I am so ecstatic! I finally have a project finished in our new house! There are a plethora remaining, but I love the feeling of having one knocked out.
And this one was a big one for me. The linen closet. I'm sure anyone who has been to my house is thinking, Really? You started with the linen closet? Have you seen your living room?
Yes. Yes, I have. I had actually decided to start with the laundry room, as it is the smallest room and I thought I could knock it out pretty fast and get my laundry under control. I did get it textured and primed pretty quickly, just stuck at picking out a paint color and could really use some electrical help to turn the vision into reality!
But I digress. I haven't given up on the laundry room (in fact, the next house post will be about the peg board I'm putting together to hang my broom, mops, dust wand and rag box), but I had to put it on the back burner when I went to grab a fresh towel one morning. I opened my linen closet and it REEKED of stale cigarette smoke. Truly, the woman who used to live here is a wonderful, sweet lady, but good grief! I so wish she had been able to kick the habit. It was tolerable when we first moved in in December but the humidity from the monsoons just cranked the smell up about five notches. When I walk in through my side door, I feel like I'm walking into an old smoke-smoggered hotel room!
But my linen closet...wow. I immediately announced to James my change of course and unloaded the closet onto the top unused bunk in the play room.
Seeing as we have a variety of textures on the walls in our house, the majority being kind of a swiped on texture that screams "I haven't been touched since the 70's", I figured I would update the texture as well before layering on the Kilz and the paint.
One perk to the closet was learning how to patch a large hole in the drywall. Thank goodness for Google! The "missing" piece of drywall was still in the closet, albeit a little cracked, as if someone had tried to just pop it back into place, but I only had the stud in the middle to work with.
After Googling, I learned that you can add supports by screwing lengths of furring strips to the intact drywall and then screwing your patch piece to the strips. Genius! (Quick kudos to Ace Hardware. Those people are just so nice! EVERY time I go in there! I always ask for help finding things and one man walked me to the drywall section and I told him my plans and he made sure I had everything I needed. Then, the lumber department. I had a length of furring strip from something, but it wasn't quite long enough to just split in two. The gentleman said he would have to sell me a whole length (probably about eight feet for $1.29), but first he checked the scraps for me and there was another piece that had a split in it, but I didn't need the whole length, so that worked for me! He then took both pieces and cut them the length I needed. For free!!!)
The piece on the right was purposely angled to support the piece of drywall that was starting to break.
I was thrilled with how well this turned out!
I used a drywall patch along the top of the crack where things seemed a little weak and then taped around the perimeter of my patch.
Wyatt was kind enough to rip open the joint tape for me. :)
Once I got it all textured, sanded and primed, the kids were also thrilled to help me paint!
Or at least watch everyone else work... :)
(Here's where I love having an iPad but really miss the quality of a digital camera. Need to get on that.)
I picked up some shelf paper today (the shelves were just raw boards) and here is what I am now loving to call my linen closet!
BEFORE
AFTER
In the meantime, I'm going to go load me some shelves with fresh linens! :)
***** Added 9/4/14 *****
All stocked and smelling like soap! Soooo nice!
1 comment:
Nice!! Well done lady!! Can't wait to see the rest of the house in person :)
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