The last few weekends, Nate and I have been in full DIY mode. He’s been working on consolidating our office stuff while I’ve been working with my Dad on our closet build. Since I am pregnant I am not doing anything strenuous, but I am trying to assist as much as possible.
The first thing we did was head to Home Depot and buy all our supplies for the first part of the build. This included all the 2x4s for framing, plywood and drywall. It was a little comical trying to help my Dad load everything on the cart. Luckily a crew member stepped in to help load it all in the minivan.
The new closet is taking out about 3′ of the shed. Oddly enough, the barn doors of the shed do not go the full width, but end about 3′ from the right side where a regular door was placed. So we removed the old door to make way for our closet framing.
We also removed the siding to reuse on the outside of the closet. Carefully removing materials take a lot more time than you would think. We ended up cutting the piece of siding out to avoid breaking it.
The shed is about 3 1/2″ lower than the bedroom floor, so we build a frame using treated 2x4s to raise the height of the closet.
We attached the frame to the concrete floor using anchor screws. This was the first time we got to use our new hammer drill (thanks Josh) and let me just say those screws went in like butter.
With a secure base, the walls of the frame were built.
And then my Dad added a sloped roof to avoid any water that may come through the old shed roof (we didn’t replace this with the rest of the roof).
Then the siding was reattached to the outside of the frame.
And the walls and ceiling were insulated. I have to say the siding on the outside looks so much better than the old door that used to be there. Once it’s painted, it’s going to look like it’s original.
The first part of the project went really well. Of course you never know what obstacles you will face during a DIY project. Our biggest setbacks were just scheduling the time. Dad’s been very awesome to come over on the weekends, but he did do a bit of the work on a weekday to catch up on time we missed due to illness.
Next up, we will cut the hole into the bedroom, finish the outside of the closet and deal with a pesky electrical line running through the wall.
