Closet Shelving

Two closet-shelf tales for the price of one! 

Part I: The Paint and Shoe Shelves

We've been doing a lot of painting recently, so we've acquired a lot of paint. We have been storing it in one of our downstairs closets where we also keep some coats and general house supplies (light bulbs, paper towels, etc.). With all of the newly-acquired paint cans, we quickly filled the floor of the closet and started stacking them. 

Richard, being the oh-so-handy problem solver that he is, whipped up some shelves to install in an adjacent closet to better store the paint. This is also the closet where we currently store our most-used shoes, so he made sure to make room for those when building the shelves. 

Oh yeah, and we keep the water heater in there. And an assortment of mops/Swiffers and other cleaning supplies.

Closet 1: before

Closet 2: before

Closet 1: grainy "during" picture

Closet 1: after

Closet 2: after -- you can see the floor!

Part II: The Guest Room Closet Shelves

The closet in our first guest room (we call it that because it's the only one that is actually outfitted for hosting guests, and it'll be the first one finished), is a unique closet. It houses the door to the walk up attic, so one half of the wall space is unusable. The other half came with the flimsiest shelf and closet rod ever. Richard tested out the strength of the shelf by putting pressure down on the edge of it and up flipped the other side of the shelf. Turns out it was two boards just resting on brackets -- no anchoring down of any kind. 

So, Richard decided to take down the shoddy shelf and build new ones. He re-designed the layout of the closet shelving to make it more useful. He added a second, lower shelf and two closet rods instead of the original, small one. 

A whole bunch of slats for the two shelves. 

Framing out the L-shaped shelf

Looks like an L-shaped shelf! I spy another L-named thing in the background. 

After a coat of clear protectant -- you can't really tell, but it is a bit shinier. They have a nice "finished" look.

The upgraded shelving! You can see the closet was originally purple (good closet color). This is after Richard patched the walls but before the closet painting. We still need to do that.

So, there is still some work to be done on both closets. We need to get the guest room closet (and the rest of the room) finished soon! Emmy moves in in two months! 

CLEMSON!

Oh man. So good. 

This past weekend we drove down to South Carolina to see family and friends and to visit my alma mater for a football game! Woo!

Sometimes things just work out so nicely. 

Seriously, I love Clemson. I love the campus, the town, the school, every single sports team, President Barker, The Tiger (the actual mascot and the student newspaper), and on and on and on. Clemson has a (large) piece of my heart. 

Fall beers and Clemson koozies for everyone!

Richard finally got some Clemson t shirts (and a hoodie)!

Just a glimpse of the field and our fellow tailgaters and the beautiful, fall sky.

So, we drove down late on Friday and then headed to Clemson on Saturday morning to set up for our tailgate. Then we walked to the stadium, watched The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football (dramatic build up, skip to 4:24 for the reference and 5:30 for the actual 25 seconds... chills, y'all, chills). And then the game. We watched Clemson stomp on NC State and finish the game 41 - 0. 

Selfie troubles -- it was super bright. 

The Most Exciting 25 Seconds in College Football! Ahhh!

A much better selfie this time

So much beautiful orange! Seriously, what a beautiful and exciting place to spend a gorgeous Saturday.

We got to see DeShaun Watson continue his climb as one of the best new quarterbacks in the NCAA. We even got to see him leap over a tall building in a single bound a defender to score a touchdown! And we got to see Vic Beasley tackle the NC State quarterback, pluck the ball out of the air, and waltz into the end zone to score a touchdown. That brought his number of sacks up to 28 to tie for the school record. Pretty sweet game all in all. 

On Sunday, after church, we drove down to Helen, GA to meet Mandy and Myka. After some yummy German food, we walked around the quaint town and played some putt-putt. 

Family shadows -- a few of us waved. Myka is pretty into shadows. 

Our almost-three-year-old putt putt star!

She's the cutest.

Myka and Auntie Em!

Sunday night, Richard and I got to visit my sweet friend Ashlan, her husband Kipper, and their adorable little boy, Cason. Ash is about to have her second baby (a girl!), and I'm so glad I got to see her for a few minutes especially since this trip was so packed with plans. 

Because we had Sunday plans to see family, we decided to drive back on Monday so that we wouldn't be as rushed. It was so nice being able to take our time and spend so much time with family. It was such a great weekend!

With my first pet -- Fionna. She's the sweetest, fluffiest kitty ever, and I love her. 

Just before heading back to RVA -- still sporting our Clemson colors.