Household Chaos!

Anyone who has visited our house knows that you enter through a hallway that can only be described as chaotic. Euphemistically, we think of it as our "mud room", the "puppy airlock" or even "another spot on the to-do list". Well, all of this changed this past week.
You will remember that Bob and I picked up a slew of cabinets that were being removed from JoAnn and Eric's house. How could you forget? I posted the excitement of offloading and schlepping in the dark and cold and snow... eventually all those cabinets wound up in a large stack in our living room. (We also had the pleasure of dining with JoAnn and Eric while their kitchen was transitioning. They had a large stack of large boxes and an interruption in "normal" life but it resembled ours so we felt right at home.)
Last week was so cold that Bob was unable to get his studio warmed up so he set to work and started to restore/instill order in our hallway.

We moved everything out: horse food, coats, seeds, old cabinets and shelves, boots, paint, drying vegetables, cleaning supplies, vases, etc etc.. This in itself took quite a while as there was more there than you'd think. We marveled at how much bigger the hallway really was under all that accumulation of stuff. Some of it got moved to the downstairs bathroom.

Temporarily, this made using the bathroom entertaining. Fortunately, Bob made quick work of the reconfiguration of the cabinets and within two days, we had a much more efficient and orderly hall.

Eventually, there will be shoji screens covering the shelves- much like the upstairs closet that Bob constructed for me. But in the meantime? What an improvement! The hall feels much wider and there are places to put all that stuff. It was a lot of measuring and puzzling for Bob to figure out just how to best assemble the cabinets but he did a great job. It's amazing how a project like this can transform a part f your house. I can't wait for Phase II.

By Popular Demand...

I have been urged- due to popular demand- to post pictures of the completed closet in use. Yes, it is a stunner; from the bottom of the stairs, it looks like... a destination! Hello! It could be the doorway to a very exciting venue.

And it is! Organized clothing, resettled shoes... a real closet achievement, resulting in the ability to find and put on items from a wardrobe previously unhappily separated from it's user.
(Weird sentence, that!) But you get the idea. And my amazement that this has come to pass.

Look! Clothing on hangers and shoes on the floor and only a few feet from where I get dressed in the morning. Oh, happy day!

Bob did such a good job with these shoji screen doors... I feel like I'm getting dressed in Osaka or Tokyo. It's inspiring! The big plus here is all that extravagant storage space above my closet. There's room for hats and luggage and travel bags and winter blankets. I could go on but I'm already overheating and raving; I love my closet!

All Kinds of Progress...

Not a great picture but very exciting sneak peek of how well the upstairs closet is coming along! Bob and I are halfway done on this particular phase. Bob finished the shoji screens, which slide along tracks and work nicely- like not taking up space at the top of the stairs but managing to look amazingly professional and modern. I couldn't be happier.
Today, I finished spackling and priming the walls, shelves and framework. We were careful and followed my sister's advice and got a really good primer that has a mold/mildew inhibitor/killer because I think we all remember the posting to the effect that we had (ahem) mold of some kind growing behind a cabinet that the previous owner of this house had zip-screwed to the wall to hide water damage. Oh, we knew it was there...
So after I demolished and Bob repaired the wall, studs went up and cross members appeared and Bob cut trim boards and stretched fabric and the pieces all came together. We needed a preview of what the completed project would look like, so Bob hung the doors. Robin posed in front of them; she's very intrigued with the changes materializing at the top of the stairs. (That is, when she's not practicing random evilness like thoughtfully chewing the electric cord off of the vacuum cleaner. It was a good thing I had unplugged it; it's not like the little monster doesn't have plenty of toys and chewables at the ready. I guess the consolation was I didn't have to vacuum the floor before our friends came to dinner last night!)
Anyway, today I sanded and primed. About half way through the job, I was humming tunelessly along with a pleasant late Mozart symphony (the Haffner) and remarking to myself how enjoyable painting can be when I managed to gently touch the edge of the paint pad to the paint pan which caused said pan to part company with the ladder where it was supposed to be secured with two hangers. A dramatic tidal wave of paint arced through air and landed not only on the wall but on the ladder and the floor. Yes, I had a drop cloth in place but a good quantity of paint resisted the urge to land on that surface... you get the picture. It took tons of warm water and rigorous sponging to lift the paint. It was a mess but I can only thank my lucky stars that the paint came (mostly) to rest on the carpet inside the closet (where the damage will not be easily seen) and only a bit ended up on the carpet near the bathroom. The afternoons painting session proceeded with less drama and I will apply the final coat of paint on Wednesday. Then I can begin the arduous task of moving all my clothes from my studio annex into the new closet!

Coming In and Out of Closets

Isn't it funny that as soon as you conceive a house project, it leads to three, four (or more!) ideas... and they are all interconnected? That's what's going on in the minds of Bob and Rita. The above hall shot was an interesting starting point- conceptually, that is- as we have not actually begun any of these Big Ideas; they're all in the "planning phase". Both Bob and I (in one of those synchronistic occurrences) had similar ideas about re-configuring and "upgrading" the hallway. It is the first spot that most people see when entering the house and it's some introduction. Granted, it is where everything from paint and tools ready for the next project to the ever-soaking container of beet pulp for Maggie the Mexican Pony's  next meal land. And assorted coats, boots, dying onions and everything else on the way from here to there. But it's a place to hurry through and apologize for. (It does serve the important function of making every other area of the house look better by comparison so maybe we should leave it alone.)
But let's face it: once that's agreed upon as a potential improvement, all the other similar projects jump into awareness.Like the front door becoming a front door and not a stereo equipment and art storage cupboard. Here's a shot of that area:

Yes, there is really a front door behind that cabinet! This should all be in my studio. But until the closet in my studio annex is emptied of my clothing and shelves are built, there's no place to move my clothing:

The clothing will ultimately be at the top of the stairs, where we now have one of my paintings and a table and chair hiding the horror that resides behind them:

(There's Jules in the foreground, protecting one of his favorite places to sleep). Bob and I know there is ancient water damage behind the painting and there's a bit of deconstruction/reconstruction to tackle prior to assembling my closet here. See my point about a bunch of juggling?
But it's exciting! Because we have practical and very do-able thoughts on sliding shoji screens to hide the closet contents. Just think of it, especially that original hallway picture... here it is again, to refresh the memory:

Remove the cabinets at the end of the hall, construct narrow shelves all streamlined along the right hand side- hidden from sight behind simple, clean lined geometrically framed screens.... ooohhh! I think this could be very cool! And very modern! And clean. Hell, who cares what goes on behind the closed screens!