Now, With Less Stubbed Toes and Swearing!

It might have taken me the better part of three days to get it under control, but you can’t argue with the results.

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By the way, pre-addition this wall of the kitchen looked like this, if you were angled toward the left closet.

There was some strange storage behind that little door, which I think you could say has been improved upon.

Unlike with the utility closet where the shelves were only 12″ deep to leave room for the brooms and steam mop, I wanted to maximize shelf space on the left side, which meant adding a little depth to the shelves.

Since I already had 12″ bulk shelving laying around, I just cut a couple of extra pieces down to the right width, and then used the table saw to rip them in half.

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Then I used the kreg jig to attach the 6″ pieces to some 12″ pieces.

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Which gave me nice, 18″ deep shelves, which were installed just like the other ones.

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I used the same 24″ space between the floor and the bottom shelf, and then an 18″ space between the two lowest shelves, before continuing with the 13″ spacing I used in the utility cabinet, which gave me room for some of those small appliances.

Some of this kitchen equipment is stuff I haven’t seen in over a year. Hey look! I own a toaster! (Seriously, I’ve taking to buttering pieces of bread and tossing them in the pan on the hot-plate to make toast. It’s crazy over here.)

I also took a crack at this linen closet, which is opposite the full bath.

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For this one I used that bulk wire shelving you can get at a Big Box. Cutting it down to size was a minor pain in the ass (I tried a lot of tools and the good old fashioned metal hacksaw worked the best.)

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Installing them? Let’s just say that was the kind of experience that had me making sounds that were all consonants. Kind of like the Tasmanian Devil.

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I know they were trying to make it “easy” but it was completely unintuitive for anyone who has ever actually hung a shelf before. (The anchors go through the holes in the supports, by the way. And the threaded pins? Those you’re supposed to hit with a hammer.)

The “big” earthquake happened while I was doing this, and while some people actually did feel it up here in Michigan, apparently it couldn’t really compare with the force of my frustration. However, temper tantrums aside, this now a linen closet with actual linens in it!

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The only really important closet I haven’t tackled yet is the kitchen pantry, but now that four of the ten closets in this house have shelving, I feel like things are more under control.

Now, if I just had some closet doors…

8 Responses

  1. HA, the first thing I thought of was “Uh-oh – no doors on the closet means everything in them is going to be covered in drywall dust & sawdust!” I would LOVE to have that many closets.

    It must be a great feeling to be able to cross so many things off your to-do list this week.

    1. So true, but actually most of that stuff was sitting in boxes in the basement through the entire construction process, so it’s already filthy. I’m waiting for doors (and a kitchen sink) to really wash it all. Looks nice from afar in the pics though!

  2. I’m posting again because I forgot to click the little box for followup comments. 😉

    1. No particular reason Micky, I just prefer wood colored shelves to painted. They’ll probably eventually be stained to match the rest of the wood in the house.

  3. Are you going to put doors on the closets or leave them open? Some look like they need custom doors due to the narrow opening.

  4. I have been reading through the archives and I’m thoroughly enjoying the journey!

    In your pre-addition kitchen picture above you mention some strange storage behind a little door. It looks to me like it might have been a fold-out ironing board cupboard. If the storage behind it was only about 4 to 6 inches deep then I would say that’s definitely what it was. The old house my wife & I bought had one that we quickly converted into a spice rack.

    Thanks for the great blog!

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