I Love My Pantry!

I know this may sound inconceivable to some of you, but it wasn't until the middle of last month - a full 11 months after moving in - that I FINALLY got all the pantry boxes unpacked and organized in the new pantry off the kitchen. And, man, do I ever LOVE it! I liked my pantry in the old house, but I LOVE this one!

I was able to design this one just how I wanted, and the biggest plus is the placement of it - just through a door to the left of my main kitchen work counter. When I'm cooking or baking, I just leave the pantry door open and grab what I need off the shelves. I keep ALL our non-perishable food in there. So, once we have "real" cabinets and cupboards in the kitchen, they'll be completely reserved for dishes (no foodstuffs). And (you may remember me talking about it previously), the pantry floor was poured and insulated separately from the rest of the floor (which contains the in-floor heat). So, point being, the pantry floor is always cold - even when the in-floor heat is on - and, therefore, the pantry is nice and cool . . . creating the best way to store food.

Editorial note: it's raining, and a little thunder just rumbled . . . causing Maisy to come shooting into my office to land underneath my desk. What a wimp. ;) And, she needs a bath. Peee-ueeew.

25 April 2007

And now, with all the carpentry work done, the new pantry is handed over to me to stock full! (Now, if I only had some time . . . !)

25 April 2007

By the time all the pantry shelves and supports were firmly in place, poor Tom had contorted himself into a carpenter-pretzel more times than he'd care to count!

25 April 2007

There was lots of pre-drilling and screwing involved for Tom during the pantry shelving installation process!

25 April 2007

Work continued on the pantry last week, and now it's all in my hands: the shelving and organizing of the dry and canned goods. With a 9' high ceiling I was able to fit in 5 wrap-around shelves!

22 April 2007

On Sunday, the last of the interior walls went up, and then it was time to begin attaching shelf supports. Now, since then, the project has been handed over to me, and I've been painting, painting, painting. I have just a little bit to finish up this morning, and then the hope is that it will be dry by tonight so that we can start installing the shelves when Tom gets home! (No rest for the wicked, is there?!)

21 April 2007

After his afternoon massage therapy appointment which included lympatic work to get all that nasty inhaled insulation out of his lymph system, Tom was back at it in the pantry: putting the interior walls up.

21 April 2007

On Saturday, we started the "small" project (ha - no project is ever small!) of finishing the pantry off the kitchen - a HUGE, happy thing for me! I can't tell you how hard it is to cook when all your non-perishables are stored in cardboard boxes and you have no idea what you have or where it might be if you DID have it!

So, beginning from the stud walls that formed the tiny room, I carried all the many, many boxes and lard/storage cans from the pantry and deposited them in a rag-tag pile in the middle room space that will one day contain the fireplace and sitting area. Then, Tom (or some bald man - we'll assume it was him) attacked the hideous job of insulating the walls and ceiling. (Insulating is NEVER fun.)