Closet Progress — Two More Cabinets Built, And My Next Step Is Your Call (Plus, Why The Police Woke Me Up This Morning)
Well, I was wrong. I thought I wasn’t going to get any work done yesterday, but I ended up getting the other two cabinets built for the right side of the room! I didn’t want a day to go by without at least some progress, so I ended up working right up until 10:00 last night. I’m pretty tired this morning, but I’m also feeling super excited and motivated.
This is only one part of what will be a very long series of posts on my biggest built yet — my walk-in closet and laundry combination. If you missed the previous post, you can find that here: Wiring My Walk-In Closet Cabinet For Lighting
I don’t have the two new sections completely finished and affixed to the wall or the other two cabinets yet, but at least they’re built. And while they’re not in their exact position yet, I pushed them into the general vicinity so that we could get an idea of how this side of the room is going to shape up.
I still need to add the feet to these two sections before I can push them into place and affix them to the other cabinets and the walls. And in order to put the feet on them, I have to have room to tilt them to the side. But I ran out of time (and energy) last night before I could get that done. But this is the general idea and the basic configuration of the cabinets.
I’ll get those two sections attached and in place first thing today, and then I’ll let y’all tell me what you want to see me do next, because I can’t decide what I’d rather do.
The first option is that I could go ahead and build the basic cabinet boxes for the other side of the room, and then we can finally get a visual of the whole layout of the room. So far, I have the basic structure of the whole right side of the room almost completely built.
So obviously, I need to repeat that whole process again on the left side of the room.
Now that I have my process down, and I’m able to build the cabinets faster now than I did on the first day, I think I could have the whole thing built by the end of the day tomorrow.
The second option is that I could go ahead and trim out the right side of the room before starting on the left side. I have to admit that I’m a bit anxious to see the pretty stuff, so the idea of going ahead and trimming out the right side, complete with shelves, face trim, baseboards, and crown molding, is very appealing to me.
And it might also be more motivating and satisfying to see something pretty in the room before I tackle the boring stuff on the left side. Because, let’s face it, there’s nothing particularly exciting about big, boring, untrimmed boxes.
I know it’s not a big deal. Both of those things need to be done eventually. But y’all can tell me what you want to see next. Should I go ahead and build out the whole left side of the room first, and then do all of the shelves, trim, and molding after I’ve built the closet cabinet boxes for both sides of the room? Or should I keep going with the right side of the room and add the shelves and trim before I start on the left side? Just a note: Even if I keep going with the right side of the room with the shelves and trim, I still won’t be building drawers at this point. Those will be the last thing I do. But we could at least see this side go from plain, boring boxes to looking more like actual closet cabinets.
I’ll end with a funny story. This morning, Matt and I were startled awake at 6:30, when it was still very dark outside, by lights flashing outside, flashlights shining into our windows, and Cooper barking and snarling like a rabid beast like he does when someone is on our front porch. I was awakened out of a dead sleep and was so disoriented for about a minute while I struggled to put on some clothes. Then I heard the sound of metal tapping against the glass on our front door. (I should clarify that the metal was a flashlight.)
I looked out and saw two police cars in front of our house, one police officer at the side window of our living room shining his flashlight into our living room, and two police officers at the front door.
I opened the front door, and one said, “Hi. How are you doing?” I said, “Well, I’m a little freaked out right now. What’s going on?” He said, “Oh, everything’s fine.” And then he went on to tell me that one of my neighbors had called for a wellness check on us because the back of our van had been open all night and they were concerned that there had been some nefarious activity.
All I could do was laugh. I explained that it was an oversight on my part. I was unloading lumber from the back of the van last night to work on my walk-in closet and just forgot to close the back of the van. So it stayed open all night. He looked over at the pile of stuff that had been torn out of the room and piled in front of the house, and said, “Yeah, I can see that you’ve been doing lots of work.” They were satisfied with that answer, wished me well, and went on their way.
Before the time change, I would have been awake by then because the sun would have already been up. But since the time change, I sleep right up until my alarm clock goes off at 7:00am, so I was startled awake out of a dead sleep. That’s a CRAZY way to be startled awake, with lights flashing, flashlights shining through our living room windows, our dog barking and snarling at someone on the front porch, and the sound of metal tapping against our glass front door. I’m thankful to have neighbors that look after me, though! I just wish the officers would have waited to come around 7:05 after our alarm had gone off and I had a few minutes to wake up. 😀 But all is well. I doubt I’ll forget to close the van again!
You can find the next post in this series — my walk-in closet and laundry room combo — here: Week 1 Of Building My Walk-In Closet (Plus, Your Questions Answered)
Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
We were on vacation out of state in a rental van, and I came out one morning to find my kids and/or husband had left both sliders open all night LOL Thankfully, there were no issues and nothing was missing.
One thought on your build…maybe on the left side flip the layout so the hampers are closer to the laundry area? Probably not a big deal, but that would make more sense to me. Of course, maybe you want them closer to the bathroom?
I’d probably finish the box build out first so the “boring part” was done, then focus on the pretty. But I’m excited to see it either way!
Awesome neighbors but not the best way to wake up. I understand your need to do the pretty stuff but I think you should finish the base cabinets first. I feeling will save time in the long run.
I would build what needs to be completed in order to bring your washer and dryer into the space before moving on to the “boring part” for the left side of the closet.
Hmm well I’d say push on and get the boxes built. You know the tricks to doing it now. It’s too easy to forget your process!
Agree!
Agree
Agree 100%!
Ditto!
Yep. You’ve got the process down. Taking a break and coming back might lead to missteps or a slower pace than if you just plowed through. Same with the pretty stuff. It will be nice to be able to do it all at once.
Build the basic structure for other side of room first. You’ll thank yourself later.
Nice to have good neighbors.
Do what makes you happy, if it were me, and it’s not, I would go and finish the other side of the room. When trimming things out, it might be more like an assembly line and things might actually go quicker this way, but that is just how my brain works. As for the cops showing up, I could tell you some pretty funny stories from our 16 moves in the Army. I am happy to report that since we’ve retired and moved to a large farm in the middle of nowhere, we’ve not had that problem, trespassers yes, cops no. I too am very excited to see such progress, you rock girl.
Cheers to you and Matt!
(Try and sneak in a nap today to make up for the rude awakening)
I say get the boring stuff over and done with and then start on the pretty!
What a frightening wake up call! I think you should finish the boxes on the left side. I think the “give the mouse a cookie” story may happen otherwise. You will trim out the boxes, then think well the drawers would be nice to see… and then…. I will just tes out the paint color, let’s see the wall paper, the lights can show off the wall paper! Lol, maybe I am just in my own head. You do whatever you want to do next. You are the one doing the work and you do your best when motivated!
Sheila F.
I would go on and build the boxes first, because this way you don’t have to go back to the boring stuff when you have started on the pretty… But that is me and if you need something pretty in between to motivate you, I cannot think of reasons against that way either! Somebody said to continue with the surrounds for the washer and dryer, though, and considering how excited you were some posts back about having a working dryer again, perhaps that is the route to go?
I’m glad nothing bad happened about your van and the police waking you up – what a scare that early in the day!
How wonderful to have neighbors watching out for you, but not a great way to wake up…LOL. You are actually lucky to have great neighbors. That said, I’d get the boring boxes out of the way. Know the pretty fun stuff is after all the boxes are done will motivate you to get it done. Doing it this way will allow you to focus on the pretty stuff without knowing there is still boring stuff to do once you get done.
Hi Kristi: I vote for doing what your gut tells you to do. I do have one question though. At one point, I believe that you made a comment that the shelves would be adjustable. Have you used your jig already to place the various holes to make adjustments when needed?
It is looking good and I can’t wait to see it finished. You are making great progress! Kudos!!
I’ve decided against adjustable shelves. I know what I’ll be putting on them, and I’ve already measured everything for average height of shoes, handbags, etc. So they’ll be fixed height.
My vote is finish out that side, reward yourself! I think it will be motivating for the rest of the build,too.
I AGREE!!!!!
I would finish the boxes on the other side first. If I interrupt a build to do something else I usually forget the process I had established and it’s harder to get back to it. Do the other boxes while you have the measurements/process fresh in your mind. It seems to move pretty quickly so it would only be a couple of days.
Agree!
Agree also!:)
I’d build the boxes on the left side of the room because I’d be motivated to get it done quicker in order to reward myself with doing the pretty things. I agree with others who say you’d be less likely to forget how you built the first boxes. Also, I’m guessing you would need to get out different tools for the mouldings which may take a bit longer. Either way, it will get done and be gorgeous! Did you cut the long piece to attach to the bottom of each sconce? If not, I’d cut it longer than you think you want it and see how it looks. Preferably with someone else holding it up so you can stand back and look at it. You can always cut more off.
I haven’t cut it yet. I’ll wait to do that until after I have all of my wood cut. I’ll use my miter saw to do it, and I don’t want to dull my blade too fast when I still have so much wood to cut. But once I’m finished cutting all of this wood, that blade will be at the end of its usefulness and needing a change, so I’ll wait until then to cut the metal piece. But good idea to start longer!
I’d do the trim to learn any lessons for the other side. The closers are a big build and you may come across a detail you’ll need an adjustment for. Thing to keep in mind – are you extending the room outlets into the closets as they are covered? I see you have a plan we’ll learn as you go. When we had a bigger laundry area in a rental, it was a utility area where I charged household things occasionally. Kinda how you use the Pantry for appliances.
I was thinking the same thing. What if (like the backs) you do everything and then realize you should have made a 1” adjustment. Do one side top to bottom and then replicate it. You will be plenty motivated to finish.
Yes, I’ve written down all of the measurements for the locations of the outlets before putting the cabinets in place, so I’ll go back and cut the rectangles and add the box extensions.
Personally, I like to get all the yuk outta the way (even though I hate the yuk stuff), and save the pretty stuff for last. Stopping in the middle to get that high tends to thwart my plans of jumping back in to the mundane.
I have to agree on that!
They wouldn’t have waited, because they probably had several serious synopses in their minds – kidnapping, murder,hostages, who knows? As you said, be thankful you have neighbors concerned enough for your well being to have authorities check on you. Small price to pay for your safety! NOW, about the closet progress, I would prefer to see all of the boxes done, to be sure you have done them as designed to fit, before adding anything that might need to be redone or taken apart. I’m sure there won’t be issues, but just in case…I would work from big (in size) to smaller. And if the washer/dryer are not in place yet, I would get them in ASAP. (I have had luck with heavy object moving by using an old rug underneath and pulling the rug along.) Or call a moving company to move them!
I’d do the pretty stuff first. Sometimes we put things off that we feel are monotonous and just have to be done. If you get the pretty done on the one side, it should energize and inspire you to go on to the other side.
My vote is for building the left side.
Dear Kristi,
My vote is to continue to build the basic cabinet boxes. Once you get everything in there, you may have some inspiration to do the trim, or another aspect, a bit differently than you were planning.
It’s one thing to have diagrams and mock-ups. Standing in the actual space often gives me a fresh/different perspective so I can improve/customize the design to make the most of the space.
The closet cabinet build is coming along a lot faster than I expected. I look forward to seeing how you’ll bring these basic boxes to something truly unique and beautiful.
Enjoy your day. Each day is a gift!
YHWH Bless You : )
I would finish out the other side of the build and just get it over with. You have your process going and everything you need right there. And also, that checks a box off your list. 🙂
Build out the whole left side of the room first.
Looks great, I personally would finish the one side then start the other, but the assembly line part of me would do all the box build outs first, lol. I understand your dilemma. Did you get your dryer hooked up yet?
No, not yet. I realized that I was trying to rush things. If I’m going to tile that back wall, that will need to be done before I bring the appliances in. Ugh! But that’s okay. I want to do this right, and I don’t want to get ahead of myself and make things harder for myself later. I have a dryer available to me if I need it at my mom’s house. I may have to take her up on her offer.
Well, since you’re in a rhythm of building cabinet boxes and you are getting faster-don’t lose the momentum! You won’t lose to many days before you can do the make it pretty part!!
If you finish the left side, you can tape out the island and get a better idea of how to size it. Do whatever gets your washer and dryer operational sooner!
Agree. “Worst First” is my motto.
Not a good way to woken up! I would do the rest of the cabinet boxes first and get that out of the way, then start on the trim. It’s hard for me to shift gears back and forth, I like to finish all of one task before starting another. You only have to drag those tools out once and it also will get the big pieces of wood out of your way.
I vote you finish out with the boxes. Your equipment is all set up, and you’ll be more motivated to finish them up so you can get on to the “pretty” stuff!
Well, Henry Ford would say to finish the boxes on the other side of the room before moving on to next steps, however; I have ADHD so there is a zero % chance that that’s what I would do. I need the dopamine hit of seeing something new and different.
What awesome neighbors you have! Seeing something and taking action in a helpful way is always good!
Go with the left side that way you can both sides of the trim at the same time. Making it go quickly.
You have good neighbors.
Finish building out cabinets for other side of room. It will probably go pretty quickly since you’ve got it down pat.
This might be a case of do I do sock, sock, then shoe , shoe. Or sock-shoe sock-shoe. But I’d love to see the exposed bits of new floor cleaned up, I’m so afraid they’re getting scratched!
I left my side door opened on my van once and the battery was drained. Thank goodness it was in the garage at the time.
You are making wonderful progress! I would get all of one thing done at a time – build all the boxes first and secure in place. But I also tend to do most things that way, including how I eat my food (all the meat, all the veggie, all the carb, then drink.) 😀 My mother never understood why I do it that way as she was a mixer.
However you choose to go forward, I am along for the ride and loving every update!
I’m glad your surprise visit by the police wasn’t anything serious!
I’m team “do the left side boxes” before starting on the trim and pretty stuff. That way if you need to make any tweaks, you can do it now instead of having to force something to finish it off. JMHO. It’s going to be beautiful when done.
Reiterating what others have said, I would finish the larger work first, and finish up all the large cabinet boxes on both walls, then jump over and finish the casing for the dryer.
This will help clear long pieces of wood out, and get your laundry area functional more quickly.
Question: I think there’s an outlet behind that 3rd cabinet on right side of wall. Maybe there’s others on the left wall too. Will you be cutting through the backing and extending the outlets into the cabinet?
Yes, I’ve been writing down the measurements for the locations of the outlets, and I’ll go back and cut the holes and extend the outlets.
I would get the right side looking good, even with the pretty stuff, so then that will give you motivation to carry over on to the left side. Might feel like a long haul without a “pretty” break in-between.
Is there some reason you can’t attach the feet to the bottom piece of each cabinet box before building the rest of it? Then you wouldn’t have to tilt the whole thing over at the end.
About the dead corner did you have a plan for that? If you push the cabinet to the corner, then you won’t have full access to the shelves. If you leave it sort of where it is now, then you have a dead corner. Just wondering.
I planned it that way. I honestly can’t even express how much I hate corner storage. That cabinet will extend past the side of the larger cabinet just a few inches, but having 17 inches of corner storage would just end up being a place where junk gets stored and forgotten forever. I debated back and forth over that decision, and finally realized that I don’t use the corner storage in my pantry at all, even after I wrestled over that decision forever, and I know myself well enough to know I wouldn’t have used this corner storage, either.
But that cabinet will still add lots of usable storage. I also debated just continuing the cabinets on the right and left wall all the way into the corner and forgoing the cabinets on the door wall altogether. But adding more storage on the left and right would have only gained me 17 additional inches of storage, where the door wall cabinets are 30 inches. So while I’ll lose the corners, there’s still a gain in storage area.
Since you are able to knock out the boxes faster now, I say do all the boxes with feet screwed together and then start on the pretty stuff. Then you won’t have to think, darn it, I still have to make all those boxes for the other side now.
I agree that you should build the left side boxes first. It will prevent having large pieces of stock laying around everywhere else, allow you to see what you’re actually working with for space, and be in the flow for building the boxes and then for trim, painting, etc. rather than feeling like you’re going backwards to do the other side of the room.
Kristi, that’s a funny story about the neighbors…I’m sure I would have been scared to open the door!
I do have a suggestion about the cabinets. Why don’t you make a base out of 2 x 4 boards, level it and screw it into baseboards? Then you can set the boxes on it and not have to worry about the individual feet and trying to level each cabinet. Here’s a picture: https://www.vivandtimhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/diy-closet-6.jpg.
Just a thought!
Nancy
I did feet instead of full bases because feet take less lumber and I already had it on hand. 🙂 It’s really not that much harder to do it this way. It would have taken me just as long to build a big base as it is to just glue on a few feet and shim them. I had trouble with the first one not because of the feet, but because of warped plywood on the box, so it would have been a problem either way.
I’m in the minority, but I’d like to see the right wall all trimmed out before starting the left wall. Seeing the finished right wall would motivate me!
Finish and place all the boxes, then do whatever it takes to get the washer and dryer moved and set up. I don’t know how you have managed without them for weeks / months! That will give you a tremendous feeling of accomplishment!
I’ve had a washer the whole time. I’ve only been without a dryer. 🙂 It’s really only a problem when it comes to washing sheets and blankets. Clothes can be easily hung to dry. It’s been a pain, but it’s not too bad.
Keep going! You’re on a roll now. One day and then you can move on!
YIKES, I would have FREAKED out! I would be scared out of my mind to see flashlights and hearing the dog go ballistic! YIKES! So glad it was the police, and so glad your neighbors are making sure you are safe. YUP, have to lock up at night. I vote to do some fun stuff next, and it will motivate you even more to move along to the other side. Looking forward to the progress!