If I were a billionaire I would have custom shelving and cabinetry in every closest in the house, my OCD would flourish.  Until then I rely on old faithful, metal shelving.  Metal shelving is my go to for closet organization; I can install it myself easily and quickly, it’s super affordable and I can customize it for any size storage I need.

The linen closet in one of our basement baths drove me crazy every time I tried to put something in it, I had been dealing with it knowing some day I’d like to tear the whole thing out.  I couldn’t do it anymore and really wanted the extra storage space.

The glass doors the previous owners had installed were to big for the opening, which meant I could only open the doors on each side about 8 inches.  It was chaos inside and only housed two shelves, barely reaching from one side to the other.

I took the doors down making some Craigs-lister quite happy with their new find.  I fought with the existing shelving brackets for at least a half hour before giving up and working around them.  I was being lazy and didn’t feel like repairing drywall so I worked my new shelving around the existing brackets.

See the old brackets there, they look like they are supporting the new shelving.  I didn’t need that extra support in this particular closet but they get to stay there anyways.  I filled the closet back up with all our odds and ends towels Diesel’s shower towels and some random baby stuff in storage until needed again.

Hung up a extra set of random curtains and called it a day.  I’ve got room to spare and no more stuff on the floor.  Have you ever used wire shelving?  Do you like it?

Getting back on schedule after that House Beautiful detour, I’m back to the sitting room which is directly beside the living room.  So it may look familiar to my post last Thursday. Since the sitting room below and the living room from last week post share a small dividing wall and ceiling I continued the paint colors through out.  Here’s a reminder of our bare walls before, you can see a little bit how all the rooms are connected and open to each other.

Yup, all white.  The only thing I changed below is the wall color.

It’s pretty amazing what a few gallons of paint can do to a room.  I want to get all the trim painted white but in due time.

Colors:  Sherwin Williams, Library Pewter, Rembrant Ruby.

I also scored on the furniture, I wasn’t planning on getting any for this room for awhile but I happened to walk into Pottery Barn on the right day at the right time.  I got the white sectional, coffee table, side tables and zebra rug for $720.  They were floor samples and didn’t have a mark on them.  Can you say double bonus?!?!?

Looking forward to removing the banisters, painting the trim and new carpet sooner than later…fingers crossed.

Leave your comments below.

Following the Miller, the second project happened during my Junior and Senior summers of High school. This story is actually best told through the eyes of my sister, for a school assignment shortly following the project. Word for word, enjoy:

Double Summer Job

About 3 years ago (1995) my parents approached Jordan and I to talk about a summer job.

They brought us to a house and showed us around. We were both trying to figure out what the job actually was.

They finally explained to us what we would be doing. I could see for myself that the house needed a lot of work. I could hardly breathe just standing there, due to the smell of the old place.

Jordan and I decided to buy the house after figuring out what most of the expenses and other financial situations would be. It was a lot more complicated than just this, but that would take a lot of explaining.

***Yup that’s my mom there, arms crossed, surely thinking “Am I really going to do this again?”

We finally started to gut the entire house. Mostly to get rid of the smell which was in the old ladies couches, carpet, and clothing.

This was way too much work for just the two of us. My parents helped us out and we hired several friends and classmates.

Adam and Jenny Kramer, Jordan, and I had to take down all of the old rotten wallpaper. There were about 15 layers on every wall and ceiling. Some of it had been on there since 1887 when the house was built.

The four of us also had to strip the varnish off of all of the doors so that way they could be redone. All of the doors were huge with carvings and design, so it took along time to strip all of them.

The whole house had carved woodwork as the trim. It all had to be sanded and filled over and over for the paint.

It took us about one whole summer to get the whole place gutted, resided, plumbed, and heated. We thought that it would only take one summer to finish the whole thing from start to finish. I guess that when you leave your work for vacation and basketball camps, projects take much longer than planned.

The next summer we got back at it again. I was still tired of working from the summer before. Luckily the second summer was easier. This was the rebuilding portion of the project.

We started out by rewiring the whole house. I learned a lot about electricity. When all of the wiring was done we sheet rocked almost the entire house and then mudded all of the cracks and corners.

We definitely built our muscles up when we had to sand down every wall after the mud dried.

It was getting close to start the wallpapering. We started this by figuring out all of the colors. It takes a lot of time to figure out what kind of wallpaper is going to go into every room, in order to match the carpets, and then figuring out how much to buy. Jordan and I let my mom figure this out.

Every wall in the whole house had to be wallpapered. I did one-half of the hanging and my mom did the other one-half. Jordan did all of the cutting, pasting, and running around for supplies. She was our gopher and we really enjoyed it.

Wallpapering is very simple. I was very glad that I learned to do this, because when I buy a house, when I get older, it will be very easy for me to redesign it.

The carpet installers moved in after we were done with the wallpaper. It took about two weeks for them to carpet the whole house. Every floor had to be covered.

It came to a point where we were finally done. We put the house on the market in October. It isn’t sold yet, but hopefully it will be soon. This is something that I will never do again. That is probably the most important thing that I learned throughout the two-summer project. I learned many building skills, designing, financial, dealing with business people, city fathers, and numerous items that I will appreciate when I am an adult.

Staging outside is just as important as staging inside your house.  Step back, way back, across the street if necessary and look at it with a blind eye.  If it helps take a picture and then review your first impression.  Several of the aspects that help the first impression can be done with a little elbow grease.  Today’s DIY is one them.

I feel like I just purchased these Andorak Chairs, but when I think about it they have been sitting in the sun for two full summers.  They look pretty worn out and dull.  I also happen to have plenty of stain left from my chaise project so this little touch was virtually pennies.

Here’s what my chairs look like before I got started.

Staining is a pretty easy project and takes just a few supplies.

It’s a standing joke amongst my husband and I that his Town House was his wedding gift to me.  He gave me the keys and the landlord responsibilities the minute he found the opportunity.  We’ve been renting this 2 bedroom, 1 bath end unit with a double garage for a few years now and recently come to terms with it’s value and we are ready to rip the band-aid off and move on.

It was a quick decision and with spring apon us and the tax credit nearing it’s end I wanted to get it on the market before the following weekend with a budget of $2000.  It’s amazing how much you can do with $2000 when getting your home ready for the market.

It’s always difficult as a home owner to know if they will see that investment back, it’s important to consider why you would make the changes.  In my case this unit will sit empty on the market until I find a buyer so I want my unit to be the most attractive unit.  I want it to be the next unit sold in the complex, not the 8th.

The unit was built in the nineties and my husband, bachelor at the time had zero interest in making updates?!?!  Since this wasn’t my first rodeo I new exactly where to spend my dollars to get the most bang.

Budget and Before and Afters as follows:

$200:  8 gallons of paint (entire unit)

$340:  New light fixtures out with the gold in with the silver

$1300 New Carpet through out.

$120 Misc. Home Depot/Supplies

I wanted my budget to have room to do something “special” or something that would make our unit stand out from the others.  With $300 I was able to install a beautiful modern back splash in the kitchen tying everything together.

These changes have made our unit much more appealing to the market and turn key for the first time home buyer.

Total Cost:  $1970

I “blame” Etsy and this wonderful shop called PopWall for this weekends project.

I painted the ceiling to match the walls using Sherwin Williams Library Pewter helping create a warmer feeling while visually increasing the ceiling height.

All while still delaying my chaise project, I keep telling myself I’ll finish this up when spring hits.