Since taking the week off from work, Richie and I got a really great start to the master bedroom. I’m happy to finally get to this space, as I haven’t really had a closet to speak of in over 2 years. I’ve just been shoving everything in and sliding a hideous curtain across the front to hide everything. No offense to the previous owners choice… but I couldn’t live with only a curtain to conceal all my crap. Women just have too many damn shoes and way too many clothes… mostly stuff that I could probably get rid of but refuse because “I’m going to lose those 10 pounds and get back into them”. Yeah, right! (SIGH!)

Here’s a picture of how the closet looked the day we got the house. It’s the only picture I have so it’s really hard to tell what’s going on here. But yes, it was just a very basic “hole” with a curtain across the front. I have big dreams for you my sweet closet. BIG DREAMS!

Here’s a picture as Richie began tearing the closet apart. We have to tear it down… so we can build it back up. Sometimes demo is fun, but not necessarily while you’re having to live in it. MESSY!

While he started work on the closet I began the painstaking task of staining the ceiling. I cannot tell you how I have dreaded this day. As much as I love the final result, my aching back, legs, neck, and arms hate me for doing it! The ceilings are really cool tongue and groove but to be honest they are dark and dirty looking to me. I’m sure some people would cringe at the thought of staining over this lovely wood but then again… they don’t have to live here. (laughing). As great as they are, they make the rooms look very dark and dated (in my opinion) so here I go…

First the ceiling has to be vacuumed, scrubbed down and any stains or pine resin removed.

Each little groove has to be stained twice and each board has to be stained 3 times. It’s a WHOLE LOTTA WORK! Let me just say this … not that I’m complaining… but one coat on the grooves takes about 6 hours total.  You get the idea.  Sometimes I use one of those sponge brushes on a stick and sometimes I make my own.

Here are some pictures of one side complete.

So which would you rather lie in bed and look up at?

After it’s stained it feels like someone turned a light on in the room. It really helps to brighten the space. It makes me happy!
Now for the other side. AHHHHHHHH!

Okay, enough ceiling talk. You would think that I was Michelangelo or something. “Come, look at my glorious ceiling, it is a master piece”. (blah, blah blah)

Moving on to the closet…..

The closet only had sheets of small paneling nailed to the back and the rest was just open walls. I definitely wanted sheetrock so Richie began hanging new pieces. He is waiting to do the ceiling last because he’s building me special shelves and shoe cubbies before he seals everything up.

Next step was for me to tape the seams and put my first coat of mud. This part has to be done before he installs the special built-ins.

About 8 years ago we purchased 5 screen doors from a FUMC estate sale and stored them in our attic never knowing what we’d actually do with them. Two of them are now on the guest bedroom closet and the other 3 are going on mine. Richie had to measure and cut each one to fit the space which meant cutting off the bottom edges and re-attaching the bottom trim. He’s worked so damn hard on this house I insisted that he splurge and get a new table saw with all the money he has saved us. Check it out. It really came in handy for cutting those doors.

He had to get the doors up on the track he installed to make sure he had enough clearance and to know how deep to build everything. So I took a quick picture while they were up before he took them back down. LOVELY! And they’ll look even better once I re-paper and stain them. Amazing how those doors worked so well in our new home. That’s living right.

So there you have it… you’re all up-to-date. Richie returns back to school tomorrow and I go back to work on Tuesday. This was our last big push and now things will slow down a bit. We’ll continue to work as we can so check back soon for more progress. That closet is going to be AWESOME!