Pantry Renovation

It's always the little things that make us crazy, right? This pantry was on the long list of little (&big) things in this house that made us crazy because it was divided into these bizarre, inefficient spaces.

By the time I realized that I wanted some photos of this project, Rich had already removed one shelf; you can see the line where it was attached halfway between the top and the (formerly) third shelves. The bottom three shelves had those wire baskets attached.

Problems: there were only about 12 inches between shelves so there were many items that would not fit; the wire baskets were hard to pull out and squeaked loudly; it was impossible to clean crumbs and stuff that had fallen under the wire shelves; with the pantry door hung on the right side, the remaining area was only about three inches wide so nearly inaccessible; and it had never been painted.

Solutions: Rich removed the second and third shelves from the top; the second shelf was discarded; the third shelf was re-positioned a few inches higher; now we will have four functionally sized shelves; he designed three shelves that will pull out and installed them on top of the existing shelves; he removed the new pullout shelves; and painted the inside of the pantry.

After the paint cures in a day or two, he will re-install the new pullout shelves and we can restock the pantry. Bella was this close to one or the other of us all day, here she's supervising the painting. Dora observed from a safe distance.

After using the kitchen for a few weeks now, I finally decided which drawers would hold which things. Most were in good condition and only needed to be washed when we moved in but others I had not used because I needed to line them. In the process of doing that today, I had this center drawer hanging loose so that I could reach all the way to the back to put Contact paper in when it slipped, fell on the floor, and the front tore away from the screws. The outcome of this sorry tale is that Rich got to repair my mess in the midst of his awesome project...geesh...even when I try...

After that fiasco, I just tried to stay out of his way, fixed lunch, made a supply run, and let the girls hang by me since they get a little nervous when we're working on projects. Here's a short movie of them playing this evening.

Lovin' Life ~~ And Home Improvement Projects