Having done some more research, I’ve found four closet configuration tools with varying approaches to dividing up the space available in our still-empty master closet:
Closetmaid
This solution looks like it might be the easiest of them all: it’s two stacking containers in the center of the closet, with a high/low clothing rack on the left side and a long rack on the right side. This would give Jen a ton of space for long clothes and a lot of space on the left side for shorter stuff. The downside to this one is that the center column is pretty narrow, meaning there isn’t much room for anything, but at least there’s a shelf across the top.
No pricing given
17squares
This one has a lot of components, but seems to do a lot with the space that’s available. The drawers are wide, and there’s a good wide space on each of the short racks for the bulk of our hanging clothes. the middle rack is narrower and frankly doesn’t allow for much space for long dresses.
Estimated pricing: $1355
IKEA
The Swedes use two 23″ wide frames to contain the his and hers sections, leaving 38″ of space in between for a long hanging rack. I chose a set of five drawers for the bottom half and spent an extra $60 on four glass front drawers, but otherwise it’s pretty simple. I’d prefer a couple of taller deeper drawers down below but this is the only size they offer. This also doesn’t allow for a center rack install, but I’d just buy one separately and install it myself.
Estimated Pricing: $670
The Container Store
This one doesn’t use any kind of frames or containers at all; it’s all set up as wire racks hanging off the back wall and separated into three odd-sized sections. They actually offer two product lines, but the more expensive line wastes 4″ of space on either side due to its prefabricated origins. Here I’ve got a rack up top, and the his and hers racks on the right side. One is narrower than the other for reasons I wasn’t able to alter in their tool, and they don’t offer drawers in any of the configurations so it’s all shelves.
Estimated Pricing: $456
We haven’t made a decision yet, but these four approaches are much less expensive than I thought they might be.
Finley played a game called Terraria this summer, and for a few weeks she got Jen and I to play with her. She loved it but we found it impossible to play with 50-year-old eyes on an iPhone. Anyway, the indie developer behind Terraria got his Google account shut down over a YouTube ban; I was only dimly aware of this, but
…a Google account ban means you lose access to your entire email account; all the pictures you’ve ever taken; your cell phone service; your ability to communicate with friends and family; all your 2FA accounts; anything that uses Google OAuth; your app development business; your YouTube business and all your followers; your purchased apps, games, movies, music, and books; and all your contacts, documents, bookmarks, and notes.
After three weeks of trying to get Google to help him (exacerbated by the fact that he couldn’t contact them because his Google accounts were all shut down) he announced that his company was withdrawing all support for Google platforms moving forward—no small peanuts when you consider his game has sold 30 million copies.
We’ve recorded Finley’s growth on one of the kitchen moldings since she was a little over a year old and could stand on her own two feet. We’ve been pretty consistent in measuring her height every couple of months since then, but now that she’s a surly tween wandering around the house wiping dirty hands on every available surface, some of the dates carefully pencilled on the wall have been smudging off.
Aware that this record might not be around much longer, I busted out a tape measure last night and put each of the legible marks into a spreadsheet. Then I converted the fractions to decimals and plotted it into a graph. Here’s what we recorded and when:
This basically just backs up what we’ve known all along: she generally has a growth spurt sometime between November and January. Sometimes there’s another one in the summer, but as this data shows it’s not as pronounced. And look at the jump in the middle of age 7 and right after!
Jen and I took advantage of a snowy Sunday morning to get our seedlings started after a breakfast of homemade pancakes. Having already set up a better light stand, I went out and bought a pair of new seedling trays and a variety pack of heirloom tomato seeds. This year we’re doing Amish Paste, Beefsteak, Black Krim, Cherokee Purple, Green Zebra, Roma, Large Cherry, & Yellow Plum Tomatoes, as well as Italian Flat Leaf & Thai basil. There should be at least 10 seedlings to choose from for each variety, which will be more than enough to fill our containers.
Along with the seeds I got an outdoor timer for the grow lights and set up heating pads and the lights downstairs.
Other than that, and an afternoon walk with Hazel, I didn’t do a damn thing on Sunday until the Super Bowl, which was, as usual, underwhelming. I was sad to see Frat Bro win yet another ring and the Tampa Bay defense run over the Chiefs; Mahomes tried to do everything he could but he’s only one man, and he didn’t get much help from the rest of the team. The highlight was live-texting back and forth with Mom, Renie and Jen up until the third quarter when we all saw the writing on the wall and gave up on it.
I got thinking about closets while I was stuck in a long Zoom call Friday afternoon and started searching for an online closet builder. Within about 20 minutes I had this basic structure designed, and after I re-measured everything and showed it to Jen, this is what we came up with: his and hers built-ins with hanger bars above and storage below, and a center section for long dresses. This is the best usage of the space in there possible; I could add a second set of bars below or a set of shoe racks, but we both like the idea of shelves instead. Now to find someone who we can order the parts from…
But one thing I’m going to have to do before any cabinetry goes in is have my electrician come back in and move an outlet from its current location behind where the right-side cabinet would go to the center of the wall. I’ve been having problems with that outlet anyway—it’s a legacy circuit from the Doctor and it has no anchor so it’s been hanging out of the drywall since we enclosed everything. This will be a good excuse to get it moved properly and professionally.
Saturday morning I measured out some spare lumber from the workbench and the area in the basement and started constructing a new sorting table by the laundry area. The original table was a 5′ section of countertop resting on two of the old cabinets from the kitchen. This was functional but wobbly, and the counter overhang prevented the top drawers of the counters from opening. I put together an 8′ cantilevered table with a storage shelf, screwed both of the cabinets together, and tucked them under the near edge. The top is smooth MDF, and I beveled the edge with the router so there’s nothing to snag delicate fabric on. Now there’s room for six sorting baskets on the top and the whole thing is level and sturdy on the floor. The top will get painted when I can open the back door (MDF expands with water-based paint, so I’ll use some auto primer) and when the electrician comes we’ll have him upgrade the lighting down there as well.
As mentioned earlier, I set up a new growing station in the basement a few weeks ago to be ready for seed starting, with a 4′ grow light, two growing trays for 60 seeds and heating mats. I ordered a timer and a pack of 6 varieties of tomato seeds from Amazon this morning. I’m excited to get some seedlings going. The Farmer’s Almanac says I should be starting right now but that feels very early to me—especially when we’ve got two inches of snow on the ground. Asking Jen about this on our morning walk today, as we trudged over sections of new ice that had fallen overnight, she said something to the effect of, “duh, Bill, why do you think the plants at the store are so big in the spring when they go on sale?” Duh, indeed. So I guess I know what I’ll be doing this weekend.
In the greenhouse, the plan is to buy an inexpensive shelving unit for the back corner to free up the spare table, and move that over to the south side wall for more planting space. It’s pretty clear I need to prepare the containers better before planting, probably with some kind of fish-based fertilizer. Outside the greenhouse I’m going to go scorched-earth on the weeds out back and put in some kind of simple pavers to keep the ivy from returning, as well as build a new water barrel platform to replace the rickety one I’ve been using for 10 years.
Finally, I’ve got to find a mop on an extended handle that I can use to wash the plastic on the greenhouse; the oak tree overhead tends to drop a lot of sap, which collects dirt and cuts back on the amount of sunlight making its way inside.
Flynn was ranting, seemingly infuriated about anyone challenging Powell, who had represented him in his recent legal battles.
Finally Herschmann had enough. “Why the fuck do you keep standing up and screaming at me?” he shot back at Flynn. “If you want to come over here, come over here. If not, sit your ass down.” Flynn sat back down.
Jesus Christ. This is from Axios’ podcast series called Off The Rails, which documents the final days of the devolution inside the Trump White House. I love the idea that a lawyer told a former Lieutenant General of the U.S. Army to sit the fuck down. And it’s terrifying to think about, if all of this is even 50% true, how completely detached from reality the President was and how close the nut jobs were to convincing him to declare martial law. I never thought I’d be this thankful to a lawyer for anything.
OK, file this under Things I Definitely Wasn’t Expecting To Learn: the guy who sang this schmaltzy song in 1987 was Pinky Carruthers in one of the best movies of all time.