Noise & Entryway Progress

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I’ll be perfectly honest with you guys: this week, I have had a really hard time writing anything (I delegated the work to Charlie, but she hasn’t felt like writing either, so at least my whole house is in agreement). Instead, I’ve hunkered down and worked on the entryway.

Neither of us feel like writing today, but she’s really hoping I’m going to get the entryway redo finished this afternoon. The air compressor keeps blocking the hallway. ???? . . . #thoseears #earstagram #dogsofinstagram #dogstagram #dogslife #charliebug_diy #dogoftheday #???? #mansbestfriend #thoseearskillmeeverytime #heartmelt #mysidekick

A photo posted by Sarah Fogle (@uglyducklingdiy) on Jul 28, 2016 at 7:32am PDT

Usually, writing comes pretty easy. Like many people who write for a living in one way or another, I’m constantly taking mental notes of words and phrases that I intend to use when I’m finally sitting down at my computer. But I haven’t been getting a lot of great sleep, my head is a little too clouded with conflicting thoughts, and I’ve got a long to-do list starting next month (I’m still not caught up from taking time off, but I suppose that’s to be expected). When life gets like this, I often use a single word to describe it: noisy. My writing feels noisy, my thoughts are noisy, social media is LOUD and noisy, etc. It may not be an elegant word, but it’s getting quite a lot of use lately.

Conveniently, blogging about home improvement involves more than just writing. It also involves a garage full of power tools at my disposal to — almost ironically — literally make more noise, and that provides a strange amount of comfort. Hammers and saws and air compressors and nail guns… visual change at its best. So, I have been taking the days this week to take apart the entryway and start putting in a much more efficient layout in a tiny, poorly-utilized space.

I started with your typical closet: one shelf, one pole, not much else. The shelf is in plenty good condition for reuse in the new design, but all it really did before is store pillows I should be giving to Goodwill (which I then did).

I never really used the rod in the closet to hang coats either (I would, rarely, but these were often my seldom-used coats that I should’ve donated or sold instead). Now that I’ve gotten rid of them, I’ll add open hooks that will allow me to hang up the jackets I use when running, scarves, Charlie’s leash, etc… the stuff that I use all the time but get lazy about keeping organized.

I’m also taking over the floor space and creating built-in storage… a trunk of sorts that will house a boot tray and other items that would just look cluttered if left in the open. I’m using luan to fill in the sides, and I’ll be putting a decorative lid on top with some hinge hardware. To my surprise, all of my measurements have been going smoothly and everything is level… something that rarely happens in this house! Priming has taken up quite a few hours this week, as has patching and caulking.

I want to wait for sharing the finished results once all the hardware is in place, so for now, I’ll just share these few in-progress shots. I suppose it looks like a hot mess, but a few more coats of paint will change that! More next week.

And speaking of in-progress, I recently added Snapchat to my ever-growing list of social media tools. For a long time I used it for just family and friends, but I guess I’m feeling the pressure with Haven coming up next week (because there will be so.much.sharing from everyone), and Snapchat is a lot of fun for sharing little moments that are otherwise too messy or too personal for other channels. If you are interested in adding me to yours, you can either look for my username, uglyducklingDIY, click here to add me, or you can snap the picture below using the app and it will automatically add you. Have a great weekend!