very little convincing to the husband, we went and got the wood and got started.

Step 1:

Gut the closet.

I removed everything. I wanted to start fresh. I was going to try to use the awful top shelf that was in there but I decided on a 16" deep shelving design and the top shelf was only 12". Honestly, why waste 12" of closet space on a 24" deep closet? If you can go with the 16", do. 

With the hubby's help, I built this "center" piece. The plywood was ripped into 16" strips 8 ft. long. They really end up being about 15.75" which is perfect. I used 3/4" ply as well because I wanted this thing sturdy. Sorry no build pictures. I just wanted to get it done so stopping and take pictures for every step just wasn't on my mind. The bottom shelf is about 2" up so that I could place a kick plate piece there. I liked the way it looked sitting off the ground a bit more. The height is 72". This puts it higher than the previous shelf that was in there. I'm just test fitting it to see where I wanted to place things and how it was sitting on the floor and against the wall. (As you can see I also removed the base molding. I wanted this fully built in) Do you see those lovely plastic drawers? Yes, those were in the closet before..and honestly will be again but more accessible.

After everything was cut and sanded, we primed the wood. Yup, put the kiddos to work. They love painting and it is just priming...really can't mess that up. The fighting was minimal, thank goodness.

After everything was dry, it was time to start installing. Level in hand and power tools, I installed the side shelves first. I honestly didn't know exactly where everything was going to fit as things got installed. All the side shelves were cut to 23.5" to allow room for those rolling drawers to fit nicely under the bottom shelf right there. I spaced them 14" from top of one shelf to bottom of next. I didn't put the supports in for the top shelf that went all the way across the closet until the end. Again, it was just in case I messed something up, I didn't want to have to move them.

After my side shelves were all in (see how nice those drawers fit in that space?) the center section was installed. It was not centered in the closet but I never planned it to be either. You can't see it in the picture but at the back of the 3rd shelf, a piece of wood was placed at the top of the cubby so that I could screw the whole unit to the wall. I made sure I hit at least one stud and used an anchor for the other screw when installing that. After that was in and secure, the side shelves were then screwed to the center unit. All screws were countersunk so they could be covered. Make sure you install everything level when doing this! 

The top shelf was then installed. It was placed on top and checked for level. The side supports were all marked and screwed in place. The shelf was then screwed down to the center unit as well as the support sides. This thing is solid! The clothing bar was then cut (love that it was wood) to the length of the left over opening and installed with the original holders. Love when I can reuse things. Less I have to buy.

The base molding was then reinstalled and cut to fit on the back well there right up next to the unit. It looks so much nicer than what was there before. All the holes and gaps were then filled and the whole closet was painted. 

I still have some organizing to do with this closet but right now, it's still not bad. Ignore the old prom dress and wedding dress stuffed in there. They need to be moved to my cedar chest soon. The guest bedding at the top will also be moving. But overall, things are much more organized. Because the shelves were made so deep, I am able to put my sewing machines in sideways and they don't stick out over the shelves. The spaces are all tall enough for them as well. Eventually I will get some bifold doors for the closet, maybe. But right now, I am so happy. The bins are both still empty as well, so we have more room for things.

See how perfect those bins fit??

The cubby spaces were designed to fit these. Final opening was 13 1/8" square and 15.75" deep. Seriously, perfect fit.

I wish I could make more closet organizers now. I've been meaning to put some in the kids' rooms. But it is just more money. I need to take a break from spending right now. When I do theirs though, I will just use the existing shelf and build around/onto that. 

Sewing Room

There are times that I can get really into things. Most of the time I am pretty ho-hum about things. I'll get to eventually or get it over with or whatever. Lately I've been more into doing things than usual. Unfortunately, this usually results in me working way too much, too late into the night, and back to work early with very little sleep because all I could do was think about the project I've been working on. 

That's been the last few weeks for me. I just inherited my mother's old sewing table. Seriously, this is more exciting than Christmas for me! Finally a place to keep my sewing machine up and ready to sew! No more dining table sewing messes. But to prepare for the sewing table...well, that meant I had to prepare the room. I needed my wood floors because string, tiny pieces or fabric and the occasional dropped pin are much easier to clean on a smooth surface than they are on carpet. 

So the prep work began just a few days before the big trip to get my new sewing table.

The ugly blue carpet (sorry no before pictures of that) came up and the base molding came out. I am not a fan of using the quarter round around the base after installing laminate floor so do everything I can to get the base molding out before doing that. The holes left from removing the carpet tack strips were repaired even if they weren't very big and didn't need it. 

I then laid plastic sheeting, 6 mil thick stuff. The reclaimed laminate flooring I have has the padding attached so I just needed a moisture barrier for the cement. We don't really have problems with moisture in our basement but you should put the barrier down anyways. The wall right there under the window was bowed in the middle a bit so it took some work to get the floor balance just right in the corners but once that was done the rest went really quick. The install kit is from Harbor Freight and I can't recommend it enough! The rubber tap bar is awesome! (not the hard plastic like the ones at the big box store) Seriously, the whole kit is awesome and at seriously just $10 (1/2 the price at other places) you can't go wrong. I've used it on two floor installs now and still love it. Moving on....

 TADA! Beautiful right?

After the floor was all done I went through and reinstalled all the base molding. (Doesn't it look so much better than quarter round?) If you go this way, remember to be very careful when removing the old molding if you are going to use it again. I did break a smaller piece but that was an easy repair.

 The transition hasn't been installed yet but if you look closely out the door you can see the lovely blue carpet that used to exist in this room. I wish I would have had enough left over flooring to do the hallway as well. But alas, no such luck.

And there's the lovely closet....

that had to be redone as well. The door were sliding glass ones that just never operated right. On the left side there, the previous owners had placed a piece of base molding sideways up the wall to be the edge of the closet on the flat wall. I removed that and bought a 1x4 to place there and cut the base molding to fit around it. It looked so lovely I went back and bought more to frame all around the closet with the 1x4s. It looks so much better. (Pictures to come)

I finished this 2 days before the trip to get my table....

You want to see my new-to-me sewing table??

I know, you just have to see what I have been getting so lamely excited about right?

Well here it is...

I'm not sure of the age but it is solid wood and older than I am (My mother bought it used when she was pregnant with me)

Ignore the mess but this is my lovely table.

Both sides fold out (only the larger is folded out in this picture), there is a hidden thread holder in the back and it all folds up nice and just looks like a beautiful desk. It is also holding my new machine. My old one was beyond repair. It's on the left there, the one with the black gorilla tape on the knob....yeah, still sews but the very old, almost as old as my marriage, Brother, got a broken knob and the plastic parts just can't be repaired. So the new pretty Babylock is mine. It was very hard to spend the money and buy it but it sews like a dream!

 

Remember that awful closet?? Well, it's been transformed. I'll put that in a new post since this is so long.