Our new addition is complete, at least from the construction point of view. The weeks it took to get it done were well worth it. The bathroom, laundry room and closet on the first floor are wonderful.

The closet upstairs is an absolute marvel, probably because it is still relatively empty. Every morning I walk into it and survey the neighborhood from a lofty height.

We moved the sewing machine into the new closet right under the back window. Maybe now I’ll be able to sew up ripped seams when they happen. I might even get the curtains made I bought the material for a few years ago, if I can find the material. The great thing is if I’m interrupted in the middle of sewing, I can just leave it set until I get back to it. Some have suggested that then I could dust it off and get it done. At least there’s hope.

My grandmother’s old washstand will find a new home in the walk-in closet. Many years ago my mother had the stand refinished, and she used it for extra storage. When she gave it to me I really didn’t have room for it, so we put it into a small closet upstairs. I hope we’ll be able to move it.

The big problem was figuring out where and how to install the clothes racks. I measured every inch where I had clothes hanging. It was a lot of inches. In fact, it was a lot of feet.

I decided it would be nice if we could hang the racks from the ceiling. I should have decided that before they put the drywall in. Bill and I explored organizing systems for closets for miles around this area. None of them suited me.

So, we bought galvanized pipe for the poles and 6x16s for the supports. (The lumber yard was out of 6x8s.) By then the rain was back, so we had to store the pipe and the boards on the floor inside. We spent several days hopping over them to get around in the house.

The pipe and supports should work just fine for the clothes rack in the attic, but the more I thought about it the less I liked it for the new closet. Even though I knew the pipes wouldn’t bend under the load they would bear, and the supports could be painted any color I chose, I wasn’t really satisfied.

Then my daughters came to the rescue. Several years ago, when Stage, the local department store, went out of business, the girls bought three of the circular chrome clothes racks from the store to display clothes they had for sale at their garage sales. When they heard about my dilemma they offered me the racks for my new closet. I declined, figuring they would expect me to empty them at garage sale time every year.

I called to ask if the racks would be mine or theirs. They agreed they were done with garage sales, so the racks would be mine. They were in good condition, they would accommodate my wardrobe, and they were free. Besides all that there was a certain sentimental connection for me. I probably bought much of my wardrobe from those racks when they served the Palace, then Uhlman’s and finally Stage.

One of the circular wonders is in place in the new closet. It doesn’t swing around to present the outfit I want for a particular day, but it’s as close to my dream as I’m going to get. I have to wait for the other two racks until my girls have their last garage sale this weekend.

Then comes the job of loading the racks. Wouldn’t it be a hoot if when I can actually see all of those clothes I decide to get rid of most of them? I could be stuck with some empty racks.

Oh, well, they probably wouldn’t be empty for long.