The Utility Room Project - Part 4

Bullet proof. Bomb shelter. Impenetrable stronghold. I’m not sure exactly why, but when my utility room was built someone really felt that it should be all of these things and perhaps more. Yesterday after work I started back on getting this room finished up.

Replacing the light switch was easy, it went as planned which was very nice. When I replaced the overhead light fixture I ran into something interesting. You see, I’m not a professional carpenter nor am I an electrician. So when I put the new hardware up I followed the example of how the old was installed. I really should know better by now.

The mounting bracket piece was upside down. I figured this out after I had everything put together and I was trying to figure out why the fixture didn’t want to go flush with the ceiling. So I took it all back apart, read the directions, and began reassembling the thing. The irony of reading the directions after I encountered a problem is not lost on me, by the way.

They used sheetrock on the ceiling too. Why?! When I flipped the first piece over, the holes no longer lined up, which means I had to drill through the sheetrock in order for the screws to penetrate the stuff. While I was at it I replaced the screws they had used before with longer ones to provide extra holding power.

Now the new light is up and it looks nice. Keri did a fine job of selecting it. Even though it uses the same bulbs as the old fixture, I actually moved the old bulbs to the new light, it is much brighter than the old. Under the shade it has a larger surface area and is more reflective than the old one was.

Then I uncrated the cabinets. Again the wife did a good job of selection. I gave them a thorough looking over and determined how I was going to install them. There was one tiny issue with one of them.

One of the hinges was broken when I took the cabinet out of its box. These are internally mounted hinges, so nothing hit the thing during shipping. Anything that could have caused such damaged would have torn the cardboard carton badly, and likely would have damaged the cabinet itself too. Both were fine, which means the thing probably left the factory that way. Quality control anyone?

So today I got to drive back to Kokomo to replace the cabinet. It’s only about an hour round trip, so I thought might still get these things up yet today. That will just leave the baseboard install, which is waiting on a couple of minor patches that I didn’t realize I needed before I painted. That should be dry enough to paint tonight so I should be able to mount the baseboards tomorrow afternoon.

The baseboards went as expected. The touchups are finished and drying. Tomorrow I’ll probably get them installed.

Lowes was either understaffed or swamped today. From the looks of the parking lot I would surmise that it was the former and not the latter. I walked right in and took care of my return, headed back to the cabinets and went straight to the one I needed, then I headed over to the carpeting.

Keri bought a runner Sunday, and she wanted me to pick up more of the carpeting in a custom length. So I went to the carpeting for her; and there I waited and waited and waited. I fond what I needed, push the “need assistance” button, and no one came. I don’t know how many times I pushed it before someone got there. It turns off after so many minutes.

Someone did eventually come to my rescue and I got out of there. I did not get the cabinets up tonight, but I got them laid out and I have my plan of attack for tomorrow.

Almost done.