What we did this Christmas Holiday

If you've been to our house, you might know that Mark is in the master bedroom upstairs and Rob and I live downstairs in what was meant to be a kid bedroom with one 7' closet which with 2' of closet organizers, only had 5' of hanging room. In addition, the basement bedrooms do not have ceilings. Our bedroom is separated from our 11x13 laundry room only by the staircase which descends between the two rooms.
Before we even moved in, we had this idea, that you could create an opening between the laundry room and our bedroom, and build a walk in closet and a master bathroom and still have room for a small laundry room. But, this is a big project and we were not ready in terms of time or finances to undertake it before. So, when we moved in, we put the baseboards, etc. in the rest of the basement, but left our room without any. We also left the blue paint on the walls, even though it did not match our bedding.
Finally, just before Christmas, Rob decided to take the initiative and start this project while he had some holiday time. We decided to just do the ceiling and the closet for now, and build the bathroom later, maybe this summer. Rob started by framing the closet, and removing the old closet from our room, then opening up and framing a doorway between our room and the new closet. He then did some electrical work so that the new closet would have the proper lighting and hung drywall on the ceiling and on the walls of the closet. All of this happened right around Christmas, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.
Starting on the Monday after Christmas, Rob had to spend three long days at the school for their Christmas Classic Basketball Tournament. During this time, Becky applied three coats of mud, and started sanding. Later Rob did some more sanding and a few touchups, and just before our trip to Hawaii we managed to get the closet painted and one coat on the walls of our room. Since getting home, Rob put up the trim, lighting, and doors, and I have painted and caulked. Yesterday I moved our stuff in. Below you can see the finished product. Pretty awesome eh?

Some mud on the walls where the closet used to be. Opening to the under-the-stairs-area which is now connected to the laundry room.

The old closet is ripped out, now begin repairing the drywall. Note no ceiling.

This is the section in the laundry room that Rob walled off.

Our bedroom now. It is about 14 x 13' since it doesn't have the closet in it now.

The closet. Where the shelves are is under the stairs. Behind the 3 bottom shelves there is a door that opens to under the stair storage. I put all the Christmas decorations there. We have 5 shelves 41" across in that section, and 7' of hanging room, 5' of which is two level hanging. There is also a 7' shelf all along the top. Along the other wall, we will probably hang Rob's ties, maybe put a shoe rack or some hooks or something. At the end is a door into what is left of the laundry room. Picture that when we have finished the whole project, that door will lead to our bathroom which will be 5 1/2 X13'. Then we will have a 5 1/2 x7' laundry room which should work fine with the machines stacked and a counter top along the 7' wall with a space for laundry baskets below.