Very Handy Indeed

Now, I know I said that the next post would be about paint... I'm sorry. I lied. It's coming though... like tomorrow! I had to post this first, otherwise you'd look at pictures in the paint post and wonder how things got to be that way. 

My handyman, Jerry, had a long list of things to do around the house to get it ready. First, he installed a pocket door, and then he started on some smaller jobs. One of the most important ones was moving the chandelier in the dining room over about a foot and a half. You can kind of see in this old picture from when we first got the keys that they chandelier is actually hung right in the middle of the dining room area. 

This would seem like a normal placement choice, except that the middle of that space is actually in the walkway. So, someone of my height (5'4") could walk under the chandelier with literally one inch of clearance. Someone of a more manly height like my dad (6'0") or John (6'4") would smack their forehead or chin, respectively. I can't tell you how many times people hit this chandelier. The old owner dealt with this by putting her dining room table diagonally which not only looked weird but wasted a lot of space. My solution was to actually fix the problem.

We put our table where we'd like it to be and based the chandelier placement on that. Step 1: they took the old chandelier down. 

Step 2: I went to work. Step 3: I came home to it being completely finished. It was extremely exciting. See the old spot that they spackled over?

Another task was to take down the dated light fixture that hangs over the entry way. I would have done it myself, but as you can see, it's two stories up.

Claire + heights = no go. The guy in this picture isn't actually Jerry the Handyman Extraordinaire, it's his right-hand man Doug. Doug was a champ. He climbed up the ladder and took the light fixture down one handed. It was astonishing.

Jerry also...

• installed new drywall (the red you see behind the sink is a sealant you paint on to waterproof the drywall which is important in wet areas)
• wired cords to power the lights we'll put under the open shelves (see the two white cords poking on of the drywall?)
• and added a third switch on the wall (see on the right of the new drywall?) to operate those lights.

The back door wasn't closing easily, so Jerry re-hung it to straighten the hinges, and also replaced the doorsweep on the bottom because it was falling off and totally ripped.

Possibly the most exciting thing, though? He added two new light fixtures in the garage! See them on either side of the garage door opener? They each have space for 3 bulbs which will really brighten up the garage at night. The house I grew up in has 2 big windows in the garage plus the little window boxes on the top panel of the garage door, so I'm used to getting a lot of natural light in there. The garage at the condo has zero windows, so light fixtures are extra important.

Jerry also installed some shelving in the garage that I completely forgot to take pictures of. I'll share it next time I remember :)

Pocketed

So possibly the most exciting thing on the handy man to do list was a pocket door. The door from the master bedroom to the master bathroom made the bathroom feel really closed in and inconvenient. The bathroom isn't tiny, but it's definitely not spacious, and when the door is open the shower is totally blocked. 

I went to a door store that Jerry, my handyman engineer extraordinaire, had recommended. It turns out there aren't doors you buy specifically for pocket door installations. Doors come in really basic sizes, and you can use them on hinges or in pockets. This was fantastic news because it meant I could actually reuse our existing door and avoid paying for a new one! So, all we needed was a frame and the hardware to stick in the spot the old knob resided. For that there are two options--either a basic piece of metal that just acts as a space to help you pull the door closed, or one with a locking mechanism. Since this door will go to a bathroom, I opted for the locking one.

Here's the frame leaned against the wall. See how the old door just really blocks off the room? (Excuse the fact that the wall looks very blue here... it was a phone picture so I couldn't white balance.)

First Jerry removed the old door, then the old trim, being careful not to damage it so it could be reused once the pocket was installed.

Then he removed the trim inside the bathroom.

After that he used the same oscillating tool I used to remove the kitchen backsplash to cut a hole in the drywall and check out what was happening inside the wall.

Then he cut out the rest of the drywall that was in the way of installing the pocket frame.

Next he used a crazy cool tool that I didn't catch the name of to cut the wood. Seriously the thing was awesome, but also terrifying. It cut straight through the wood (and nails) in no time flat.

It was extremely strange and fascinating to see that a 1/2" piece of drywall was the only thing dividing the two rooms. Isn't that weird?! I shared my fascination with my bridesmaids when I saw them in New Orleans this past weekend and they just stared at me like I couldn't have possibly commented on something less interesting. Apparently I'm alone in this drywall amazement?

Those white spots are DAP filler that strengthen the drywall anywhere it may have been damaged from ripping it off the screws.

And then... the most amazing thing happened. I went to work. When I came home... we had a pocket door. Just like that! Magic. It was the most exciting thing. When you do something yourself, you have to sit through the 1000 tiny steps between the start and finish, so it just doesn't feel all that amazing when you're done, because you're only one tiny step forward from where you were three minutes ago, which is one tiny step forward from three minutes before that. When someone else does the work and you go away and come back, it's just the most amazing thing, because it's just finished. It's seriously like magic, and I love it.

Just look at how much more open the bathroom is!!!

I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. What I'm even more excited about, though? What's going on in the condo right now. Paint. Just get yourself ready, because it's going to be the biggest transformation yet... I just know it.

Do any of you have any hugely transformative suggestions?