After many fits, starts, and interruptions, I completed light-proofing my darkroom tonight. I had two doors and a window to deal with and the window was the last piece of the puzzle.
The doors were pretty easy. One was an opening — no door or fittings — so I managed to get a pocket door via FreeCycle and trimmed that to fit. I nailed some 1/2 inch quarter-round around the frame and lined that with felt and that effectively blocks out the light from there. The other door I simply sealed with more felt with the liberal use of staples.
The window was a bit more challenging. This was the same window where I had a flood from a corroded cast-iron pipe under the sink upstairs, so I had to replace a lot of drywall first. I hate drywall installation. But once that was done, I ended with an almost square opening to fill with sheet of 1/8 inch lauan plywood. I cut that to fit and added a frame from some strips I ripped from a 1 x 12 I have laying around. I took a couple of 1 1/2 inch lengths and mitered them to make a frame a little smaller than the opening. Then I cut some wide strips of felt (2-3 inches) and glued them under the frame sections, folding them double as I went. So I have a hatch cover with a felt gasket/seal around the edge. By the time I put it in place it was too dark to really test it, but I suspect it won’t need much more work.
The enlarger was mounted a week or two back, and it works. No good place to put it, given the weird angles and headroom constraints I’m dealing with, but it will do.
In all, it feels pretty anti-climactic to have it ready. It’s not quite a “Now what?” moment but it’s still a bit strange.