The problem with *space*

The problem with space is that's there's never enough where you need it.

Case in point: the stairs on the first floor. Underneath it we have planned the only first floor bathroom. It's actually a good space for just a toilet and sink, with plenty of headroom, but we had a little problem when we came to figuring out the closet we had planned right next to it. (The only closet on the first floor as well.)

You see, hubbby tends to think and operate on floor plans. How much floor space something can take up, how much room it takes to operate and maneuver comfortably within a certain space. and he's good at it, too... Buuuuut, when it comes to the final 3-dimensional final output, he tends to forget things like doors and the fact that 2 doors can't occupy the same space at the same time.

This is where the problem showed up.

A typical closet door is usually at least 22" deep if it is to hold clothing on a coat hanger. Because we were unable to remove the remainder of the brick fireplace behind this closet, the south wall of the living room is not perfectly perpendicular to the west wall of the room (the bathroom under the stairs). The left side of the closet will be about 2" deeper than the right side. I figure we'll can hide that at the back of the closet where no one will see it. As long as the fronts are perpendicular, it will look fine in the end, but it adds to the problem of the depth of the closet. That would mean it would have to be 24" deep on the left side, and that cuts into our room plans.

Also adding to the fun is the fact the door we wanted to put on the bathroom was a 30-32" door. But between the need for some room (4") to trim the door on the left side of the bathroom door and the angle of the staircase coming down on the right side of the door, well it kinda limits the width of the door. Not even a 28" door would fit with a 22" deep closet.

Since we couldn't have a 22" deep closet and we couldn't fit a bathroom door in the amount of space we were given, we either had to redesign the closet or give up on a closet altogether, and I wanted a closet.

And we needed an additional 6" of space for the bathroom door.

So we split the closet into two sections and rotated the left and right sections of the closet 90 degrees. So instead of opening the door and hanging something up straight forward, you would hang up your articles of clothing either to the left or to the right instead. I also decided to stagger the heights of the hanging bars that the clothes would hang on because it always seems to me that my long trench coats always drag into something on the bottom of a closet, or hide your shoes, and the shorter coats would be perfect to hang over boots and shoes where you can see the stuff under them on the floor.

Anyway, that's the plan. We get a good sized closet (now wider than we originally planned, but less deep) and a 28 x 84" bathroom door that fits under the stairs.

I hope.

Oh, and one more thing: Our bestest ever plumber, Bert THE Plumber said if we tiled the bathroom floor he'd put in a used toilet that we could use while we're working, so we found some great looking black marble tiles at Warehouse Surplus (609 Ohio Pike in Cincinnati, OH) for $2.39 per square foot and laid them out last weekend. We rented a wet tile saw (not as intimidating as I thought it would be - we didn't ruin a single tile in the cutting) and made the cuts, thinset the tiles in place, and I suspect by mid-afternoon, the guys can stop peeing in plastic bottles.

Of course, modesty will have to wait for the drywallwers, but anyone that pees in a plastic bottle really isn't that concerned about modesty in the first place, I always say.