Bob: We started the downstairs bathroom in the closet. This is the floor on the right side, after pulling out the shelves. This linoleum must be a least fifty years old! The foreground hatch is the main access to the crawlspace. "Baseboard" at left is one-by-four whacked in with a single nail. The shelf bats and walls have at least four different colors of paint on them, as nobody has taken them out for a loooong time. If Nan is going to have a nice clothes closet in here, we'll have to do more than just a little cleaning...
Nan: The only thing worse about this closet was the ancient-dust odor. But wait until you see what we found under this mess....
Bob: This is the left side, after pulling out fake baseboard (what little there was, and the linoleum. Yup, this was padded with newspaper for insulation, and gave us a good idea of when this closet was last worked on. Soil riser at far left virtually glows with hygiene...
Nan: It wouldn't have surprised me to find a cuppa java under there somewhere. Fortunately....
The papers turned out to be Lebanon Reporters and the Indianapolis Star, ca 1934. Does that
tell you the last time the closet was refurbished?
Bob: More of that scraping activity, and I'm starting to get good at it. All that linoleum and newspaper was held down with hundreds of tacks, removed with various tack-pulling implements. That piece of 1-by-4 was yanked out too, but I used it later, as you shall see. Linoleum scrap works well as a dustpan...
Nan: It didn't take long to describe how the closet renovation began, but it certainly
didn't happen quickly. It took hours to scrape, pull, tug, pry and cajole that floor to come loose.
Bob: Nan painted all the shelves out in the living room, top and bottom; here they are, washed and sanded and laid out in the computer room. I've yet to resaw the corners to accomodate a new blind around the soil pipe riser. These were originally crudely cut to fit around the pipe, leaving numerous gaps for dirt and crud to accumulate.
Nan: Here, too, the time involved in refurbishing the shelves was astronomical. Took
much longer than one would think. Bob did all the cleaning. All I had to do was prime
one coat, and paint two coats.
Bob: I painted all the existing walls in the closet first, after washing everything down, and adding some spackle, just to tidy things up.
Nan: Much cleaner, isn't it? I chose white for the inner closet just so it would reflect
much needed light. What amazed me over and again when we got to the painting portion
of each room, was the difference just a coat of primer could make. By the time we got
the paint on, it was like an entirely new area, not just refurbished.
Bob: The floor got a new floor of 3/4" OSB, with a new hatch cut 2" over-sized on three sides. Fitting it in was a delicate operation, in this confined space, but worked out beautifully. This is the dry-fittting.
Nan: Getting to this point was arduous. The new floor made a huge difference. I finally
could stand in the closet and not feel as though I would fall through to the crawl space.
Bob: The local hardware store had scraps of baseboard for $10 a bundle, perfect for finishing out places like this closet. I didn't need anything fancy, just workable and aestheticly pleasing and sufficient to hide the scars.
Nan: The only time in my life that I ever gave a thought to baseboard was when washing
it, or the couple of times in my life when I bought new homes and had to choose the
baseboard design. I was very appreciative of this bundle of cheapie baseboard. It gives
a finished look to the closet. However, I still have to wash it occasionally, darn it!
Bob: This soil pipe riser was too ugly, so I built a blind to cover it up. Keeps dirt, toiletries and little children from being trapped behind it. That old piece of one-by-four baseboard, sliced lengthwise, worked fine for one of the stiffeners, along with other scrap two-by-two and sheetrock.
Nan: I never think about this soil pipe. It just isn't there now. And Bob is right,
nothing can fall off and into infinity now.
Bob: Test-fitting the shelves around the new blind, after the shelves were re-cut and painted. I still have to mud the sheetrock.
Nan: Looks so much better, doesn't it? The "little" area of the shelves is where small
items live. They can't get lost in the back of the closet now.
Bob: This is the last new woodwork to add here, quarter-round to finish off the floor. After installing it, I can finally mud and do the final painting. It seems like a lot of work for a closet, but, then, it's Nan's closet.
The threshold, visible at lower left, is actually the one originally at the bathroom entry door, repurposed here, where there was none. The one at the entry door will have to be remade to match the ones made for the kitchen.
Nan: This will soon be a working closet. My granddaughter, Michelle, remarked that every
bathroom should have a closet this size. She's right!
Bob: These are the original closet doors, washed and dried. They were really grubby, and opened the wrong way, from the wrong side, falling down, etc. I pulled them out early, and worked them over in the garage in parallel with the other work in progress. They were repaired, reglued, stained, and finished with cheap spray laquer. The hardware was cleaned and sprayed with brass paint, and the knobs replaced with the brass knobs that came with the vanity that became the Baking Center in the kitchen.
Nan: I think of how much work went into just this closet nearly every time I open the closet doors. There is room to spare in this closet.
Bob: I won't show you how they came out here, as that would reveal some other results
in the bathroom as well. You will see them later, though, so come join us as we redo the
bathroom itself.