I built a trap door.

This was the last of the flooring project.

The trap door in the master closet — not an accurate phrase because it’s most definitely not an actual trap — is access to the crawl space under the house. It was just a bit of carpet slapped onto a not-quite-square floor cut-out. But, having upgraded the floors from carpet to laminate, also providing a finished trap door was needed.

No trip-hazards and nothing to get in the way: wood floor secured atop the not-quite-square cut-out, some reinforcement around it, a continuous hinge, and a flush trap-door pull mortised into the surface.

I’ll still need to sort out the interior trim and possibly add a compression damper to hold it open and limit dropping it.

But, for now, I think I’ve earned this.