Friday was the contractors’ 44th day working on our house. The second floor bedrooms, except for a bit of trim in one closet, are finished. It is finally possible to start moving things upstairs, and we will be calling a mover to get some of the large items out of storage.
On Saturday, my wife, daughter and I headed out and spent another thousand bucks.
- Hardware for the kitchen cabinets: $150
- Mattress and box spring for our daughter’s room: $400
- Audio tower for the television in our bedroom; “Cubicals” for our daughter’s bedroom: $200
- Closet supplies for second floor bedrooms: $200
- Shark steam mop for keeping our new floors clean: $100
This rather expensive excursion lasted more than four hours and, considering our late start, was our only accomplishment for the day.
Our plan for Sunday was to assemble the closet organizers for our bedroom and move most of our stuff, assemble the “Cubeicals” for our kid’s bedroom and move a lot of her stuff, and put the stuff away in the lower cabinets in the kitchen. As is typical, we didn’t come close to accomplishing our goals.
I had purchased two “Debbie Travis” closet towers at Canadian Tire while they were on sale for 40% off. There are no rods included and these had to be purchased separately (hence the purchase on Saturday). It took a while to put the first one together mainly because I didn’t have a whole lot of room in which to work but also because of a few quality issues with the product itself (pilot holes drilled in the wrong place, shelf pegs that were such a tight fit that they were difficult to move, and instructions that probably could have offered a little more clarity). I took way too long assembling the first tower, but was able to assemble the second one in about 15 minutes.
Another problem with the towers is their height. They are only 73 inches high whereas most closet organizers are 80 inches high. This becomes a big deal when it is time to install the hanging rods. To hang a double row of rods only allows about 3 feet of hanging height for each one. Once the hangers are accounted for, this does not leave enough practical room for the clothes. We don’t want the top row of clothes dragging on the bottom rod, nor do we want our bottom row of clothes too close to the floor. So I had to make changes to my planned closet configuration. Gawd I hate this stuff…. Even as I write this, I am rethinking my all of my closet plans.
And then there is the other small problem that is common in this house. Even with the amount of structural work that has been done, the floor in the closet is not level, nor are the walls perfectly square. In an area as small as the closet, these imperfections are amplified. At this point, I’m not even sure how much shimming will help. Very frustrating.
It is now Monday. Including today, there are only three days before we leave to pick up the in-laws. That ain’t much time….
