Guest Room #2's Walk-in Closet

2/9/2010-

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Introduction		     This closet area has always been a major concern for us for many reasons, and will take all sorts of techniques to fix up.
    The first issue involves the history of the room itself.  It was originally an open side porch, which was enclosed in 1932 to create an indoor bathroom when plumbing was installed.  Two thirds of the porch was made a bathroom, and the other third was made a somewhat useless 5x5' hallway between the landing and new bath area.  (You can see the entire AutoCAD schematics here for a better understanding.  Image will open in a new viewing window.)
     Somewhere along the line, someone decided to cut the hallway in half in order to make a tiny 2-1/5' x 2-1/5' closet for the adjoining bedroom.  This made the hallway from the Landing to the bathroom so small that it was usable if not cramped.
     When we renovated the bathroom, we decided that the hallway would be just barely adequate to use as a closet if we opened up the existing closet wall, and closed it off from the bedroom.
     Yes, this is confusing, but it's history that's important here.  (I try to never put pictures in these journals, but this one is so confusing I had to.)
      Since the Landing is about to become our new upstairs laundry room, we needed the hallway door to go away by being walled off.  We're doing that right now.
      The doorway from the bathroom is also being walled off.
      The closet doorway from the 2nd Guest Room has been reopened.
      All remnants of the 2-1/5' x 2-1/5' closet have been torn down.
      What all of this leaves is a nice little 5x5' walk-in closet for the 2nd Guest Room.      
2/9/2010      Today I opened up the wall between the 2nd Guest Room and the old makeshift closet.  Talk about a difference!  It feels like a small room, and no longer is an inconvenient area at all.  It will make a great closet for our guests, and the windows offer a gorgeous view overlooking the town below.  If it were up to me, I would make it a small sitting room with a leather recliner, and a small tableside lamp for reading.  The room also faces the sunset over the Virginia and West Virginia mountain range.  It seems a waste to make it a closet having windows on two sides.
    I tore down two of the walls, and discovered yet another buried "exterior" wall consisting of more lapboard siding.  Very cool!  I'll be needing that when we get around to The Mud Room.
    I also found some old newspaper clippings, and some student papers from 1932 Brunswick High School student, Clifton Frye.  I guess I'll try to restore them using digital means, and perhaps send them to the someone at the high school.
    We've decided to leave the crappy ceiling in place, and just bury it above a layer of bead board.  Why bother with it when it will just make the rest of the house filthy?  There's a ton of old black railroad dust up there.
     The walls are a different story.  We need to strip them down because they've rotted out, and the blow-in insulation isn't doing a very good job anymore.  I have a load of leftover insulation from he Veranda/Studio renovation, so it only makes sense to utilize it, and add to the level of warmth in that area of the house.
   Leveling the floor will come after that.  It's still angled to handle the rain water from when it was an open porch.  I'm so glad that this is a small room.
2/12/2010     Having ripped out pretty much everything down to the studs, a few things have become apparent.
     First, there are critters living in our walls. We knew this, but the need to bomb the house has become critical, and this should be done while we still have freezing temperatures outdoors so that the bugs have nowhere to run.  Last year there were stink bugs everywhere in our region, and I believe our house may be the point of origin.  When I removed the window moldings I found a small colony, and where there a few, there are sure to be many more.  Also, if there are bugs, then there are no doubt critters that eat them, and I don't need to see big spiders running around here once the weather warms up.
    Secondly, the heating will be greatly stabilized by this move.  I couldn't help but notice that the thin plastic sheets I hung up to protect the house from dust were waving a bit when the breeze outside blew.  I also noticed that it was freezing in the adjoining guest room.  I expected a minor difference with the old blown-in insulation removed, but I didn't expect to see daylight coming in at the corners of the room.  A couple of cans of Great Stuff Foam, and some Tyvec took care of the main problem.  The windows will be another issue altogether.  I'm not sure if they can be saved, and I'm really not positive I want to.
    Back to work!  I have to get the new insulation in before I can go to Home Depot for my flooring materials.


Stink Bug
2/14/2010      Well, I screwed up the floor by trying to go the cheap route.  I skimped on buying a few extra 2x4's for leveling it, and now it bounces.  The seams are uneven, too.  This means that I can't put in the blacl & white checkerboard linoleum I've saved for this area, so now I'll have to open the floor up again to fix it.  It's a matter of dollars and cents.  I already have the linoleum, so why waste it plus have to spend money we don't have on a section of carpet?
    On the same note (poverty) we couldn't justify spending money at the launder mat today, so we thought it over, and took a major risk.  We instead purchased the overflow pan that we knew we'd need for the washer when it's moved upstairs.  I drilled out a 2" hole in the Veranda floor, and hooked up a hose to the pan using Gorilla tape.  It's a great tape, but let me tell you, it is not good in situations involving water.  We were desperate, though.  It's been weeks since we've been able to do a load of laundry thanks to the poorly run service department at Sears, and the machine is still leaking gallons at a time.  My rigged up job worked, but it took about six hours of nonstop wash loads, and I have water all over my cellar workshop.
     Sears sucks!  Never again.  Never!
     So, now it's 1:30 in the morning, and I'm drying a few things so we'll have them for the morning.  Yeah, that's a lot of fun on Valentine's Day, let me tell you.
     I really hate Sears.
     The worst part of this is that on Thursday, almost a &^%$ month after my initial call to Sears, their service tech (who misdiagnosed the problem on his last trip) is going to come out to tell us that he has to order another part.  It can take weeks for these to arrive, and even when it does?  Sears won't schedule the appointment to install it until the part is in, and they never bump up people on the calendar no matter how long they make people wait.  In other words, our warranty on this lemon is allowing us to have our washing machine serviced after no less than seven weeks.  Seven!!!!!
    I want a new washing machine.  I deserve a new washing machine.
    I really despise Sears.
2/17/2010     Sears came by to basically verify what we already knew.  The tech ordered $635 in parts, and then rescheduled us for next week to put them in.
    Let's see... that's three visits (plus travel time), which will total around 10 hours labor at , what? $15 an hour? That's $150 plus the cost of the parts.
    Is it any wonder Sears' stock is in the toilet?
    I've walled off the bathroom door, and it's painted.  All I need to do is finish the base moldings, and that door is history, at least from the bathroom side.  Tomorrow I'll Be doing the same thing on the Landing side of the room, and then I'll get back into the closet itself, but without any cash for materials I have the feeling that I may wind up begging for dray wall scraps at local construction sites.
3/19/2010      It's been just over a month since I last wrote.  Since that time, I did a ton of work in Beth's Dressing Room (almost finished!), and completed all the work in the Guest Room Bath.
     I rebuilt the door frame today, and then hung the old door. I used to despise mortising wood for door hinges, and I discovered that I still do.  I used my Dremmel with a special cuff attachment designed specifically for mortising.   While the work is more accurate in depth, it's still a pain in the butt.
     A word of advice, which should be common sense, but who uses that anymore?  If you're doing multiple projects at the same time, take a few hours in between phases to clean up your work area, sort out your tools, and throw away debris.  It's very easy to fall into bad habits that can only lead to frustration when your tools aren't where you thought they'd be; you're tripping over old boards with nails in them; you can't locate critical items when you need them.  Even a total demolition should have orderliness.  The first or second time you find yourself hunting for something, stop!  Get your work area in order.  Then, start working again.
     Another good rule of thumb; don't save wood that you aren't actually going to use.  "Pack Rat Syndrome" is a really bad habit to fall into, and the reasons for saving wood scraps can range anywhere from a desire to one day build a bird house to saving our planet.  I've found that by applying the "Two Foot Rule" I've kept my wood bin full, and kept my life sane.  If a piece of wood has a minimum of two good feet (no nails, no screws) then I keep it.  Everything else goes to the dump.  The measurement you use may be smaller or larger, but try to stick to it.  Saving a hundred 3" scraps of wood won't save our planet.  Besides, the dump actually needs some mixed materials to help with its chemical breakdown process.
3/20/2010      Not a very productive day.  I routed out the catch for the lock, so the door now closes.  I have a load of crystal doorknobs in my shop, and need to grab one for this door as the original knob is gone.
     The door itself is closing with too much resistance.  I'll need to adjust the frame a bit before it's permanently positioned.  It's level, but I think it may be slightly turned outward.  Not a big problem.
     I took a few minutes to create the moldings I'll need to finish up the door once it's set.  Creating moldings is now almost child's play for me.  After many prictices, failures, and eventual successes, I've learned these techniques and practices:
     1) Always cut all of the needed moldings in one sitting, and make sure to cut 10% extra.
     2) If a strip of raw wood has a knot in it, assume that this area of wood will be cut away, and tossed in the garbage as it will  snap, bleed sap, or both.
     3) Make the first pass on the router blade a slow one.  Don't press too hard.  Let the blade do the work.
     4) Make a second pass, and follow through even if the blade doesn't seem to be doing any work.  Trust me, it is.  This 2nd pass will remove major irregularities, and also small irregularities that would have been spotted during sanding afterward.
     5) Always sand.  I don't care how smoothly that new blade of yours cut, sand your wood just a little using a fine sandpaper.  If you see dust falling, then it needed sanding.  Remember, paint and other finishes pile up against even the smallest inconsistencies, and the effect will be amplified.  Take a minute, and always sand.
     Creating your own moldings is almost always the best possible solution when you have a need.  I created 20' of moldings that I really like at the exact thickness I needed, and it cost me nothing since the wood I used was just scrap lengths I'd tucked away, and their cost was already included in the accounting of another project.  At $1.20 per linear foot at Home Depot, the molding would have run us $24, and now we get to use the "fancy stuff" versus a basic ugly profile.
     Another good reason to start creating your own? Once the house's basic molding needs are met, you can begin creating all sorts of unique architectural details that basic homes lack.  Chair rails and detailed entrance ways are just the tip of the iceberg!  With the right router blades, a pile of scrap wood, and a good plan, you can turn a very plain room into a real showcase!  Hearing someone say, "Wow!  Look at the beautiful woodwork in this place", is a great feeling when you know that you created it from nothing.
3/22/2010     10:47am
    I need to reset the floor today so that it doesn't bounce when walked upon.  This will require taking up all the flooring, creating custom lengths of cut 2x4's with graduated depths that line up to the existing adapters.  It's a pain, but a necessary one.  If the floor moves in the least it will invariably cause the linoleum tiles to crack, and break.
    Beth is going on vacation in Florida for the next week, so my "game plan" is to have this closet completed when she gets back.  That isn't a big deal in and of itself, but I also have to sand, and polyurethane the kitchen and dining room floors while she's gone.  That makes it a big deal.
     The cool part is this:  I love working on projects at night.  I rarely do this when she's here, so it will be interesting to see what happens when she isn't.  I'm betting a lot more gets done than usual.  It's not that she's a distraction.  It's that I'm easily distracted.
     First things first.  We need to get the 1999 Lexus down to Frederick.  See what I mean?  
    And I'll bet anything that Beth will want to have lunch while we're out.  Again, see what I mean?
    I'm a low-maintenance person when it comes to food.  Hook me up with some Ramen or a simple sandwich, and I'm back to work in 10 minutes.
    Hmmm.  Maybe it is Beth.
    Maybe Beth is the source of my interrupted progress after all!
    And maybe she'll read this, and we'll get into a big fight.
    See?  Just another distraction, and it will be all Beth's fault!
    Note to Beth: Hey, if you read this, you'd best not start a fight because now everyone in the world will know that being distracted is not my fault like we thought.  In fact, just taking the time to scientifically deduct all of this is kind of your fault, too.
    And each word that I'm having to take the time to write all of this?  Your fault, baby.
    Even that last line?  All your fault.
    Hey!  Quit making me write all of this stuff!  You're killing our schedule with all your distractions!  I'm going to get to work right now whether you like it or not!
    THE END!!!!!!
3/25/2010      Been downstairs refinishing the dining room, and kitchen floors.  Check out the date entries if you want to see what I've been up to.  No pictures as of this date, but soon.
4/7/2010      I've taken a job with a local pest control company, so work on the house is now grinding to a halt.  I'd like to think that I'm the kind of guy who can both work a job and handle coming home to work on the house a little, but that's just not so.  I suppose that it doesn't matter that much at this point.  Obama has screwed up our country so badly that our house is now basically worthless, and the work I do is now only done for our own needs.  That alone is a great reason to keep going, but it's going to take a long time before it's ready to sell.
     I suppose I need to try to build new habits.  If I have a spare hour, I should probably try to get some things done around here even if it's just to touch up some paint or something small like that.
4/12/2010      As expected, practically nothing is getting done around here in regard to renovating the house.  However, this isn't all together true.  We've just spent most of the past weekend first watching The Learning Channel's show, "Hoarders" marathon, and then suffering the anxiety of realizing how messy things have become in our home.  This is not to say that we are in fact hoarders, but the place was pretty disorganized, and we had plenty of things that we just didn't need.  (Notice the paste-tense usage in my phrasing.)
     To keep organized, I first hit the area that will one day be our bar.  For years it has been our overflow area as well as the place where we keep many building materials, etc.  Frankly, it's an eyesore, and one that is situated between the library, and the TV room.  Imagine watching "Hoarders" with such a complete mess right in the next area.  I now have it completely organized, and as emptied out as possible if one overlooks the stack of doors, and two floor cleaning machines.
      The library was Sunday's big project.  We went through our book collections, and donated about 30 books to Goodwill along with a few other odds and ends.  We dust pretty often here out of pure necessity, but we were able to really hit it hard with the books being moved about.  Then we just went bonkers cleaning the main floor until we felt that if anyone happened to show up they'd find the place quite beautiful.
     After that, we took the puppies down to the Monocacy Scenic River (Yes, that's it's actual name), and allowed them to have a good run through the adjoining fields followed up by an hour of swimming.  They were extremely pleased, and dropped from sheer exhaustion on the way home.
    We'd completely forgotten to take out anything for dinner, so we hit a Taco Bell in the early evening hours, and then treated ourselves to a big night out on the town at the local casino with a couple of bucks each.  Beth hit for $1,600, and immediately shoved the money so deeply into her purse that there was no possibility that it could be the focal point of any possible temptation.  We went home with all of it intact.
    Not a bad weekend, but an exhausting one.  It's now Monday morning.  Time to go kill some bugs.  By the way, I really like my new job.  I wasn't sure if I'd just be tolerating it, or if I'd come to find ways to accept this new vocation, but I actually like it.  I work with some good folks, and the bosses are genuinely nice people.
     One final note:  The insurance company I worked for is crumbling in big chunks.  So many perks were taken away that everyone is jumping ship, even the old seasoned agents.  Good.  The company owners were very bad people, and need to go away quietly into retirement.    
4/20/2010      Still nothing happening with the house.  The new job is actually working out well for me but when I get home at night I'm usually too tired to do anything but eat, and think about getting some sleep.
4/24/2010     Yup.  Still nothing happening with the house.  My route took me so deeply into Virginia last night that I didn't get home until 9:15pm.  I was just too tired to do anything but eat, and fall asleep.
    I've been doing some math while driving.  I start at 7:00am, and made 9 stops.
    That's 14.25 hours.  A normal job usually takes 1/2 hour each way for travel, so lets call it 13 hours to be fair.
    If I did $800 in services, and made 10% (I don't but it's around that percentage.  I can't say what it actually is due to company rules), then I made $80.
    80 divided by 13 = $6.15 per hour.
    I believe minimum wage in Maryland is 30 cents more, so in theory; I could have made more money, working less hours at Burger King.
    On the other hand, I really like my job, and I don't know that I'd enjoy working at Burger King very much.  This is what I have to call "The Price of Happiness."  Maybe I'll be able to turn this route into something better as time goes on.
4/28/2010      Something happened today that was both horrible, and wonderful.  A small cat, not much more than a big kitten really, was discovered by Beth with its head stuck in our side yard fence.  We'd both been hearing occasional cat cries for the past week to ten days, but this isn't at all unusual as there is a feral cat population in the area, and they often fight in the wooded lot next door.  What we believe happened is that this one was attacked by another cat in the dark, and she ran into the fence while trying to escape.
     I was working when Beth called, so I suggested she alert the neighbors to see if they could cut the fence.  You'd think that between the lot of us we'd have a pair of linesman's pliers, but none could be located, so the fence was pilled and adjusted until the cat's head could be freed.  
     When I finally arrived I found Beth sitting with a very weakened cat.  Beth was able to get her to drink a tiny bit of water, but the violent storms we experienced over the past two days probably supplied her with just enough to stay alive, and that was all she'd drink.  Upon turning her over we discovered her wounds, all of which were completely filled with maggots.  She'd also scraped her hind toes to the bone trying to escape.  We called Ellee to see what she could do, and took the cat over to her compound where we flooded the wounds with oils to drown the infestation, and then spent over an hour scraping, and picking maggots from her until we had the majority of them out.  If it had been one big wound it wouldn't have been that bad, but it was many punctures, probably tooth marks.  Her anal and vaginal region is fairly mangled.
     The next step was to hit a drugstore where we bought some Hartz Mountain shampoo.  I salved on a nice handful to the affected areas, and that was the end of the remaining maggots.  Following that, we cleaned her up, dried her off, and made a nice little "apartment" for her in the downstairs bathroom's tub.  She has food, water, and a litter box near a basket we lined with a fluffy towel.  After what may have been ten days of starvation, and sleeping in a standing position while maggots ate away at her, trust me, she's been sleeping very soundly.
    I suppose we'll look around to see if anyone is missing a cat in the area.  We really can't afford to keep another animal, so her fate is still up in the air, but at least she didn't die in such a horrible fashion.  We almost never go to that area of the yard, so it could have been months before she was discovered.  We're fortunate that the dogs were so vigilant, not to mention kind.  In fact, they're on the floor in the bathroom guarding her right now.
     We'll see how it goes.
4/29/2010     Beth worked from home, and gave me small reports throughout the day.  The cat drank a little water by herself, but mostly slept.
    When I came home I found another wound on her inner thigh.  It too had maggots, but not as bad as the rear wounds.  We cleaned her up, gave her some more antibiotics, and force-fed her some wet cat food.  We were pleased to see her take some more on her own after that.  It wasn't much, but it was something.
     I don't like the way her eyes look.  They've lost their bright luster, and she seems somewhat.... I don't know... like she's slipping away.  I don't think she's going to make it.
4/30/2010      Okay, so I was wrong.  Her chances for survival have greatly improved, and we've named her "Fly."
     Yesterday she ate two entire cans of cat food, and even munched on a little dry food.  We also bit the bullet, financially speaking, and took her to the vet. He said that despite having had a rough time, Fly should live, and even scheduled to have her spayed next Wednesday at which time he'll also sew up all her wounds.  All we have to do is continue with her care, and wash out her wounds with hydrogen peroxide.  This will both cleanse them, and also kill any remaining maggot larvae that may still be hatching.
     In the meantime, Fly is very happy living in our unused downstairs bathtub.  She'll have to be in there for quite a while for quarantining her against the possibility of giving our other cats feline leukemia, but that's just a formality, and she likes her new apartment life much better than having her head stuck in a fence.
     Rogue and Sasha adore her, especially Rogue.  He's always there to check in on her with us, and rests his head on the edge of the tub with his patented look of deep concern.  We believe he wishes to have her as his kitten, and we'll encourage that later on down the road.  He's always tried to play with Nash and Keokie, but they want nothing to do with him, which breaks his heart.  Fly shows no fear of him since it was probably Rogue who took care of her while she was stuck.
5/10/2010      I feel badly about not writing as regularly as I really should. Between work, studying, and my regular life, I just fell off to the side, and haven't been getting to this lately.  The closet is still on hold, so let me tell you about poor little Fly.
    Almost a week ago, Beth and I were giving her a bath.  She seemed to be on an upswing, and then became very lackluster, and smelled funny. As we were finishing up her bath I noticed that small clumps of hair were coming off her neck along with bits of flesh.  I removed anything that came off easily, and by the time I was finished she had lost many square inches of flesh.  Cats have two very distinct layers, and the bottom layer was still intact leaving Fly with a massive area of shiny white skin starting at the base of her skull, and ending at her shoulders.  This strip was about 4" wide, and we decided right there that she needed to see the vet again.  Something was seriously wrong.
    Our vet agreed to see her, and knowing that our funds are tight, also agreed to keep the price as low as possible.  He kept her overnight during which time the lower layer of flesh also fell away. This left her with a massive area of completely exposed.... well, guts... showing.  It was horrible to see, but surprising less fatal than we would have thought.  The vet decided to board her for a while so that she could receive optimal care while her wound healed along with the original wounds to her rear section. 
      That poor little cat has gone through an awful lot, and it would be easy to just put her down, but once that is done?  That's it.  A life is a precious thing, and as long as the animal isn't in pain (which she is not) and her chances of survival are good, her life is being prolonged in the hope that she will get healthy.  After all she's been through, Fly deserves any shot she can get at being given a nice home, and lots of love.
     Today is Monday, and we haven't been able to see her for a few days.  We'll make a point of getting over to Boonsboro this evening to look in on her.  Cats aren't exactly the most intelligent of animals, but continuity is all important in maintaining a relationship.  We just want her to keep being reminded of our scent so that her transition home is easier when and if that time comes.  If Doc syas she should be put down?  Hey, that's the most noble choice any animal owner can make when the choice is the right one, but for now we're all keeping our fingers crossed for her.
5/16/2010     We were finally able to go see Fly at the vet's office, and it was an excellent visit!  She was both playful, and loving.  Her hind area is almost completely healed, but her neck is absolutely disgusting looking.  That isn't a problem, though.  Barring any further infections she just needs to heal up a bit more before the good doctor can sew her fur layer back together, and then she can come home.
6/6/10      To summarize the adventures of Fly the Cat, she has been home for almost two weeks, and is happy.  We're allowing her to acclimate, and she has claimed the antique buffet in the living room as her own private perch where she can listen to birds, and watch life go by on the streets below.
     There is no money to buy materials.
     There is no time to work on the house.
     By the time I walk in the door at night I barely have time to eat before I need to be in bed.  My life is horrible, and I detest living this way.  That's the plain truth of the matter. 
9/1/2010      We've decided that we're going to turn the house back into a duplex, and rent out 21 West C Street.  In this economy it makes sense just as it did in the 1920's Depression when people survived by turning their homes into boarding houses.  What a miserable state we're in.
     I've been considering shutting down cable as our next move to conserve.  It would mean the end of this website after seven years, but we don't really have much more that we can cut down on in order to save it.  We already buy the crappy brands of food, and drive cars that are ready to fall apart. 
     Oh, well.  At least we won't freeze this winter with the extra income from the rental unit.  I hate calling it that, but times are tough.
3/27/2011      I won't say much here except that this winter wasn't as bad as last year's.  However, that isn't to say it was easy going.  We had our share of days when I had to scrounge for firewood in the forest behind the house when we ran out of heating oil.  
     Food was only an occasional issue, but hey!  Who doesn't enjoy Ramen Noodles when they're prepared in interesting ways?
     I think the biggest letdown I had was my customers.  Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know; they don't have to tip me over the holidays.  There's no law that dictates that they show a little extra appreciation for the effort I put out for them.  After all, they paid for a service to our company, and probably think I get a big chunk of that money.
     There's also the spiritual aspect of this.  I'm supposed to be humble, and just be glad I have a job..... and I am.
     But, come on!  I take care of their homes.  I slosh around in mud in freezing temperatures.  I sweat my you-know-what off in the summer heat for them.  I take great pride in my skills, and never rush through any job to ensure that their happy little homes are as bug-free as possible, and always do so with a smile.  In these hard times even I tip the guys who deliver oil to my house, and all the other service people who help us.
     All I'm saying is that I felt very unappreciated.  Sorry, but that's the truth of the matter.  It wasn't easy going through all those beautiful homes every day, all of them decorated for the season, and smelling of breads and cookies... and then going home each day to tell my wife that I'd once again been stiffed by every last one of them.  Our Christmas was barren.
      I suppose they just didn't know, and there's no intentional malice in ignorance.  Some people simply live in another world than ours, God bless them.