ORC 5: The Infrastructure is In!

What a week! We made a lot of progress. Lots and lots of hours on my knees, though!

It's all about the plywood, this week.

Flooring

Oh goodness! Laying a floor is not for the weak of knee. 

We decided to lay vinyl planks. The floor underneath needs to be absolutely level. For some reason, the floor inside the former closet wasn't level with the floor outside it. It also moved a lot.

Mom had her contractor come over and look at it for us. He advised me to put down a 3/4" piece of plywood and screw it down every six inches on square. 

As a result of some very tired math calculations--I got a piece much, much too large. I got 6' by 4' when all I needed was 4 feet by 30 inches! 

So, Mom got out a small skill saw and cut it in that room, barely five feet wide. I would have gotten a picture, but I had to hold my 18 month old nephew. (Yes, through out all this, my mother is looking after a toddler.)

I got it screwed down.

44 screws.

It doesn't move anymore.

Then came the leveling compound. Our goal was to simply level out the unevenness--to create gradual dips and rises instead of abrupt ones. If this were any other room, I'd have planed down the offending bits. 

This particular patch was a do-over three times! First, the toddler and the cat walked through it. Then, after I'd patched it--I walked in it! 

Without baseboards to keep everything square, the perimeter of a vinyl plank floor is supposed to be secured with adhesive--so that's what we did. In the areas where there is unevenness, we found we had to put weight on top to keep the edges down.

I ran into trouble. The last pieces were to be no more than two inches wide. Two inches! Those boards were not easy to cut. In fact, it probably took me as long to cut four planks into two inch wide pieces as it took me to lay the entire floor. Seriously.

The Shoe Shelves

Mom's shoes will be housed in the little nook left over after from the former closet.

But first, before I could put up the shelves for the shoes, I had to cover up the big hole in the wall:

These are the pipes for the bathtub. We wanted to make sure we maintained access to them, so I painted another plywood panel and screwed it in. 

My panel is absolutely square. It is the former construction crew who left a mess of an opening like that. It took some effort to be that sloppy.

My husband cut down some former shelves (twice! I was quite challenged in the measuring department this week.) He also painted them for us--and ta da--shelves for shoes!

I also painted the balustrades and railing and the window trim.

Mom and I assembled the three pax units, too. Whoo hoo! 

Hooray for infastructure!

Now for the clothes--and the pretties.

Shopping.

The pocket-book took quite the hit this week. I bought:

• a rug on-line--it's arrived, already.
• three light fixtures so Mom could choose which one she wanted-- returned two.
• fabric from Tonic Living for recovering the bench. It has arrived. It only took a week.

source

• fabric for full length pleated drapes. A valence just isn't going to be enough coverage.
• another pax unit and shelves from Ikea. I am calling it her sweater tower.
• hardware to hang the shoe shelves.
• tchotkes for the vanity
• 96 slim-line hangers
• artwork
• plywood

• more paint
• two new light switches and a new switch plate.
• HVAC supplies for redirecting the heating vent. Why? Because this:

Yep--a heating duct right underneath the sweater tower.

Punch List:

Empty out every last little thing

Take down remaining shelving

Tear down closet   

Repair dry wall and rebuild closet bit

Prep and paint walls 

Tear out carpet, underlay (padding), and staples.
Put in plywood for floor and level.

Lay down new flooring
Buy new light fixture(s)

Install new light fixture(s)
Sew window treatment
Install drapery wall for privacy and doorway

Find a bench/make one
Cover the bench
Buy one pax wardrobe

Assemble 3 Pax Wardrobes
Reconfigure floor vent
Put down a threshold strip

Install closet rod(s)

Install shoe shelves --almost there! Hubs is making three more.
Egads, I just thought of it--baseboards! We need baseboards!

Figure out Jewellery storage/display

Move clothes back in.

If you'd like to catch up:
Week 1: Creating a Dressing Room from Chaos
Week 2: Down and Out or is that Out and Down?
Week 3: Coming Out of the Closet, No Wait, that's the Closet Coming Out.
Week 4: From Dry Walling to Dry Walls

If you have time, please check out my fellow ORC enthusiasts at Calling it Home.

Some of the professionals (who post on Wednesdays) are in quite a pickle, aren't they?