Closetmania

I never thought I would work so hard on MY CLOSETS. I am dead tired and ready for bed, but I just had to come and post about my productive evening! It better have been productive too...I canceled game night with Sharon for my closets.

We went to Lowe's yet again today for our last big trip...we've now acquired everything that we need to finish this remodeling project. We bought more closet stuff, a new dining room light fixture, new kitchen light fixtures, new plantation faux wood blinds for our dining room window, paint for the main areas, and...new moldings for our main areas. The trick with our moldings (we agonized over this decision!) was that we really wanted to find one that was wide enough on the bottom so that we didn't have to install base shoe as well as baseboard. We lucked out...fortunately there is a Howe door casing that is PERFECT for what we want, so we bought a ton of it for our main areas with Pergo (the areas that need shoe) and then some regular 3 1/2" base for our carpeted areas.

The paint we finally decided on for our main area is called Sweet Slumber. I thought we were going to have another fight in the paint aisle (such entertainment for the Lowe's staff) but not this time...he gave in a little, I gave in a little, and the color we got is a white with a very subtle blue tint to it. It's very pretty and I can't wait to see how it looks on the wall. We have NO idea how much paint we are going to need and can't even guestimate it. I've done so-so with guestimating the other rooms, but with an area as big as this, forget it. We decided to start with two gallons of flat and one gallon of semi-gloss for trims and see where that gets us. The Lowes guy talked us into upgrading to satin after noticing that I was pregnant and pointing out that satin will hold up much better to children (he was the first person that noticed I was pregnant without me saying anything!!!), and our plan is to just start with what we've got and go back to get more as we go, although I personally think it's going to take five gallons.

After we got home from Lowe's, I took a deep breath, forgot completely about taking a before picture of my cross-stitch closet, and dug in. It really wasn't that bad...mostly just stuff that needed to be put into the appropriate bin. At some point, I will need to devote a weekend to putting my loose charts into binders by subject, a project that I began a year or so ago, but this ain't going to be that weekend. All I'm going for right now is to see my closet in an orderly state. Once I removed everything, threw away some stuff, and put everything into its appropriate bin or place, I got started painting. And this is the idea that I came up with. My old office color was Lilac Glimmer, a color that I just so happened to have a full quart of sitting in the garage. Since we never plan on painting any room that color again, I really wanted to use it up so it wouldn't go to waste, so I decided to use that on my walls. It was tight, but I made that paint stretch a long way. I just hope I can get through the final touch-up stage without having to go to Home Depot for another quart, which, even though it's only $10, is still a pain, and with the amount of paint we have already, we do NOT need any more! My ceiling I painted with the Thundering Clouds (new office color) and the baseboards, door, trim, and shelving I painted also with the Thundering Clouds semi-gloss. Sounded great in theory, but I can't believe I spent THAT much time painting A CLOSET. I think it took me longer to paint my teeny little closet than it did to paint my whole office. Oh, well. Live and learn. The shelves are drying now...tomorrow I plan to put the shelves back up and see what needs a second coat on the trims, and then touch up and move back in later in the afternoon. Of course, no room would be complete without some sort of unexpected repair. There was an area at the top of the wall near the ceiling that I thought was a nail coming up since they are like that all over the house, but when I smacked it with the hammer to go back down, the drywall just crumbled. P thinks the termites that this house had before we moved here got it. Oh, well. Another drywall repair that is drying as I type.

My WONDERFUL husband finished both the master closet AND the office closet tonight. I can't believe it. Our master closet looks like something out of a catalog advertising organization. It's just going to be amazing to have places to PUT stuff. If I'm this excited about wire shelving, think how excited I'll be in a few weeks when my cabinets are installed!! My shoe rack is even up. Even though I'm so tired, I made myself go and touch up the rest of the paint on the baseboards and the walls in both closets so they are dry and ready to go tomorrow. And they both look great.

Tomorrow is going to be a somewhat busy day for us...P is going to try to get the crown molding up in the bedroom and the drapery hardware back up, and I probably won't do much except finish the touching up on my cross-stitch closet and move all my stuff back in to the three closets. Unfortunately, I really really need to get some work done, I need to do some laundry to get ready for my little road trip on Monday, and at some point, I HAVE to do defensive driving for this speeding ticket I got a few months ago. Blah.

I can't wait to start on the main areas. Now that the whole house is painted except for it, the kitchen and utility rooms, it's time! This house is starting to look GOOD!

The people at Lowe's are really starting to know us and know us WELL. The same cashier rung us up Thursday night, and twice today. (P went a fourth time, but thinks the guy was off.) The second time I went, the guy was like, "Wow, you're going to be so organized after this, you're not going to know what to do with yourself." Is that a bad sign when the Lowe's people recognize you?

Come back for pictures tomorrow of the closets...