Start work on the pantry

The last part of the bathroom remodel is to finish the pantry.

First step was to enlarge the opening. 

43 inch opening

I decided not to make my own doors for the pantry.  Instead I bought a set of doors from Lowes.  I had to enlarge the opening as my uncles had framed the opening with a width of 43 inches. Doors come individually or pairs in sizes that would work for openings of either 36 inches or 48 inches - nothing in between.  So I enlarged the opening.

How to enlarge the opening?   The interior of the pantry has a width of 58 inches. My uncles had centered the opening using the 58 inches as a guide.  However due to the door frame on the right side taking part of the wall (see above photo), the pantry opening wasn't centered on the pantry wall.  The left side of the wall was longer than the right side by about 4 to 5 inches and this off-center look bugged me.  I see the outside of the pantry more than the inside of the pantry so I prefer the opening to be centered on the wall and will live with the pantry being off-center.

I know I mentioned 48 inch doors.  However to fit the doors and door frame the kit recommended a 50 inch rough opening.  Okay... can do.

Rather than cut each side I cut away the left side.  To completely center the opening on the wall I would have had to cut the right side away by about an inch.  I decided the inch wasn't worth the effort of removing the sheetrock to move the stud over an inch.

So I cut the left side only.  To the next stud which, because of the hallway, wasn't far.  The opening to the next stud is 49 1/2 inches - not 50 inches.  I hadn't bought the doors yet so back to Lowes to measure and see if I really needed a 50 inch opening.

I learned the 50 inches was to give room to fit the door unit in case the opening was not square.  The opening my uncles framed was square.  I measured and learned the doors plus the door jams came to about 49 1/4 inches.  So it looks like the doors may fit.

The wall is now 5 3/4 inches on the left side and 6 3/4 inches on the right side.  Not perfect but close enough to center.

The other issue I may have to deal with is the height.  The doors are a little over 80 inches high.  The rough opening recommended is 82 inches.  Again because the opening may not be square.  The pantry has no floor other than the sub floor.  The height is almost 82 inches.  However the kitchen which has a floor and laminate flooring is around 81 inches. This is important because the pantry doors open out into the kitchen.

I bought the door unit from Lowes.  Because Tammy doesn't like gold/bronze hinges, I replaced them with satin nickel hinges.  I also need to stain the doors and frame so I removed the doors from the frame.  The frame does fit into the opening.  The true test will be later when I re-install the doors.

The first two photo shows how much of the wall I cut away.    Now the left side of the pantry has the opening go within an inch of the side of the pantry.  The right side of the pantry is tucked 7 3/4 inches behind the wall.

The opening once I finished enlarging it.  The next question was what to paint the inside of the pantry.  Tammy likes red and we still had red paint left over from the living room wall - so red it is!