After our work week at the cottage, we had lovely closet shelves (to be a future linen closet and broom closet).
This past weekend, we started assembling the half-wall that will form one end of the bathroom vanity.
Voila. Le wall. It is tres woopsy thanks to a badly warped 2x4. Stupid boards.
When we set the wall where it would be tacked in place, and roughly positioned the boards for the shower enclosure, we came to a very painful realization: They were too close together! There were fewer than 24 inches between the vanity and the shower. It was squashy and felt cramped. You'd almost have to shimmy sideways to reach the toity.
See how pleased I am to have arrived at this realization? *
Not. Happy.
We began bickering (because that's what you do when the project comes off the rails), with a liberal sprinkling of finger pointing, swearing, and defeat. I stomped off to the porch in a huff to sip my tea and stew for a while.
The only way to make the space bigger was to shrink the shower enclosure, but that would bring it down to 2.5' deep. Your elbow would stick out of the shower if you washed your hair!
ARG! The frustration was immense.
"What we need to do", I said angrily, "is shorten the closet wall". The finished closet wall. The beautiful closet wall, that already had all the electrical run through it. The Captain resisted.
"If I was paying a contractor to do this job, I'd be making him rip it out and fix it." I said. "We're spending so much money on that shower enclosure, it just doesn't make sense that it should be in a squashy bathroom, or worse, should be made squashy itself, all because of an arbitrarily sized closet."
Dejectedly, the captain agreed. "Let's move the wall then."
Like a shot, I was up and ripping out shelves, supports and panelling while the captain took apart the wall. I shortened the header and bottom plates for the wall, and we slid the whole back wall of the closet in by 6 inches.
And you know what? It was a big stinky frustrating annoying, vexxing, disappointing set back. BUT. It only delayed us by a day, and the space in the bathroom is now fantastic! It's exactly as it should've been. It feels right, not cramped.
It was the right thing to do. It hurt - Oh, it was one of the most painful cottage decisions we've faced so far - but it was absolutely the right thing to do, and I don't regret it for a minute.
*Why am I always wearing a yellow t-shirt in the work photos at the cottage? That's my "work" outfit. Rest assured, it does regularly visit the inside of a washing machine.
Like a shot, I was up and ripping out shelves, supports and panelling while the captain took apart the wall. I shortened the header and bottom plates for the wall, and we slid the whole back wall of the closet in by 6 inches.
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