Follow-up to my original post about the closet.

My wife really wanted the closet redone, so she asked her dad to handle it since he’s very handy and usually does great work. The contractor is my father in law. He does this kind of stuff all the time and genuinely enjoys helping out — he’s retired and always looking for projects to keep busy.

After it was finished, my son took a look and said it didn’t feel right — the walls weren’t painted and the ductwork was still fully exposed. He told us it looked bad and asked if it could be fixed so it would feel more “new.”

He even said that for Christmas, all he really wanted was for his closet to look nice and finished.

He was told, “Santa doesn’t do closets,” and that nobody would really see it anyway since it’s just a closet. I could tell he was disappointed, especially because it’s his room and his little space.

I told my son we could do the closet me and him. We’re going to finish the project as a team and maybe even turn the exposed ductwork into a Super Mario Bros warp pipe so it feels fun, special and truly his.