The first major project of 2019 is in the books...lockers for the mudroom! When we were renovating in 2016 we opted to hold on any built-in solution here because we were tired of making decisions. We found an old TV cabinet-turned-armoire at a second hand store for twenty bucks, hung some hooks and a shelf, and brought over the cubby/bench Ben had built at our old house. This suited our needs for nearly three years, but we were beyond ready to move on a permanent solution. Side note...It's hard to believe we've been living here for three years. It's also hard to look at our to-do list as there is so much we haven't gotten to. Because life/two jobs/three kids/four pets. But those kids and pets are loved, and those jobs are good, and we cannot complain.
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| finished! |
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| before: dark, cluttered, nobody knew where anything was. |
We went back and forth on the design of the lockers many times, but ultimately knew a few key things. 1) we did not want drawers on the bottom because we knew we would not take the time to open them to put shoes in and we would just end up with shoes all over the floor. still. 2) we did want some level of hidden space for seasonal storage. 3) we wanted lots of hooks. 4) we wanted the lockers to be wide enough so we could actually sit on the bench as needed to put shoes on.
Top picture is the end result. The bench is made from reclaimed 2x4s that we pulled from our house during demo. It so SO COOL...the woodgrain is awesome. Ben put a ton of effort into planing down those boards and piecing them together to create the bench.
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| the unfinished living room serves as a wonderful work area! spilled paint? who cares?! true story. I spilled a bunch of paint in here. |
The back of the lockers was designed to mimic the opposite wall in the mudroom, which is original to the house. This wall was the exterior before we put the addition on and we found these boards under many layers of siding. I loved them and had no desire to drywall over them.
A "someday" project is to use the rest of the wood from the lockers to fill in the west wall here so it appears to be seamless. Purely aesthetic, which we have little time for these days.
The process of building and installing the lockers was interesting. Ben mainly built the system in the garage and installed bit by bit. The first part to go in was the overhead cabinets, which he only had me to help him with. We were able to use the old TV cabinet as leverage and somehow managed to hang it. Super stressful. The next piece to go in was the open locker part, which Ben happened to finish in the garage on New Years Eve, a few hours before we were having friends over. Conveniently, our friends agreed to help Ben install this and yes, it took five grown men. Ben does not under-build anything!
After this things got a little squirrely because Ben broke his right hand on January 2, 2019. This meant he could not work for two months, giving him plenty of time at home, but he still had a bum hand and lots of kids around thanks to Mother Nature and her many, many snow days. Regardless, he was able to finish and install the bench and get a few hooks hung so that we could start using the lockers.
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| oh babe. |
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| our street was a parking lot for the better part of two days. even a county snow plow got stuck for a while. |
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| Ben, tired of digging people out, fashioned a warning sign. this still makes me laugh! looks like the plot of a horror film. |
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| 4th snow day in a row called for some creativity. |
Ben went back to work in March and that month was a blur. March ended with Colter and Ellis being sick for an entire week, missing the last four days of school before Spring Break. But fortunately they were okay for our short trip to Kentucky. It was so good to get away as a family!
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| that's Ellis pushing Clifford in the baby swing, if that wasn't clear. |
When we got home from SB19 we got serious about finishing the lockers, which basically meant painting the doors Ben had already made, filling nail holes/sanding/final coat of paint on the lockers, and hanging the rest of the hooks. Once we powered through those less than fun tasks, the project was complete and we couldn't be happier. Feels like a breath of fresh air walking through there now with tools picked up and everyone's stuff organized. The biggest drama revolved around who got which locker. Colter and Ellis both wanted to be by Ben and Jameson. We finally convinced Colter that it wasn't the worst thing to be by me (yes, CONVINCED), and so the order goes Car, Colt, Jay, Ellis, Ben. Good thing mama bear has some thick skin.
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| genius spray paint set up by Ben allowed me to spray both sides of the doors at the same time. |
That's it from inside the Reuschel house for a while...I think...we try to keep spring and summer projects outside if we can! Sometimes they happen, sometimes they don't. We'll just see what the next months bring. We asked Colter and Ellis if they wanted to play baseball and t-ball this spring and they both said no. We high-fived when they weren't looking. We're all for experiences for our kids, but man...it's also nice to be home in the evenings. Maybe next year we'll push them a little harder :)
