Hallway Closet Renovation

New Year, new closet renovation.

This time, I was renovating the hallway closet. I hate those wire shelves and they weren't storing enough. I made custom wood shelving 18 inches deep. I installed the shelves on cleats and also used brackets mounted to studs unlike the wire shelves which were just mounted onto the drywall with drywall anchors. Now these shelves will hold a lot more stuff and will hold a lot more weight.

Step 1 is to empty the closet

Step 2 is remove the doors (save for later) and remove the shelving (throw it away!)

Step 3 is to finish the walls:

1. Patch the holes in the wall where shelving was removed

2. Scrape the popcorn texture off of the ceiling (I used water to wet the texture before scraping it off, that is the best way)

3. Paint the walls, ceiling, and track for the doors

Step 4: Make the shelves

 

I cut 18 inch deep shelves from a 4'x8' sheet of high grade plywood using both the hand saw and table saw.

 

  Step 5: Paint the shelving and install trim on the front edge of the shelving. I wanted a finished look to the shelving so I installed a piece of 3/4" flat trim along the front of the shelf so I wouldn't see the edge of the plywood.

*Can you spot Toby?

Step 6: Install the Shelving

This step got me concerned because I was worried about getting the shelving level. Every time I measured in the past, shelving or whatever did not come out level. This is because the house is not level, the ceiling is not level, the floors are not level, and the walls are not plumb. Measurements are not accurate when the house is not perfectly level! After years of frustration, I fixed this by buying a laser level. I did not take pictures of this but the laser level projects a perfectly level line on the wall and I mounted the cleats and brackets based on the projection of the red line on the wall. The result was the most level shelves I have ever installed. 

I only mounted the shelving to the brackets, not the cleats. This will prevent the shelf from sliding which wasn't a big deal. There was no wobbling because the laser level helped me mount a level shelf.

Step 7: Finishing

I painted the cleats and other touch-up spots. I also caulked gaps between the cleats and the wall.

Now re-install the doors

Finally, we moved our linens back into the closet.

Where did all of this extra space come from? We even added the luggage from another closet!

2016 Accomplishments

Since this is the end of the year, of course I have to make a blog post about how the year was for me. Overall, 2016 was a good year as I look back. I would say that I listed most of my accomplishments already in this blog with regular blog posts. I'll take some time to mention what I achieved that I didn't really plan on or haven't mentioned so far.

Started Blog
Of course this was a goal going into the year but didn't know how to do it. The blog is still pretty basic if it gets improved with a nicer design, that will be an unplanned goal. In the mean time, I'm happy that I kept up with posts and maybe more people will enjoy it.

Ebay Top Rated Seller
I hadn't planned on this but I became a Top Rated Seller on eBay. This didn't get me much in the way of discounts or anything. I opened an eBay store and that got me more discounts than anything. I think that as a Top Rated Seller, my listings get pushed up in search results above regular folks. I'm not sure of the total amount but I have had about 1500 selling transactions this year. I would call the vast majority of them micro-transactions. I don't remember selling anything over $200 and most of my sales came from auctions beginning at $0.99.

3rd Place Finish in Fantasy Football
You may recall my post earlier this year regarding my Fantasy Football draft. Well I finished in first place during the regular season (just like last year). Just like last year, my fantasy team fell apart in the playoffs. My top two running backs (Melvin Gordon and Matt Forte) and my stud receiver Julio Jones got injured the week of my playoffs. Then that same week Seattle's defense scores -2 and Drew Brees plays the worst fantasy game of the season. I got knocked out of the championship game and into the game for 3rd, which I fortunately won thanks in large part to Drew Brees' comeback game and Matt Bryant kicking well. The rest of my team did bad that week due to injury but at least the guy I played did bad too so I won 3rd place in the 12 man league.

Gained 10 pounds
This was a surprise. I gained weight, about 10 pounds since last year. This is a good thing. I can cut weight if I try and I will normally lose weight if I stop lifting weights. Even lifting weights over the past few years I have been losing weight. I changed my workout routine by working out one specific muscle group a day rather than combining muscle groups. I've changed the routine up this year and it has worked out well. I am also eating a second lunch while at work and that seems to be contributing to my weight gain. The down side is that my waist size has increased 1/2 a size. That makes sense though because my weight gain has been evenly distributed to the good parts and the bad parts. I'll just have to cut out more junk food to keep my waist the same size. The extra meal has also stopped my headaches that I wrote about in the "Coffee" blog update. It turned out that I was having bad headaches because my body wasn't getting enough food. This came as a side effect of getting bigger and older. I could live off dairy and liquid diets when I was younger and working out but now I can't.