Greengate Ranch Remodel
Remodeling a Daylight Ranch in Oregon

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Ace How-To Site


As noted in my last post, I found the Ace Hardware How-To site to be a real help in getting a list of dimensions I needed for the closet organizer I'm building. I took a further look at the projects they have posted on the site, and I am pretty impressed.

The thing I like about this site is that they don't focus on selling you their kits, but give you the technical details for various projects. For being free information, I would rate this site an "A". I have added it to my sidebar links.

Note: I am not affiliated with Ace Hardware, I just like what I see here.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Walk-in Closet #1

As part of remodeling our basement, I am adding a walk-in closet to my daughter's bedroom and a large storage closet to our bonus room.

While our house is relatively large (3600 sf), there is minimal storage. Since our basement bonus room is about 1300 sf of open space (in the shape of an L), taking 4 feet of the end of it is hardly noticed.

Here is the plan (orange walls are new)



This closet is basically 4" x 8", which I think is about the minimum you would want for a walk-in. You could argue its too small, but it provides 8 continuous feet of closet space, plus takes most of the area in front of the closet (the clearance space you need for standing) out of the room. This actually increases the footprint of the bedroom quite a bit.

We are moving my daughter's old closet to our boys' room. These are closets have just a four foot opening, and they need space as well.

Here is a diagram of the design we came up with. This eneded up being a combination of daughter, DW and me all putting our ideas in the mix. There will also be some shelving along the back wall, not shown here.


After looking at the prices, quality and options for closet organizers, I decided to build it myself (for more on cabinet building, click here). We are using 5/8" laminated pine boards from Home Depot. I'll add pictures in a few days. I figure I can cut the cost in about half, and make exactly what we want.

Most closet organizer sites want to sell you a unit and are not focused on helping you with building and designing you own. After searching a while, I did find a good resource: Designing a closet organizer by Ace Hardware. It provides typical dimensions (I inserted the table below), plus overall installation techniques.

Five men's suit coats 12" wide, 38" long
Six men's shirts (on hangers) 12" wide, 38" long
Man's shirt (folded) 8" wide, 14" long
Man's pants (on straight hangers) 44" long
Man's pants (folded on hangers) 27" long
Man's dress hat 6" x 11"
Man's shoes 9" wide, 12" long
Woman's dress 68" long
Woman's robe 52" long
Woman's dress 50" long
Woman's jacket 36" long
Woman's blouse (on hanger) 34" long
Woman's blouse (folded) 10" wide, 13" long
Woman's skirt 36" long
Woman's shoes 6" wide, 9-1/2" long
Sweater (folded) 10" wide, 14" long
Boots 9" wide, 12" deep, 14" high

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Renovating my Blog

I guess being a compuslive remodeler bleeds over into in my blog as well...


Since I am finishing up our kitchen remodel (http://10kkitchenremodel.blogspot.com/), I am now going to focus on blogging the rest of the house remodel, that being the basement. Before I start posting, I am going to go for layout and coat of paint.


For those of you who see life as an on-going improvement exercise, click on the image below.


See my article library on eHow...