Project "Remove Giant Laundry Chute Box from Master Closet," was supposed to BE one of those projects. Remove box, fix floor, place in new flooring that cost all of $30, plus $25 for the under layment.... CAKE. We (OK, Jeff) has done laminate flooring before. The closet is not HUGE, it is spacious at 102 inches long by like 60 inches. The Box was 4 ft by 2.5 feet, THAT was one large box for a 12 inch round laundry chute hole.
So, Part #3 ended up morphing into this big giant ordeal. We anticipated maybe a four hour project, that turned into 2 weeks of working after work and on weekends. One problem after another. The 1982 force is strong with this house. For real...
Let's refresh... Master Closet, has and UGLY GIANT laundry chute that empties into my kitchen closet.
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| Giant Laundry Chute |
Now, let's see where it goes....
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| Welcome to my "lived in kitchen" |
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| Oh, Look, a door.... |
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| An un-organized closet of cleaning supplies (and also our trash can and recycling live in here) |
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| Looking up, and YES, the perfect area for a laundry chute... Yes... Perfect, if you want to launder in the kitchen sink. |
Such a logical place for a laundry chute to empty. Right? In a closet in the kitchen, a room and a hallway away from the laundry room. A fun spin would be to call it, "Laundry Room - Near." Stupid. Plus (if you looked at the before pictures) the giant box took up a big chunk of closet space.
Jeff and Kim made the assumption....
1. The builder placed the drywall up first, then built laundry chute box. Really, why wouldn't you?
2. Flooring maybe missing.
Our game plan:
Remove chute, put in new flooring, and maybe trim. End of project.
Part 1- remove chute....
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| Jeff in action, with my friend, the Wonder-Bar! |
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| My Foot, and Junk, and the Laundry Chute Door. |
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| A nicely carpeted top of a laundry chute, Door removed. |
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| Laundry Chute Tube, moving it's way to the trash |
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| My new view from my kitchen closet :) |
Jeff removed the big giant box, and the big giant tube and we found... A small hole in the floor, and SURPRISE!!!! NO DRYWALL BEHIND BIG GIANT BOX. We said a lot of curse words. Called it a day and opened an adult beverage. Jeff called Uncle Dan. Uncle Dan is keeper of odds and ends, and we needed a couple small pieces of dry wall. Uncle Dan had some.
The next day, I did this....
Yep, I placed my mark on this house. In our previous house, I wrote the date we moved in under the stairs in the basement stairs.
Anyway, Jeff patched the drywall, and I went to get the spackle/joint compound to mud the seams. Yep, it was 100% dried out. We were 100% out. Project done for that day.
Eventually, I mudded, sanded, mudded, sanded the seams. Now, I have 2 big pieces of drywall looking at me unpainted. So, I did want anyone else would do. Got a beverage, and went to see what paint I had. Looks like this project has driven me to drink, and to now paint. That was NOT on our agenda.
I found a can of $7.00 paint I got from Lowes in 2007. It was a weird green/gray color, but I just never used it. Well, 5 years later, weird reject paint found his/her day to be used. I had 2 hours before we were scheduled to run a 5K, and the kids were down for a nap. I can paint this in 2 hours, right?!
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| Paint tray ready..... |
Well, in true closet from hell fashion, I could not find a darn paint stirrer to save my life. Plan B, I used a yard stick. The paint went on weird, I was scared it was gonna be all wonky (technical term for paint that look all wrong while being placed in the wall). After 2 hours of painting, I threw in the towel, and went on our run.
OK, I walked/jogged with the kids in the stroller, Jeff ran for time. Needless to say, at the end of the evening, we ended up at Uncle Dan's drowning our woes, due to our closet from hell. Or, we just went to hang out for a bit.
Finally, the next day, closet is painted, holes and seams are spackled, let's bust out the floor!!! Yeah!!!
---screeching halt---
This flooring sucks. The worst laminate flooring ever. We now see why it was returned and only $10 a box. BLAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, in order to save our marriage and ensure Jeff and I both lived to tell the tale of the closet from hell, I went to Home Depot to look for a new closet organizer, while he got to cuss at the floor in peace. Remember, the floor was supposed to be easy, and there was no mention of a closet organizer when we began this project.
After 2.5 hours of hell, the floor was done. It looks pretty like this:
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| New Carpet on the Left, New Laminate on the Right |
I spackled those holes now. More flipping holes to spackle, more time to dry, another day without a closet.... Oh, then I had to sand and paint them. Ugh.
Finally, all the holes were spackled, sanded and painted, Jeff finished the trim and it was done.
And then I said, let's use some of the old wire shelving for long hanging clothes..... After a day, we got that installed.
This project went from simple to never ending. Ugh. We ended up:
1. Tearing out Laundry Chute
2. Fixing Drywall
3. Mudding
4. Sanding
5. Mudding/ sanding
6. Painting
7. New Flooring
8. New Organizer
9. More holes to paint/mud/sand
10. Install new trim
11. Install new hanging area
And now, we have the following:
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| My Side |
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| Jeff's Side |
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| Long Stuff |
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| Shoes, and yes, I like Black Shoes on stacking racks from Amazon |
All in all it's done, and it holds out clothing. Project complete, goal attained. Wow, that was one easy project turned difficult!
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