Grand Delusions - A new hope!

I'm suddenly seeing the light at the end of the tunnel! 
Work BFF agreed to come over Wednesday to help install the doors! 

Now work BFF is also a Snarky Lawyer Type. That's why we get along so well. 

Now you shouldn't go rush out and find a snarky lawyer type to help with all your home improvement projects since Snarky lawyer types are generally better at critiquing your ideas and dashing all your hopes than doing anything that might actually be construed as helpful.

 But lucky for me, my Snarky Lawyer Work BFF is also a LICENSED ENGINEER!

Now let's just hope that light at the end of the tunnel isn't the train.   

Grand Delusions

Grand Delusions

I live in a Faux Loft.  It’s a (relatively) new building that they attempted to make look old and loft-like by adding features such as exposed duct work, open spaces, and half walls.  Of course I’ve always thought that this whole exposed duct work, concrete floors and lack of doors thing was probably just a clever marketing ploy by some architectural firm and a contractor to make people want the cheapest construction methods possible.   So the upshot of all this is that I’m a sucker and bought into this whole loft living idea and I do not have a door on my “bedroom area.”  Instead I have about an eight foot opening off the hall to my bedroom.  I live alone, so privacy isn’t really an issue but there are occasions when I think it would be nice to have a door (mainly when I don’t want to make my bed.)  

Lucky for me, sliding barn/loft doors are pretty popular these days so there are plenty of pictures on-line to inspire me and more importantly, delude me into thinking this is something that I can  and should tackle. 

Pictures like this door design by Barbara Bestor Architecture make me lose all sanity.

Pictures like this door from the Southern Living 2009 Idea House make me think that sliding doors aren't just a trend that will be over in a year. 

Now I’m no (complete) fool, so I did a trial run making and installing a sliding door in my bathroom.  I made the door using paneling that I framed out with 1x4s.  I even mitered the corners. Be impressed.  Just don’t look too closely at those mitered corners.  I hung a sliding door track by Johnson Hardware  on the ceiling to make a sort of closet in the back of my bathroom.

(Bathroom closet door that I built) 

The bathroom installation went relatively smoothly (i.e. gave me a false sense of confidence).  Why a false sense of confidence you ask?  Well because that one little opening in my bathroom is only about 40 inches wide and eight feet tall, so I only had to make a door to cover that.  The space I need to cover now is eight feet wide and I don’t have eight feet of free wall space to slide the door open. 

So that means that I have to build TWO (2!) FOUR FEET TALL BY TEN FOOT WIDE DOORS!

I have to hang these doors on a TWELVE FOOT LONG TRACK!   

Of course since I live in a new building, I do not have wooden studs in the ceiling to support this track plus the weight of the doors.  So I have to put my DOORS ON CASTERS and use the ceiling track just to guide the doors.   

So I currently have 28 holes in my ceiling, a third of which are actually in the right place! I also have two half painted doors taking up half the space on my living room floor. 

One of two 4' x 10' doors.  Doors this large should not be built inside a 1000 sq. ft. loft.  Now you know

Don't say I didn't warn you.   

Cross your fingers. If most of my ceiling doesn't end up on the floor, it will be a miracle on par with the Immaculate, well, let's just say I'll be pleasantly surprised.

Needs Progress

A few months ago I went out to dinner with my boyfriend and a few of his friends from the gym.  One asked about my hobbies.  I immediately started wracking my brain to come up with a hobby.  The first thing that came to mind was “does happy hour count as a hobby???”  Luckily the guy saw the completely dumbfounded look on my face and rescued me by saying “BF tells me that you’re crafty.”  I thought for a second then said, “oh, yeah, I guess I am.” 

(I present this chair that I re-upholstered as evidence of my craftiness.)

Most people are surprised that I enjoy this sort of thing.  I’m generally a snarky lawyer type that is known among my circle of friends for being first to happy hour.  In fact, my only “formal recognition” in law school was winning the award for “Most Likely to Confuse THE BAR with a bar or any bar” aka Biggest Partier. 

Now I realize that this is like bragging that I was the prettiest girl playing Dungeons and Dragons Friday night at the community rec center, but to me this was a “Major Award!” 

(Those not getting my "Major Award" reference should walk, not run to see "A Christmas Carol)

So in an effort to develop my hobbies other than happy hour, I’m starting a blog to follow some of my projects.  Most of my projects are works in progress, or "UFOs."  According to my mother, UFOs are "unfinished objects" and that everyone needs a few of these lying around the house.  I think this might be a quilting term.  Hopefully posting all my UFOs will inspire me to finish some of these. 

(Like this quirk that is currently taking up a good portion of my not-too-large living room.) 

Here’s hoping this blog leads to more progress without too many quirks!