Choose Your Adventure

Lots of room for sentimental value - California Closets Jewellery Drawer

Last week's blog featured the Filmore's sign's assertion that "no great story ever starts with 'Let's go grab a salad.'"

I disagree.

A great story can start any way it likes.

To test my assertion, I'd like to enlist my readers in proposing a great story beginning with those five words. 

Here are some possibilities. If one appeals to you, put its number in the comments section. If you have a better idea, put that in the comments section. If all the stars align, I will write a story around the most picked readers' choice and/or best idea and post it on this blog.

Story #1 - A tale of heroism and tragedy when two friends - one allergic and one not - are stung by the same wasp lurking in a salad they had just bought to share for lunch.

Story #2 - A tale spanning the US Civil War and the First World War, told as two recently-met strangers reminisce over dinner at a retirement home and hospital for veterans in early 1920's Charleston, South Carolina.

Story #3 - A gritty tale of inner-city crime and violence told by a veteran cop warned by his doctor about his high blood pressure and trying to lose some weight. 

Story #4 - A comedic tale of two women who battle, bicker, bitch and fall in love while serving up organic food in a trendy restaurant on West Broadway in Kitsilano.

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Not Another Product Endorsement!?!

Once we'd spent all that money on tearing out the stupid sauna and restoring our master bedroom to its former glory, it seemed natural to continue to spend money on a decent closet.

To help me make an informed consumer decision, I checked out Simply Closets and California Closets online. Neither web site had much information about cost. Without that to form a preference, I found myself persuaded by California Closets' commitment to sustainability. So I e-mailed them.

Very shortly after that I was contacted by CC, and shortly after that, on December 19, a nice young man named Nathan dropped by the house to talk about my "vision" (it's OK, thanks, but I need corrective lenses) and take measurements.

Not long after that Nathan e-mailed me CAD/CAM diagrams of his ideas for our closets. I got a quote for the second floor closets as well as for the walk in, figuring I would only do the walk-in if the cost was too high. 

The big surprise: the quote for all three closets was less than what I thought I'd spend on the walk-in alone.  

On December 22, Bruce and I both went to the CC showroom on Davenport Road to select finishes and handles. We made some tweaks to the design proposals. The CAD/CAM software upgraded the quote as we made changes. Impressive.

CC installed the closets on January 9. Here they are:

The guest bedroom closet (still needs doors), with lots of room for towels and linens and the clothes we wear not all that often.

The "office" closet (still need how to figure how to rehang the doors), with shelves for shoes and yoga stuff and the clothes we wear in the summer.

Hardest to photograph, but really the most swell, the walk-in closet with six spaces to hang clothes (five "short" for shirts, skirts, pants and jackets and one "long" for dresses), twelve open storage cubby holes, four full-depth drawers for socks 'n' undies and one half-depth jewellery drawer.

All together, including custom design, manufacture, materials, installation and tax, these three closets cost about $4,000. The walk-in was the most expensive. The two smaller closets were just over $500 each. 

Finally, something important to us: the shelves we selected are manufactured in Ontario.

And I think that's it. I renovated my hip. We renovated our master bedroom. We bought new closets. 

We're done spending money on making things better. 

Next, we'll be spending money on moving ourselves around. 

We have trips to BC in July, to Italy in September, and a destination to be named later for May/June.

Thanks for reading!

Have a great week!

Karen