The Hall Closets
The floorplan shows the "after" version following all of my renovations.
As detailed in the utilities saga, the 54-year-old gas furnace was removed and replaced by a heat pump. The furnace was located in a space accessed by a folding door in the hall, highlighted above. Removing the furnace created the perfect spot for another closet (can't have too many closets, y'know). Work began 11 November 2022: below left, the furnace is mostly removed; below right, it's totally gone.
On 12 October 2023 (nearly a year after I'd removed the furnace), I finally got back to work on the closet. Below left, I've torn out the ugly old door and its framing; below right, I've reframed the wall to accommodate the new door, which will be a mirror twin to the existing closet door. Incidentally, most visitors assumed the slats missing from the louvered door were broken; in reality, they were deliberately removed by the previous owner to provide the furnace with better air circulation. What an unsightly kludge.
I never documented what I did to the existing hall closet: just like the master bedroom closet, I gutted it and reinstalled the shelves to suit my needs. I was so anxious to get things done that I never stopped to take any photos of the closets before renovating them (same thing with the former pantry-now-coat closet).
Anyway, the door went in on 13 October, just minutes after it was delivered. Drywall went up the next morning. Later the same day came spackling, casing and painting, at which point the exterior of the closet was complete. It was gratifying to see that I'd succeeded at making it appear as though it had always been this way.
Finishing the closet interior will have to wait until I'm able to hitch a ride to one of the local big box stores to get some drywall. The stores want $80 to deliver just one $15 sheet...