The Epic Saga Of The Entry Closet

I thought when I started the entry closet project that it would take, like, three hours and then I could do a nice fatty gratifying blog post with a major (if not earth-shatteringly important) before-and-after.  But, like so many things in life, that is not at all what happened.  Here's a quick timeline of the closet project, followed by a disappointing "after" photo.  I'll explain that later.

Friday, January 4:

I return to Oregon following our epic national tour, and I decide to paint the inside of the entry closet.  This'll take no time at all, right?  I spend the evening looking at entry-closet makeovers on the Internet and struggle to stay awake until 9pm-- I'm still on East Coast time.

Saturday, January 5:

I wake up at the crack of dawn (East Coast time again) and make a plan.  I'll take the two shelves out of the closet and clean everything thoroughly, then I'll give everything a quick coat of primer (I'm pretty sure the walls have never been painted, and the supershiny barf-colored trim paint might be oil-based).  Then I'll be ready to hit the Home Depot when it opens-- I'm out of trim paint and I need to pick out a color for the walls.

So I try to remove the shelves.  For four hours.  They are wedged in so tightly that there is no possible way to coax them out.  At one point I manage to finagle the bottom shelf so it's now on top of the top shelves.  [I still have NO IDEA how I did that-- I somehow crossed the upper ledger board?]  I'm sweaty and I've swallowed a lot of the old gross dust that's been falling down while I attempt to wrangle the shelves.  I bang on them with a hammer.  I contemplate sawing through them, but they're pretty sturdy and I know that'll take a million years.  At noon, I give up and start priming the back of the door and the trim.  When I finish an hour later, I try to unwedge the shelves again.  Not happening.  So I start priming around them.  It is not efficient.

By bedtime I've succeeded in doing nothing but forcing the shelves into a crazy configuration-- they are all suspended well above the ledger boards at weird angles.  [I now wish I'd taken some pictures, but at the time I felt too stupid to break out the camera.]

Sunday, January 6:

I wake up and decide that-- even though I think it will be entirely pointless-- I'll have to try pulling the ledger boards off the walls so I can maybe angle the shelves enough to remove them.  Miraculously, after removing just one ledger board, I'm able to yank them all out within thirty seconds.  I prime all around where I wasn't able to while the shelves were stuck inside, then I head to the Home Depot and pick up my trim paint and get some samples of peacock-blue paint.

I finish out the day by first-coating all the trim and the tops of each shelf.  I paint big squares of two different peacock blues on the wall.  I pick one.  Now we're getting somewhere.

Monday, January 7:

First day of a new semester.  I bounce stumble out of bed at 6am and spend the day edifying the next generation.  When I get home at 2:30 I change into my paint clothes and second-coat the trim.  This is taking a lot longer than I thought.

Tuesday, January 8:

After teaching a full day, I go back to the Home Depot to get a quart of peacock blue.  Our town has recently banned plastic bags and paper bags cost a nickel, and of COURSE I've forgotten my reusable shopping bags, so I struggle to carry my freshly-mixed paint, a new roller head, and a little mini-roller (I've always wanted one) to the car.  While I fish for my keys in my pocket, I drop something in the parking lot.  Is it is the roller head?  Nope.  The mini-roller?  Not a chance.  It's the quart of peacock-blue paint and IT. GOES. EVERYWHERE.  The nice people in the Home Depot assure me that this "happens all the time."  Right.  They mix me another quart of paint.  Thanks you guys.

I get home and first-coat the closet.  The paint vanishes into the walls immediately.  Argh.

Wednesday, January Jones 9:

I second-coat the closet walls and third-coat the trim after teaching, and I once again watch the paint disappear upon application.  I'm starting to tire of staring at the entire contents of the closet, which are spread around between the living room, dining room, and guest bedroom.  Why is this taking so long?

Thursday, January 10:

I give myself the day off.  I get home from work and pass out facedown on my unmade bed.  Later we meet some friends out for drinks.  It's nice to get out of the closet.

Friday, January 11:

I have a long meeting in the morning and spend the rest of the afternoon writing recommendation letters for various students.  Get home and second-coat the tops of the shelves.  Meet another group of friends for drinks in the evening.

Saturday, January 12:

After third-coating the closet, I'm relieved to see that no further coats will be required.  I stain the closet bar and replace the shelves, which fortunately are easier to install than to remove.  I hammer the ledger board back into place.  After waiting for everything to dry, I realize it's much too dark to photograph the results.  Not because it's late, but because it's winter in Oregon.  There is no such thing as sunshine.

Sunday, January 13:

Still no light to take a good photo, so I settle for this absolutely dreadful one instead:

 

Despite that fact that this is an awful photo, I'm really pleased with the final result in the closet.  I need to pick up some nice wooden hangers and stage the whole thing, and someday when the sun returns to the Pacific Northwest I'll take a few real photos and post them.  So expect to see that in, like, July.

In this shot I took before I reassembled the whole thing, you can see the little sliver of color from the sofa:

And a little reminder of where we started:

Eeeeeeew.