Refurbishing the master-bedroom closet

 Our master-bedroom closets were in drastic need of refurbishment. The bi-fold closet doors never shut properly. My closet was accessed through a hole in the wall since it was the closet for the office/bedroom on the far side of the closet wall.

 This is the view of my closet from the office side of the closet with the office access-door to it in the open position.

 We hired "Handyman Connections  " to remove the closet and to make the wall between the two rooms one solid wall. As the interior walls of the closet were removed we found that the Parquet flooring did not extend beneath them. No new parquet was available to match the old, so I had to remove the flooring inside the closet space. Each individual piece was glued down solidly. It took me almost four hours on my hands and knees to remove it, using a hammer and chisel.

 The tools of removal.

I replaced the Parquet with some laminate flooring and a matching threshold strip.

We purchased an IKEA wardrobe unit to replace the worn closet. We had it delivered and assembled. It took the two delivery men one hour to assemble the unit. We estimate it would have taken us all day and a great deal of frustration to do the assembling ourselves!

My side of the wardrobe has two bars on which to hang clothes. The wire basket below has proven to be very handy for temporary storage of laundry.

Here my side of the wardrobe is filled with my clothes. Anne's side is partially filled, with more to come.

The last step in the process was to take the construction debris to the curb today in readiness for the garbage pick-up. All was removed as I wrote this blog.

The "new" basketry studio

Today was the first day that I ventured out of the house to go shopping. Julian drove the car, and I and Anne were passengers. The itinerary called for us to go the IKEA in Bells Corners, and then to the Milestones Restaurant before returning home.

We purchased two shelving units on which to store my baskets, and a new IKEA chair. Julian loaded them into the car.



The two units were put together by Julian while Anne and I managed to put the chair together. Anne and I then filled the shelves with the baskets and trays that have accumulated and were piled everywhere. Visitors can now see what I have available for sale, and then consider how they might order their own custom item. Most of these basketry items are shown on my Etsy shop site too.



My work area also has some baskets on display. Now if only I could make some sales!

Rain barrels etc.

We really needed the gentle rain that came overnight and lasted most of the morning. The onion sets appreciate this rain as do the potato plants that self set among them from last year.

For this morning's run, the light rain and a temperature of 19C were ideal for a longer jog today. I ran for almost an hour.



The tomato plants are perking up with this rain. The Food Bank will get a huge surplus as usual if the good rain and sun combination return.






On the deck, the green peppers are doing well too. This is one of four huge planters from IKEA we have on the deck as well as other smaller planters. For several years we have watered these planters using a watering can we filled at ground level. Now we can use the water from the rain barrel, and not have to pay for it nor climb the steps to the deck carrying that can!





This is the rain barrel we purchased last week. It is fed from the drain spout of our roof. With the overnight rain it is now full, with the excess draining via its overflow pipe (the black pipe in the photo). We can now fill the watering can on the deck and water all the planters with ease.