Deck the hall's closet
By JUDY STARK, Times Homes Editor
© St. Petersburg Times
published December 7, 2002
Christmas came early at my house this year. My husband and I decided in October to give ourselves a gift we'd enjoy all year: a new closet.
The hall closet in our townhouse looked like everybody's hall closet: a pole for hanging things, a shelf above. We had hung some coated wire shelves from the pole in an effort to organize the space, but they never really worked. The closet was always a jumble of mops and sweepers, tote bags, phone books, jackets, a box of place mats and napkins, a pool cue, a couple of cameras.
It was my husband's suggestion that we call one of those closet organizer companies to redo the closet as a Christmas gift to ourselves. The company's representative came a few days later, measured the closet, looked at what we were keeping there and talked to us about what else we wanted to store in that closet and how we used it.
She showed us options of materials and storage units: wire baskets, drawers, hanging racks at various heights, shelving styles, knob choices. She sketched out a design, and we tweaked it until it suited us.
A few days later, the installer came, and in just a few hours we had a new closet.
What once was a jumbled mess -- a nightmare I didn't want to look at -- is now a source of pride and enjoyment. There's room for everything with space to spare, and we can see what's there. We finally have a place for the umbrellas, the Swiffer, the jackets, my purse and tote bag, our bags and hats. We've even invited our friends over to admire it.
For our closet -- 4 feet 8 inches long, 2 feet deep, 7 feet 8 inches high -- the cost was about $560.
If your goal this gift-giving season is to choose a present that the recipient will use and enjoy and thank you for over and over, consider this. Or give it to yourself. You'll appreciate it every day of your life.
Turn on the style
We gave ourselves another Christmas gift a few weeks later. This one wasn't exactly in the budget, but you know how that goes.
I was cooking dinner one night, and I reached for the faucet, one of those one-handled styles from a major American plumbing manufacturer. I discovered that I was standing there with the broken-off faucet handle in my hand, and the water running.
Thanks to metal fatigue, the faucet handle had simply snapped off.
I quickly discovered this emergency plumbing tip: If you press down on the faucet set screw with the flat end of the wooden spoon you happen to be cooking with, you can shut off the water when the handle breaks off in your hand. File this under "Stuff It's Good to Know."
This was something of a blessing in disguise. In our townhouse, the kitchen is open to the living and dining areas, and I had occasionally remarked (usually after reading too many design magazines) that we should have a fancier faucet than the basic white-enameled fixture that came with the house when we bought it four years ago. "Something that makes a design statement," I'd say. (Insert snort from husband here.)
We visited a couple of home centers and weren't excited about what we found. Even my husband admitted that he'd like something sleeker and slicker, more sculptural: something with a brushed metal finish and a gooseneck profile. We visited a specialty plumbing gallery that gave us a better notion of what some of the higher-end lines had to offer. (Word of caution: Good fixtures are expensive.)
Finally we ordered a faucet, soap dispenser and sprayer online.
It had been two weeks since the faucet broke off in my hand. This occurred at an exceptionally busy period when we just didn't have time to deal with things, so we had been turning the water on and off with either a pair of pliers or a cleverly attached C-clamp. (As your homes editor, I blush to admit this. Sometimes life is not glamorous.) So we paid an extra $10 for overnight delivery, and the plumber arrived an hour after the UPS delivery truck.
Two hours later, we had a slick new faucet in brushed stainless steel. I get my sculptural look, my husband gets a faucet that feels terrific in hand, and we both get something that, again, we'll use and enjoy every day.
For most of us, plumbing fixtures are just "there." A faucet's a faucet. We don't think of them as room accessories we can change to enhance the appearance of our homes. But they can be the details -- someone called them "jewelry for your home" -- that make a difference.
Guarding the garage
Have you ever gone to bed at night, inadvertently leaving the garage door wide open? We did this once, a few years ago, and lost a lot of my husband's small electronics and hand tools. At least the thief left our bicycles behind.
We've done this again a couple of times recently (gulp!). Nothing was stolen, but I was nervous at the thought that anyone could have walked into the garage and opened the door into our house while we slept.
So our stocking stuffer this year may be the Wireless Garage Sentry from Design Tech. You attach a sensor to the inside of your garage door. When the door opens, the sensor sends a radio signal to a receiver you plug into any outlet inside the house. As long as the garage door remains open, a red light stays on and the receiver beeps every five minutes, loud enough to be heard throughout the house. When the door is closed, a green light goes on and the beeping ceases.
Friends of ours have installed the receiver in their bedroom so they can check, just before turning out the lights, to make sure the door is closed. If you want to keep the garage door open for several hours, while you're working out there, you can simply unplug the receiver. This device is $49.95 at www.smarthomeusa.com.
Craftsman offers a similar device, the Wireless Open Door Monitor, with a sensor to mount on the garage door and a monitor you can place on a table or countertop or mount to the wall. This has a flashing red light when the door is open, a steady green when it's closed, but no beep. It's $49 at Sears.
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