Some of you have hinted that my hubby and I should have our own TV show! Can you hear me laughing? Oh, I’m not saying we haven’t done our fair share of work on this house and that we didn’t know what we were doing… we’ve done rewiring, put in new windows, doors put in, vent stacks installed, new flooring put down, walls painted, walls knocked out, wonky paneling replaced, new plumbing, crooked walls camouflaged, replaced siding, and much much more!
But just for starters, it took us 3 days to get these bifold closet doors put up…and I’m still not finished… the holes are set in and spackled, but they still need to be sanded and painted over…Chip and Joanna would have had this figured out in a hot minute! We might be slow but we keep working until we get it as perfect as we can… which is hard to do, since this house is very imperfect! However, we love this imperfect house because it’s perfect for us! :o) If we were doing this job for someone else, we would probably have to charge them… ummm… about $1000! (That’s compensation for my hubby’s agony and stress from it!) But that won’t ever happen…if I ever mention bifold doors again or if someone asks him to help them, I’m sure he’s going to be sick that day! I think I was slightly “over-cooking my hubby’s grits” today with this project… it was too tedious and I “may” have been a little too much of a perfectionist! o)
Oh, I was going to tell you my idea for putting the doors up and getting them straight… I thought if we could lay them side by side, put a piece of wood on the backside to sort of sandwich them together, then wrap them with that saran like stuff you see wrapped around things in the stores sometimes
It’s truly a miracle the doors look as good as they do! And I’m NOT kidding one bit! We were amazed as we started tweaking this and adding this and sawing this off and raising this up… and with the Lord’s providential hand, somehow it all worked out… my hubby even did a little “happy dance” when the last roller was placed in the top glide and the doors met in the middle without overlapping. They looked straight and when we opened them THEY WORKED!
Here are a few pictures of what happened today…
If you look closely at the doors on the left side, you might see a heart in the wood… I think that was just for me! :o)
The doors on the right had to be raised up this much off the floor… the floor was that crooked…
We couldn’t lower it any on the other side as the left side sat right on top of the floor… unless we gouged out the flooring and set the metal plate down some, to be straight it had to be done this way…
This project was kind of like doing alterations… you tweaked a little and tried it out, then took it off and did a little bit more…and tried it on again. This is what it looked like with the right side doors put on the track at the top and the pin at the bottom.
We stood back and looked at our handiwork and were thrilled that we might be halfway home… not quite…
When we added the left side, they overlapped… they aren’t supposed to do that! So we took them down again and tried to figure out how to get them to just meet in the middle… clearly they were too wide for the opening, so we had to do some modifications to the sides.
We finally got the doors to meet in the middle, but next we had to work on the area at the top where the trim was going to go across. We decided we were going to go with “looks” instead of being level… so I stood back in the bathroom doorway and looked across the room as my hubby held the trim board across the track… (Bifold doors aren’t like just framing in something where the trim can go on the outside… the bifold doors had to “CLEAR” the trim and slide underneath it but still look straight.) It was clear that the left side trim was going to need to come down farther than the right side…
You can see it more clearly in these pictures from before…
We worked and worked and I said, “lower just a bit, higher just a bit, a little bit closer, more times than I care to mention” but in the end, I think we got it the best it could possibly be…
Yes, the floor has quite a slope to it, but as we’ve said so many times, “it gives the house character!” I’m going to paint that little block of wood on the right side to match the floor…
Here’s a view of the ceiling to the top of the closet trim… I think it’s pretty close…
So here you go… our new bifold doors… if you count my hours and my hubby’s hours working on this, we probably have about 35 hours total…which is ridiculous because I looked up a few YouTube videos on installing bifold doors and most of the videos were 2-10 minutes… clearly we were doing something wrong! :o) No, we weren’t… they had perfectly straight closets to work on…
…and look… they really do work… I love them…
I was walking out the door when I turned around to take ONE MORE PICTURE…
Well, until I get it all painted and completely finished, we are DONE with the closet doors! And you know what, we didn’t need Chip and Joanna’s help after all… :o)
See you tomorrow,
Blessings, Jeanne
Well done, Jeanne and George!! What a lot you had to go thru, but you got there!! Hooray!! (And, yes, I do see the “heart”!)
Thanks Charlotte,
I almost didn’t think it was possible…
I hope you are feeling better and ready for no more health issues!!
Blessings, Jeanne
Congratulations!! They look very nice now! I see the heart, too! 🙂
Hi Karen
Thank you!
I hope you and your girls are doing well… (your hubby too!)
Blessings, Jeanne
If closet doors could breathe, it would be a sigh of relief. You can do it for them. Congratulations!
Thanks Susette,
Can you believe they turned out so straight looking?…well. straight if you don’t look at the floor… :o)
Blessings, Jeanne
So proud of your perseverance! You have every right to be proud! Congratulations!
Thank you Helen,
It took everything in us to keep working. But I’m so glad we did! I absolutely love them!
Thanks so much
Blessings, Jeanne
Breathing a sigh of relief with you! They look great and will look even better when you get your finishing touch on those doors.
Thank you Debbie,
Rebecca and I went shopping out of town today and she bought me some new white curtains. I can’t wait to put them up. If I like them, that will make me want to get the door painted even more!
Blessings, Jeanne
So happy you are done with the doors. Great job! Glad you decided on the fudging technique. It really worked out well for you and no one will notice any imperfections. I have double bi-fold louvered doors on the closets in my old room at the other house. Now, I will appreciate them even more. 🙂
There’s a really cute free pattern today only at Pixie Faire. 🙂 I was thinking of reducing it to fit the RRFF kids. Maybe.
On another note, I finally figured out what I wanted to do with the yellow/gray fabric I have for the Ruby Reds. Now, to find the time to actually get it together. 🙂
I forgot. Now, when you’re out looking for wedding stuff, you can peruse bedding and rugs too for the “new” room. Are Rebecca and husband registering someplace? Will they be in an apartment or house? That might make a difference as to whether or not they even need anything.
Hi Joy,
Yes, we’ve done A LOT of fudging on this house, but most of the time, its our little secret…
I saw Eve’s pattern this morning and anto download it when we get back home.. Rebecca and I wentbout of town shopping today…
Rebecca bought me a new pair of curtains today and I bought a pretty white duvet that “may” work…I’ll have to see.
Rebecca isn’t registered anywhere…they have 2 households and said they didn’t need anything.
They are planning a honeymoon trip in October and want to go to West Virginia…so everyone has been giving toward thst or gift cards…easy peasy…
Thanks Joy
Blessings, Jeanne
“TA-DAH! Ladies and gentlemen, we present the Wonderful Wiedlocher Wizards, remodeling gurus extraordinaire!”
Look at this! Well done, guys. I have NO idea who Chip and Joanna are, but you surely can pat yourselves on the back for making your dreams come true. Holy cow!
I love the heart there for you, Jeanne; it makes me a little sad that paint is going to eliminate that. Any chance of a light grayish wash that can be applied so the natural wood design will show through a bit and yet still have the wash color?
Now, I imagine you are shifting gears to throw yourself into wedding stuff. When the wedding is over, how about you and George and Reuben hopping into the car and going away for a day or two, or more, for a breather and celebrating your incredible marriage and partnership? You guys deserve it.
Congratulations!
Love,
Sally
Hi Sally,
You made me laugh…we certainly aren’t wizards…just a crazy couple who bought this crazy crooked house and hoped we could make it better than it was. I’m happy with what we’ve done…
Chip and Joanna Gains are a couple from Waco, TX who had to show Fixer Upper on HGTV.
Rebecca and I went shopping today and success on a few things…
I think when the wedding is over I’m riding down to Springfield, MO with Tom and Cindy to visit Deb and Mike for a few days…
Thanks Sally,
Blessings, Jeanne
They look amazingly straight and nice to have them fold back out of the way.!
Now you can do fun wedding stuff!
Hi Kathie,
Thanks..
I love the new doors!!
Yes, now fun wedding stuff!
Blessings, Jeanne
I think your doors look great! I don’t think a “professional” could have done as well. Mostly because they would not have the motivation you and George did to get it just right.
I have the pattern Joy mentioned from Pixie Faire. I always seem to buy a pattern that they later have for a freebie. I think it would look really cute on the RRFFs. I have a paper somewhere that gives me the enlargement/reduction percentages for changing patterns. Now if I only could remember where I put the thing.
Along with reorganizing I recently took care of some things I had been putting off till I finished the reorganization. I had the windshield replaced on my car and took my car in for its 40,000 mile check-up and to take care of some recall items yesterday, incorporating that with lunch with Dionne and the grandkids and doing lots of back-to-school shopping. I really miss all the excitement of back-to-school shopping so it was a fun day for me. I was paying and have to admit we did better than I anticipated. Dionne was paying more attention to the “deals” than I was. I was just indulging the grandkids. “Yes you can have that shirt. Well, okay you can have both of them”. I know no limits when it comes to spoiling grandkids, especially where clothes are concerned. But those kids are the easiest to please. When we went to the shoe store we discovered that both Skyy (11) and Jaiden (9) are now wearing adult sizes. That about doubled the cost of shoes for them. If they picked out shoes that were too expensive they went and looked further until they found what they liked at a lesser price. No fits or pouting. Makes spoiling them that much easier. And Sean said today that they were over the moon last night showing him all their purchases. Skyy is in a regular middle school so he needed school clothes. Jaiden goes to a charter school and wears uniforms but she needed other clothes. And of course we got baby Azure some new onesies in a larger size for when he outgrows the size he is wearing now, probably in the near future. He’s six months old and already in 12 months.
Hallelujah!!! I finally am finished with my reorganization and actually plan on returning to my sewing room next week. I found a box of cards the other day and went through and culled some of them. But some I just couldn’t do away with just yet. As I got to the bottom of the box I started seeing cards with notes from people that are no longer living. A note from my grandmother from 1974 telling me how much she appreciated her birthday card and how she loved that I always remembered, past Christmas and birthday cards from my mother, and cards from other relatives who have passed. And there were cards/drawings from grandkids and cards with notes from old friends. Only keeping the most important I still filled the box, but I think I’m probably good to go now because these days most of my friends and family send e-cards.
Hoping in the near future to be sharing some of my creativity with my sofa sisters. I know my dolly girls are waiting excitedly for my return to my atelier. It’s been a long time.
Thank you Barbara,
Truly appreciate your compliments on the doors… I’m just glad we got them in and they look as well as they do… I can’t wait to get them painted now! :o)
It sounds like you have wonderful grand kids… and they know the value of money for who is paying for things…that’s nice! and sweet! I’m glad you had a great time…
Wow…it sounds like you might just have a really well organized house now! Congratulations on it! I know you have been super busy and so glad it shows! I bet you are just thrilled!
We are both alike…wanting to sew, but being stopped by things right now… it will come soon for both of us… but probably you first! :o)
Thanks Barbara,
Blessings, Jeanne
Congratulations on the doors. They will be as happy as you are to have completed this project. If you want to read about someone else with a house project, A Year at the Chateau has been recommended to me. It’s a book, but I understand it’s also a series, but I’m not finding it on Amazon.
Now for some shopping and then — the wedding. I must be leaving out about 400 things.
Hi Marilyn,
I do love my new closet doors… Imagine how much more I’ll love them when they get some pretty Snowbound paint on them! :o)
I’ll have to keep that book in mind… in case I run out of house projects and need to read about someone else’s.
Yes, the wedding… at LEAST 400 things to do… I’m sure. but we got some accomplished today!
Thanks Marilyn,
Blessings, Jeanne
Dear Jeanne, I bet you are glad that you can almost close the door on that project (I couldn’t resist – laugh).
With a full team of workers, Joanna and Chip are Joanna and Chip either (smile).
HI Dorothy,
Oh, leave it to you to be so witty! I loved it! ;o)
I’ve only seen a handful of their TV shows… only when we’ve been in a dental office, or a hospital waiting room, or occasionally in a hotel… I don’t always like their style, but I like to see how they do things…
Thanks Dorothy,
Blessings, Jeanne