When I last talked about this little project, I mentioned that this window needed to be properly sealed up. Unfortunately, it proved beyond my meager capabilities. I had plans which involved insulation and cardboard and plastic--but, in the end, it wouldn't have been mouse proof. Mom's handyman said he could seal it up with a plywood board--so I am going to let him do that.
But, meanwhile, we need a place to put the tools!
It really only took a couple of hours to go from this:
to this:
as you can see, because of the ductwork, I couldn't use the last shelf. I could not move it to the left either as other pipes were in the way as well.
I labeled all the containers so it will be easy to get things out--and, hopefully, return them.
I haven't actually seen my mother in about six weeks, so this was a fun little project to do together.
We need to organize all the screws and hooks and table legs and drapery hardware and the other one and a half million things she has. But one step at a time. We need to make room, first.
For now, my plan is to remove the cabinet and the card table and set up some shelves. Since I can't really build anything right now, they're going to have to be those black resin shelves. She has a few of these units throughout. Here's one on the porch--wouldn't you know it? It's already holding some tools.
I actually bought another one--I wasn't going to even attempt to extricate this one! But I might use a few of the baskets on it!
This porch needs to be torn down and replaced--another reason to get the tools into the house!
I've also bought some plastic bins and I'm going to try and use them to wrangle some organization out of the mess that way. The goal is to make the tools accessible--easy to find--easy to put back.
But first, I needed to get that cabinet down and see what's going on with the window back there.
What a chore! It took me probably twenty minutes to find a screw driver. Then, I had to spend another ten looking for a work light so I could even identify the screw head! I will be so happy once this is done!
Anyway I got it emptied and down. Then I brushed the walls with a corn broom. Her old dryer used to sit here and the area was just caked with lint.
That's a seriously boosted photo, folks. No way is that area that well lit. It might be when we're done, though.
My Mother had an addition built onto the side of her house about twenty-five years ago. (It's the area with the little shed roof to the right of the front door in the photo above.) That addition totally blocked this window--it no longer had any access to the outside. However, she had used it for two things:
1) Her outside tap ran through the opening, and
2) Her dryer vent also ran through it.
The animals who worked on her house decided to run the heating duct through the opening. And I suppose that would have been OK--except they never sealed it back up.
Never. sealed. it.
In a climate where it can go forty degrees below zero. In a climate where it is below freezing five months of the year.
So, I have to seal it up. Obviously. But it isn't all that obvious exactly how I am going to manage it.
Organizing my Mom's tools is something I've been looking forward to for a long time.
I am quite excited about it even though the task is daunting. Currently, it is beyond frustrating trying to get anything done at her place. We can never find what we need.
She has duplicates of duplicates--three drills, for example. Countless screwdrivers. Oh, and drill bits and driver sets. Wire strippers. But a simple pair of needle nose pliers? Well, I think I saw them here, somewhere. One day last week.
And the tools are all over the place, most, dangerously, in the unheated porch just outside (outside!) the back door.
Want to break in but forgot your hammer? Oh look, here's one right here.
Sometimes, I am astonished she is still alive.
Anyway, every day I worked on her dressing room, I brought my own tools (except for the drill. I did use one of her drills) because I could not bear to be slowed down by the hunt. But that's obviously inconvenient in its own way--not to mention impractical. So I've been collecting ideas for simple and inexpensive ways to corral her tools and make them accessible.
The first step in any organization project is to gather inspiration. Seriously. You need to have a grasp on what you want your space to look like--and how it will function--before you begin.
I love this to pieces. Everything is out and accessible. Unfortunately, unless a tool is put away immediately, there's no chance you'll ever find the spot for it again! It needs labels or a schematic of some sort nearby.
Mom loved this workshop, right down to the shiny floor.
This a different sort of organizational system. Stuff in bins and on shelves may work for some things.
But, I told her we just didn't have room. Not for a lot of shelves--and not for a lot of bins.
This.
The area is not anywhere near this bright. I had to boost the photos substantially so you could even see what's (not) here.
This is where we're going to attempt to store her tools. It's to the right of the bottom of the stairs. (I was standing on the bottom step when I took this.) You have to pass through here to get to the laundry room. (Turn right at the snowflake mat)
It is going to be quite a challenge. As you can see, the space has nothing. That's the concrete wall of her foundation, folks. No studs. No drywall. Mom set up the card table and started gathering what tools she's found around the house. There's that cabinet. The water heater. (helpful?--um, not so much.) There is a set of shelves and filing cabinet to the side.
I am taking out the cabinet and the card table.
sorry about the blur!
Right beside the stairs are these shelves. Mom cleared off whatever was on these shelves before--and put all of her paint cans here. It's a good spot.
I think what I would like to do is set up some shelves where that cabinet and card table are now (tricky because there all all sorts of pipes and drains and what not in the corner there). And then mount some plywood (or pegboard from the porch?) onto the wall. Of course, then I'd have to frame out the wall.
I have no idea when I am going to be able to do this.
It's not like I can just work on it when I have a spare moment. As it is winter after all, I can't build anything, really. I have tentatively scheduled myself to be over at her place for a full day, once a week.
It is going to be slow. But getting the tools sorted, at least, would make her life--and mine--so much easier.
