Building a complex closet.

It shouldn't be this tough. I mean, it's a closet. But it's a freestanding closet that needs to be built before we can drop the rest of the ceiling, and it needs to coincide with the new HVAC ductwork running above the bathroom/laundry. (laundry north, bath to the south)

The duct work comes down about 10" from the joists on the East side of the room and covers the entire span from the North side all the way to the South side of the room, so we have to build the closet frames with 'cutout' areas.

We also have to build all three sides separately. The long wall (the North side- pink, green and blue panels in the plan below) will likely need to be built in three sections, because the extension of the closet to the West is the framing for the doorway into this laundry area.



The other two sections, the east (yellow) and the south wall (bottom blue), shouldn't be too much trouble as they'll both be one piece wall units... but sheesh, the North wall's gonna be a b*tch, particularly because of where the adjoining pieces connect. The first is in the middle of the closet door, so that needs reinforced.

I'm thinking we build the door frame area first, then the wanky ductwork wall, then fill the spaces in between with what we've been calling "ladders". This way we can put the easiest piece in last and make sure it fits on both sides.

Oh, yeah, the floor's not level either. It slopes to the east, so we're making sure the closet door opening will have to be measured particularly well, and capped on the underside of the top opening with an additional 2x4 so we can shim it to ensure it's level. This entails making the closet door opening an additional 1.5" tall to start with, but I think the additional bracing will be helpful in joining our various walls together as well.

If this sounds confusing, imagine what it feels like in my head. Then we get to figure out how to frame in & drop the ceiling to match the ductwork height.

Ugh.

This last picture is looking through the South framing wall of the bathroom toward the North.

Hello, ducts.


Day-After Notes from Mark: H is really like this. She draws out everything given a chance. It actually really helps keep us on the same page. We discovered one wrinkle, however. That drawing is about 3.5" off on the hallway to the west of the closet. Basically, we're not going to be able to run that North wall as one continuous span from east to west. We're going to have to build out the door jam 3.5" north. A clumsy miscalculation while framing weeks back now requires and elegant bit of problem solving.

A few walls are built and leaning up out of the way. We ought to be able to finish this one today or tomorrow. We'll get pics up of the "elegant solution" when it's up.

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.