How to Remove Closet Walls, Teen Boys Room Makeover Week 2

Hey!  I am happy you are here to follow along on this crazy adventure, let me give you a peek into what has been happening this week.  If you missed week 1 check it out here.

Removing Closet Walls, is about it folks.

And trying to make the walls look normal afterwards…which is much harder than removing them let me tell ya.

But I am jumping ahead.  Lets start at the beginning.

Removing everything from the room was actually first.  My boys and I set up their things nice and cozy in our basement living room which will now be their bedroom for the next several weeks.  (assuming I can actually pull this off in time…are you still crossing your fingers?!!)  Above is what the room looked like after we were done last Thursday night.

The next day I sold the bed.  Oh, and by the way the budget for this room is basically zero.  Nice.  We took a fun trip to Disneyland this summer and we have nada left.  So yes, I have been selling things on craigs list to pay for this room…so far so good.   I think I did mention that I was crazy in my first post…

The original plan was to just make over the room, but in the back of my mind I knew there was a storm brewing, and this was the opportunity it needed to be unleashed.

Several years ago a good friend (who does remodel work) answered some questions I had around the house and one of them was “can I remove these closet walls?”  The answer was yes, they are not weight bearing walls.

So secretly I knew I wanted them out, and last Thursday the moment of truth had arrived.  Was I brave enough to do it?  Apparently I was!!  Eeeek!

I started by removing everything in the closet, the rod, shelf, and shelf support boards.

Then I removed the frame of the closet.

I mostly used my crow bar and mallet to pry out the wood and nails, but when I came to removing the inner frame I had to use my Ryobi Reciprocating Saw to get some stubborn nails that were nailed into some shims and then the frame.  Once I busted through those, it came right out!

Now to remove the walls!  I suppose I could have taken a hammer to the drywall, but I didn’t want to make my mess bigger than it needed to be.  So I used a blade to score the edges of the drywall and then used my reciprocating saw to cut through the drywall.  I was able to easily pry it off in large sections this way.

Make sure when you remove a wall that is is not weight bearing, and be cautious of possible cords/electrical in the walls, it is a good idea to turn off any circuit breakers before.  I knew this side wall did not have anything to worry about.

When I got to the wall on the right I flipped the switch because there was a plug in the wall.  I did NOT want to be electrocuted, which is why these photos are in the dark, with my work light.  After shutting off the breaker, I carefully pushed the outlet into the wall so it wouldn’t get caught on the drywall when I removed it.  I also made sure to be cautious when cutting it so I did not hit my electrical cord.

Because this wall was not on a corner, I measured the inside of the closet to determine where to score and cut from the outside.  You can see my score line on the above left photo.

When I got to the second wall and realized I had to relocate an outlet I was having second thoughts.  Seriously!?

But after watching a youtube video I decided I could do this, but I had another problem too.  See that support pole in the top left photo?  Yep, it was a surprise.  Not only did it cause a challenge for moving the outlet but also for replacing drywall later on.

First challenge was I had to drill a hole in the wall to move the outlet so I found the stud and marked it on the wall (top right).  Then I cut the wall open to the right of the stud so that I wouldn’t have to hammer the outlet box into the stud with a pole in the way.  Guess what?  The outlet from the other room was in that spot!  ugh.  I just cut a huge hole in the wall for nothing.  Yay!  I love patching drywall. (not)

Sooooo, I had to open up the wall on the other side of the stud and deal with the pole anyway.  Luckily it all worked out in the end, and my first wiring of a plug was a raving success!  Yippee!

Now how to deal with the drywall issue.  The pole was flush with the closet wall and room wall, so patching it would cause a half inch bump in the wall, and I didn’t want that (hopefully that makes since).   After consulting the nice men at home depot, my original idea ended up being the best solution.  To cover the closet wall with a new sheet of drywall so it could meet the room wall at a corner.  I did this, and attached a metal corner thingy.  Problem solved, phew.

Patching a million holes in the walls was up next.  It is amazing how many I had…which meant I got to…

Tape and Mud!!  I know you are all soooo jealous!  The ceiling of the closet door area was especially fun.  Speaking of fun I also got to do some makeshift texturing…

I researched the type of texture I had on my walls and decided it was close to a slap brush technique.  There was NO way I was going to buy a slap brush, so I grabbed some old socks and nailed them to a scrap 2×4, DIY at it’s best people.  Then I dipped them in watered down joint compound (mud) and literally slapped the texture on the drywall.  It worked pretty good.  Good enough for a closet wall and some patches. 🙂

Holy mess!  Glad I used the tarp.  When I finished, my ever faithful Sunny (our dog) had been by me the whole time,  I hadn’t even realized that she was getting showered with the stuff, her back was covered with white spots!  It was hilarious…sorry I missed that photo op.

Now you may have wondered about the floor where I removed the walls.

I have been wondering about it all week too.  🙂  Obviously with no money, replacing the carpet in the whole room is not an option, and putting in flooring for the whole room won’t work either, I wish I could.  So I decided to just do flooring in the closet area (maybe not the best option, but it is what I am doing). I removed the carpet, pad, and tack strip.  Then after some counseling with another home depot guy I made a plan of how to install the new box of laminate I bought.

You will have to stay tuned for that next week!  I have been out of commission for couple of days…I haven’t had a chance to do anything but STRESS that I haven’t been able to do anything.

Speaking of stress…one of the reasons is because I had to go to the doctor for a stress fracture.  I was training for a marathon (which would have been the first weekend in October) and one week before I was to run, out of no where, I had pain in my foot which never went away, and got worse when I ran.

I didn’t run the marathon and just barely got to the doctor Tuesday.  Luckily I caught it before my bones cracked so I am now having to do stretches and inserts in my shoes and fun things so I can get better, because I GOT INTO BOSTON in the spring!!  I have been trying to get there for years, and my sister and I are finally running it! Whoop!!  So I HAVE to get better.

Ok, moving on…

I feel like I will be playing catch up this next week and have big plans for making progress on this room.  This small room will be much more efficient with these wall ripped out…here’s to hoping I am right!

Don’t forget to check out all the other ORC (one room challenge) participants at Calling it Home!

Thank you so much for following along, it makes me all happy inside, really, you are the best!
Mindi

I will be linking to these parties and Savvy Southern Style