Pantry Reveal

My parents came this weekend and brought my sweetheart son back after having him all week.  I missed this boy soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much!

Makes me already start mourning the day he moves out.  I am not kidding.  I may or may not have cried everyday he was gone.  I will never tell.

So he is home and my parents stayed to help me out with the pantry project.  If you recall from this post, this is what the pantry used to look like...

Gross.  Anyway, I got it to this point last week...

I cut down the shelving into Ls and put them up properly with the correct bracing.  But I needed my parents' help for the rest.

But first, some Sydney time...

Ok, first the trim comes down.

Testing out the doors before putting the hinges on...

 The doors are actually one solid clear pine bifold 36" X 81" closet door.  My dad removed the hinge from the center so we could use it as two doors that open in the center.  I got them at Menards and one bifold door was $105.

 The magnetic catch that will keep the doors closed.

This is what it looked like to have the doors and hardware on.  I used the old drawer pulls I had since I replaced the drawer pulls when I painted the cabinets.

My dad made up some cute shelves for the inside of the doors for spices, cutting boards, baggies and stuff.  I am not going to say how many prototypes it took.  We eventually found a prototype we (mom, dad and I) all could agree on and my dad somehow still talks to us.

Then I removed the shelving and spray painted them in the garage.  I left the doors in place and just taped off the trim.  I primed them and then painted two coats of the same paint I used on the kitchen cabinets: Dutch Boy- Thin Ice.

 I cleared off the fridge because guess what???  We are getting a big, shiny new one delivered on July 12th!!!  Woot woot!

Now look waaaaaay up to the top.  I added two more shelves for rarely used items.  And pay no attention to the painters tape on the magnetic catch.  I will be painting it black the next time I have my chalkboard paint out.

And while we were at it, we replaced the hollow core lame entry closet door with a new
wood one for consistency.  And I have some organizing plans for that closet this fall.

I am super excited this project is complete.  Love me some organization.  Now just counting down the days for my fridge!

Linked up to

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Chalkboard anything

Chalkboards are trendy right now.  Which is a good thing because I really heart them.  This is a project that I have been wanting to do for awhile but have been too lazy to get done.  These are two good examples of things you can put chalkboard paint on.  

First up is this...

You all have them.  Ugly, dirty doors.  this one is in our kitchen and leads to the garage.  It is white and gets so dirty.  And I am too lazy to ever clean it so it just sits there dirty.  Mocking my laziness.  It was time for a change.  And while I have the paint out, here is another idea...

That is the paint I used and then I just eye-balled a rectangle on my glass container that is holding Turbo's chewys.

I then taped off the edges around the door and got started.

This pic is for all of you people that get all freaked out about projects not looking so great when you start them and think you are doing it wrong.

The door looks terrible with just one coat of paint.  You are not doing it wrong.  Keep going.

 I could not get a clear pic of this for the life of me!

I put 3 coats on the door and 3 coats on the rectangle on the glass and let dry for 2 days.  PS- take the tape off when the paint is still slightly wet.  Trust me, you won't end up taking some of the paint off with the tape, especially if you really gobbed it on in some parts.

Then you need to prime the chalkboard with some chalk.  You need to rub the chalk on using the side of a piece of chalk.  I read somewhere that if you use a big, thick piece of sidewalk chalk, you won't end up going through like 14 pieces of regular-sized chalk.

I used this piece of Sully's chalk.  Don't tell him.

Here is my rectangle on the glass primed.

 You eagle eyes will notice that some of my chalkboard paint bled under the tape.  I will scrape it off with a straight blade when I get around to it.  

And now the finished products...

 

Yeah, its an odd saying.  Lets just say the hubs had something to do with it:)

Kitchen update and pantry project

So here is what the kitchen looked like when I last updated you.

Since then, my dad added the crown moulding.  I chose something called "cove" at Home Depot.  I had to be careful not to get something that stick out too far or it would be weird in the areas where it met the staggered cabinets.  I then caulked and painted the moulding.  I also touched up the painting of the cabinets.  I still have to get the last coat of Polycrylic on them.

We also staggered the cabinet above the fridge but I didn't take a pic of that for you.  We are debating about replacing our fridge now or waiting until next year when we can just replace all the remaining appliances together.  I think we are leaning towards that unless our fridge stops working before then (pleasepleaseplease).

Now onto the easy but much needed pantry project that I did the last day and a half.  It has pained me every.single.day to look at the darn pantry.  You would think it would be great to have a pantry.  And it is but it was not functioning quite right.  At all.

The shelves were too deep and everything would get lost.  I had no idea we had an unopened peanut butter or three bottles of EVOO.  Basically it was a hot mess and it was driving me crazy.  So I emptied it out.

Removed the shelves.

Removed the upside down trim that was holding the shelves in place.  Then I had to paint it white to cover up the peachy-flesh color (that had covered every inch of wall space of that level of the house when we moved in).

Next, I measured and traced a level line for my shelves.

I found the studs and drew a line down to intersect my horizontal shelf lines.  (See all my holes where i was looking for a stud?  No worries, it was covered by a 1 X 2).  Also, when I proudly informed the hubs I found the 3 studs that run against the back wall of the pantry, "Hey, I found 3 studs!"  Hubs, "Nope, you found 4."  Weirdo....

Got the back 1 X 2s on.

And then the right side.

And then the left.

I wasn't sure if it was ok to cut the particle board down into L shapes for new shelves.  So I called my dad and he said yes but they may not be strong enough.  I decided to give it a try.  So measured out 10 1/2 inches for my L shelf.  I cut the shelf with our jigsaw.

I put it in to see if I liked it.

Duh!  forgot to account for the 1 X 2 in the back.

So I measured the long part of the L for a shelf depth of 11 1/2 inches.  Much better.

The Foreman- made sure I took lots of play and feeding breaks;)

Ta da!  The finished product!!

Plastic bag holder from iKea.

I feel like spending some quality time in there now!  I love it!

Up next, my dad is coming this weekend.  I plan to have him install some wood doors on the front that open from the center and swing out.  Then I will install some shelving/baskets to the inside of them to store spices, baggies, tinfoil, etc.  Can't wait!

Thank you, Dad

Ok, so Father's Day gets me pretty choked up, too.  As I graze over the Father's Day card section at the store, I only pick up cards that have very brief messages on the front.  If I open them and there is a novel written inside, especially if there is writing on the right and left of the inside, it is automatically disqualified.  I am not saying those cards are terrible or cheesy or don't have wonderful messages in them, I just can't be expected to read through them and make it out of the store with my eyes not looking all swollen and bloodshot.  I don't like walking around like that, it makes people wonder just how awful my life is and that would be sad.

But obviously Father's Day should be celebrated just as much as Mother's Day.  Because we all want to see our dads at our sporting events, want them to engage in conversation with us and earn their pride.  We want them to have our backs no matter what, believe in us when we don't believe in ourselves and love us unconditionally.  We want to be able to call them when we have a question about how to get the water to stop coming in the basement or discuss the best way to install a counter top.  We want them to teach us how to drive and how to change a tire.  We need to see how a good man treats another person, how they treat your mom.

And somewhere along the way, a father's love will give you confidence, self-esteem and permission to be who you really are.  A father's love is far-reaching and will influence how you interact with others and how you view yourself.  I think the majority of fathers know this.  But it is hard.  It is tough to be at every game.  It is tough to have the patience it takes to simply get through a bed time routine with a toddler or keep up with a teenage girl's mood swings.  But they do it anyway.

So thank you.

Thank you dad in the Target parking lot that pulled his cart of 3 kids out of the store to, as calmly as he could, discuss how their behavior is unacceptable but give them a chance to redeem themselves.

Thank you to the dad whom started a girls hockey team just because his daughter wanted to play hockey but would have never been able to play with the boys.

Thank you to the dad that works multiple jobs or one decent paying job that he hates in order to support his family.

Thank you to the dad that always gave his daughters the benefit of the doubt that "they are not drunk.  They always act that way."

Thank you to the dad that sees a young mother and her young sons in the grocery store unable afford the bill for the food they picked out that buys the items the young mother had to say needed to be put back and then chases her down in the parking lot to make sure she got all the food she wanted to buy.

Thank you to the dad that takes his loud and energetic toddler on adventures to parks and bakeries and wherever else so his wife can have a break and bond with her new baby.

Thank you to the dad whose interests echos that of his kids.

Thank you to the dad boiling deer carcass heads on the grill because his daughter wants to spray paint them and hang them in her house.

Thank you to the dad of 4 girls that stops to help a young women change her tire on a freezing cold Wisconsin December day.

Thank you to the dad that tells elaborate scary bedtime stories night after night because his son asks him to "tell me a scary story."

Thank you for being there and making all the difference.

My dad and me

My Grandpa and me

My wonderful hubs and our babies

Happy Father's Day.