Ironing closet to key and phone cubby

It's been a while since I posted.  Partly because I haven't done much of note lately, but mostly because I have fallen into the habit of watching Breaking Bad after putting kids to bed, which uses up my available free time before bed.  I had a notion to write some super-awesome article on the topic of political science and philosophy, but that'll have to wait since I did some more home improvement this weekend and took pictures.

To begin, when we moved in the house had a little closet in the kitchen out of which unfolded an old ironing board.  I knew that this was an unproductive use for the space and so shortly after moving in, I took out the board and removed the door.  I covered the surfaces with a light coat of trim paint, screwed a few hooks for keys, and left the project for some future date.  That date turned out to be December 10th. 

My first step was to remove the back panels which revealed the lath and plaster backing for the wall of the dining nook.  You can see in the picture that the hinges for the ironing board needed removal.  Fortunately I had an assistant to help me with that and the ensuing clean-up. 

Unfortunately, however, I let stupidity get ahead of me and as I tried to dislodge the 2x4 with a pry bar, I blew a hole through the drywall.  The kids thought it was such fun and took no small amount of joy in peering through the new window and greeting me.  Now, I love my kids, but there is something just a little irritating about screwing up and giving yourself double the work you thought you had, and I've got zero experience patching dry wall, and then have a 2 year old taunt you with giggly "Hi Daddy!" nonstop for an hour. 

You can also see in the picture, the 6 giant nails which were holding the 2x4 on.  Had I stopped to consider this possibility, I never would have been screwing around with the pry bar.  As it was, I took my circular saw and cut two vertical grooves (the blade was too small to cut all the way through and I wasn't in the mood for yet another trip to the hardware store), then took a hammer and banged the now weak sections until the wood buckled and came free.  Later I used my bolt cutter to clip the nails and pound them relatively flat.

So I spent the rest of my day learning how to fix the hole and then trying to do so.  Since this picture, I've added a second layer of joint compound which completely obscures the circle shape of the seams.  I also put a coat of primer on it.  I'm pleasantly surprised with how well it looks to turn out. 

At Lowes you can buy wood panels of various sizes which I used to create a new backing for the cubby.  I wanted .5" thick but all they had was .75" or .25", since I want to be able to attach shelves and hooks from it, I decided to go with the beefier option. I cut it, sanded it, and installed it.  And that ended my weekend. 

Since then I spackled the edges and applied a couple coats of primer.  I should have it finished by the end of the week.