Plans for the new year.
January 18, 2009
Inspiration can sometimes come from the most unlikely sources. We decided to spend a lazy Saturday afternoon cleaning up our Christmas ephemera, and as per usual, we took it as an opportunity to do some puttering. Nothing major, a little bit of putty here, a touch of paint there – those ‘touch-ups’ that help keep the house maintained.
One such chore was to clean out the closet under the stairs. We keep a good deal of seasonal stuff – decorations, old coats etc in this closet, but have never really liked it. The closet is in the centre of the house and therefore always inconvenient to use – you simply don’t step in from inside and hang up your coat. Second, the closet appears to be an afterthought in the house – not one of the original features, as the door is cheap and the trim isn’t a perfect match. As well the door opens into our dining room, for a grand door-total of four doors and one passageway. Needless to say, we’ve never really liked it.
I was in the back of the closet when I took notice of the rails supporting the shelves. There, hidden away from sight was an original piece of trim. (we are missing a good deal of trim on some of our doors, a result of generations of renovations) it was actually an exciting find as now we had a template for later milling and matching.
We started talking about the trim and pondered why the closet had never been converted into a ‘water closet like so many of the surrounding homes. This spurred many other thoughts, and when we had finished talking we had decided to: tear out out existing main-floor bathroom and relocate it under the stairs; convert the existing bathroom into a proper laundry/ mud room; reconfigure the pantry.
In truth, these are modest changes – and although a little challenging, we are fortunate that the renovations we have made over the last 4 years – particularly the upgrades to the plumbing and electrical – will make this much easier then in might have been.
Feels good to have a project. It’s been a while since we last tore the house apart. We were starting to get bored!
