Saturday, September 13, 2014

Total Splurge: The Pantry

So this post is WAAAAAAY over-due.

Although, in all honesty, it took me WAAAAAAAY too long to accomplish said task and thus write about it. So it's not that the post-writing took all that long (even though it kind of did too)...it was the finishing of the event which gave me the most trouble.

Because, well, frankly, I have been caring for a baby. And even though you think you remember how it all goes when you have a baby (newborn or not) you don’t remember everything.

Plus, you know…many couples have 9 months to prepare for such an event. We had about an hour.

I think I’ve already used that line but frankly I can’t recall. I am averaging about 6 hours of sleep per night and that is with getting up twice in there…But it’s all good. It’s only for a short time and we are joyful to be Jesus’ hands and feet to The Little Man.

But I have digressed and made excuses for my delay.

There’s really no excuse for it…I had planned for this post to be up about 2.5 weeks ago. Only the project wasn’t complete.

Again, we shall lay blame on The Little Man. Mr. AR had white-washing to do, which he could not b/c I was working (helping set up wedding flowers with my friend SV) on both Saturday and Sunday on the week-end when Little Man first arrived.

After that, it was almost another week before the white-washing took place. I don't remember why...it's been too long ago now. Get off my back, would you?

And then it took me about 1.5 weeks to get everything back in place. It takes a while to put things in their proper place when you can only hold one thing at a time…what with a sleeping (or non-sleeping) baby in the other arm.

So…since I have belabored this long enough (I know you have all been missing me, so I’m trying to make this post worth your time), I shall tell you what has happened: we had custom-built shelves installed in our pantry.

And even though this may not sound like a big deal...trust me. It is.

And let me tell you this as well: these shelves are ah-mazing. 

Amazing.

They were built by a friend from church who is extremely gifted at such tasks and I don’t even know how we will ever repay him…so if you have a thought on how we might best do that, please leave a comment, send a message, something to help a girl out.

Because frankly, I am completely tapped out on my creativity as of late. For approximately the past 2 weeks, actually. Go figure...it's a curious coincidence, right?
 
Which may or may not be why I haven’t blogged except twice in these past two weeks.

Or it might be because I have no time. Or that hunt and peck with one hand (because, yes, you guessed it..holding a sleeping baby) is irritating beyond belief…just to be clear: the holding the sleeping baby is not irritating; it’s the hunt and peck with one hand that is irritating.

So…because I know you will want to see how this project transpired, I will give you some photos. Because I can at least do THAT with one hand.

Now, I must explain, especially after coming off our first month of “7” why I would do this and spend my money in this way: because it is not wrong to spend money on things you want, so long as you are not ONLY spending your money that way.

This is my two-cents.

Plus, this is something I have wanted since we moved into this house almost 10 years ago. And I finally decided to do something about it.

And because Mr. AR is awesome like that, he totally agreed.

So here.we.go.

This is what my pantry has looked like for almost 10 years (ok, the food items themselves changed, because otherwise that would be disgusting).




And now here it is with everything emptied out. Except the fire extinguiser. Safety first!


And mind you...this took place while we were still in the midst of "7: Food" so here's all the food we were NOT eating at that time...so that was fun to avoid looking at. (And yes, I ended my sentence with a preposition...)


And here's what we (and the PBA...note that some of this was not on our list, but it's what the PBA often ate...really all we had on the counter was the dry quinoa, black beans, olive oil and dried cranberries) WERE eating...


And here it is sans the shelves.  And Mr. AR and the PBA removing all the hooks and screws which were holding up the shelves (there's a few...I didn't take into consideration just how many there were...oops!)


Note all the black dots. Those are all the holes which needed to be spackled. I am thankful that Mr. AR loves me.


Note that we are STILL hanging on to that fire extinguisher.

And because "one does like a hint of color" (quick....what movie is that from? Time's up..."The Birdcage") I forced insisted asked oh-so nicely for it to be painted the same color as the kitchen. And I love love love it! I'm so glad that "we" decided to do that.


And I thought I took a picture of it before the whitewash was on, but apparently not...I can't be expected to keep track of EVERYTHING! So here we have jumped ahead to the final product. Feel free to ooo and ahhhh along with me. I honestly smile every time I open the pantry door...and I'm certain it is not only because I am once again free to eat everything inside.



If you are interested in finding out the name of our the fabulous craftsman, please send me a message and I'll be glad to share his info with you. (His wife, upon reading that, may have just had a heart attack that I said that!  Love you, CK! Thanks again for sharing your husband's time!)

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2 comments:

  1. Looks great! I'm impressed that you had a project of that scope completed while caring for Little Man! I always felt accomplished if I got a shower taken with a baby in the house.

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  2. THAT is a fabulous pantry! Jealous. Truly. And I'm not the jealous type.

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