Wednesday, 7 December 2011
Thursday, 1 December 2011
Out of the closet....and onto the floor!
Do you want to know the easiest way to get something done? Do it yourself. Or....as in this case, I threatened to do it myself.
A little background: 7 or 8 years ago, my uncle and father did us the favour of installing tiles in our entryway. Right into the closet. However, they didn't rip out the original floor, but lay the new tile over it. This resulted in the track for the sliding closet door being raised. So raised, that it wouldn't allow the doors, when properly installed, to slide. I was promised that it would eventually loosen up. If not, it could be fixed. In the meantime, I should leave the right door in place (because it couldn't be moved anyway!) and the left door could swing freely from the top - but don't pull on it lest it smash down on a small crawling child or the like. Easy peasy. Especially since I'm super organized.*
Fast forward several years and 2 kids later and this is what happened every time someone needed something from the closet:
Something had to be done. I decided that I wanted a proper closet door. One that swings on hinges and everything. One that didn't threaten 7 years of bad luck every time it was opened. The Man nixed the idea based on cost and "too much work". We had to work with what we had. Fine. I could do that. I asked my father (he's a construction superintendent) to bring me home an angle grinder with a diamond blade. [That's what google told me to use.] I was going to cut through the tile to make more room for the lower track. How hard could it be? The websites said I only needed that tool and some duct tape. When I explained what I needed to both my father and the Man, I could hear the fear in their responses. Frankly, I was a little put out that they thought I wouldn't be capable of doing this. But I also acknowledged that my plan was working. After all I had to think of the greater good, and this wasn't it:
My father said he would come on Sunday to fix the door. So I got to work with the second phase of my plan. That is, to declutter the front hall closet. I only left the essentials, gave away most of the shoes, boots and coats that could do better in someone else's closet and stored out of season items under the stairs in the basement. There was now even room for guest coats in there! Imagine!
Much to my surprise*, when my father arrived on Sunday, he had brought an actual door for me. He said that he was more concerned that if I broke the tiles that he would have to replace the floor and hanging a door would be much less work, especially since he already had a door that was leftover from a renovation job. He uninstalled the old sliding doors and tracks, put up a frame and some drywall close to the ceiling and installed the [new-to-me] door. The whole process took about 90 minutes. 90 minutes.
*Not really.
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