6.04.2012

a surprise addition

we seriously did NOT plan this and thought we could never manage it with all we already had on our plates.

but sometimes god has different plans, i guess.




yes, that's right. we added a pantry to our house!

ohhhh, you thought...because of the picture? was it misleading? well, i just googled "things that will fit in a new pantry" and this was the first thing that came up. i am completely innocent.

did i go too far? i'm sorry. i wont do that again. all bloggers are allowed one good fake pregnancy title in their life. that was mine. all done.

just to be clear in case you are getting all dizzy and hyper and ready to blast my wall or call my parents: that was JUST A JOKE. my uterus is full of nothing but fond memories of placentas and umbilici and some endometrial lining that is due to shed in about a week. TASTY!

not pregnant. just yanking your 24k gold chains.

but, to be honest, the pantry project really has been my happiest addition to the house other than the two babies we've added since living here.

the absence of a pantry was one of those things that a novice homebuyer/idiot doesnt really pick up on. yes, i only ever lived in homes that had them; whether they be walk-in, closet-sized, or whatever. i was lulled into a false sense of security that my dwelling would always have provided me with a dedicated, door-ensconced place for my dry goods to live.

so it didnt occur to us to notice that this house had none. therefore we were left with this charming setup as our only real option:

i have touched on the hilghlights here

for 5.5 years, this has slowly sapped the lifeforce out of me for all of the reasons listed. the vast majority of this stuff wasnt visible due to cabinet doors and deep/high-stacked things burying their predecessors. such wasteage and regret.

i have considered MANY other options: moving it all to garage shelving just outside the door to the left of the laundry, converting the coat closet in the living room, only eating refrigerated items. but each of these wasnt solving the real problem: we wanted and possibly needed a kitchen pantry.

the solution was a surprising one (though not as shocking as a 3rd baby would be).

in the bananas world of small-house tetris: to add a pantry, we would need to add a washer. a STACKABLE washer to be exact. we waited for a mega awesome sale and got 24 months of no interest financing and with a little sweat and marriage counseling, we had this:

oh, what a nice area. but what on earth will you do with the tall, empty space over there on the right?

as soon as we had stacked the dryer (DONT pay to have this done, it was REALLY easy for jesse and me to do ourselves) i was off to home depot to get some shelving.

the goddess of organization (marthanius) was clearly smiling upon this project because the standard store shelf lengths were the perfect multiple of the widths we needed.

confession: when i was driving home, enrique iglesias' "tonight i'm loving you" came on the radio. now normally i sing this about my hot husband or james bond, or use it as motivation while running to get super sexy and hot. but this time, i was in my minivan booty shaking, giving smoldering bedroom eyes, and singing the words to my soon to be pantry.

I know you want me
I made it obvious that I want you too
So put it on me
Let's remove the space between me and you

it was written for me and my pantry.


we got bolt cutters to quickly and effortless (and strangely enough, sexily) snap through the shelves (SO much easier than a hacksaw that we had used before). we got the shelving system that has totally adjustable heights so you can rearrange without any drilling and find your ideal setup. in less than an hour we had created our 3rd most beautiful child.

no joke: EVERYTHING fits in here (and this is NOT a large space: 32x20 inches).

all of the stuff i stored in the garage (from stockpiling sale items) all the the things that were in the cabinets of the forgotten, everything from that nook of a counter space area and atop the fridge. even the across-the-kitchen cabinet i had always used for baking items and wasnt annoying: it's all in here, all visible and all orderly.

almost nightly i get out of bed and just come look at it. i find myself thinking of it while i am at work and smiling to myself like in the days of first dating jesse.

truly, truly marvelous

come. behold. taste and see that it is good.

the world is as it should be. a family of 4 and a pantry.

29 comments:

  1. A "walk-in" pantry! You've got every Kitchen Mama's dream :) Way to go friends! I LOVE the shelving that is anchored to the wall stud. So much easier/user-friendly. And I love the idea of switching the height options. May steal this :) Message me your $$$ please.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. hahahaha. STEAL ON! this feels seriously amazing!

      Delete
  2. I'm so jealous your shelves are the PERFECT height for each thing. And I'm glad you were straight forward about the fake-out... that would be mean to let it drag on a day or two with no response.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. oh yeah i would never do that. the joke was just because i really did want to title this "a surprise addition" when it was just for the pantry and then i realized that could lead people astray. then i just leaned into the astray and went for it.

      Delete
    2. You're also pretty tricky... so I usually put up my guard :-)

      Delete
  3. FYI- When you google "things that will fit in a new pantry", your family shows up as the first pics in the lineup. Your pantry is now forever famous.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. and what is the first picture? the onesie! seeeeeee...i didnt MEAN to punk you out. it just happened

      Delete
  4. ohmyword. this post cracked me up.
    and now i basically want a house of my own so i can do this because GIRL THIS WAS SUCH A SMART IDEA.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. it took me 5 years to get these smarts. slow and steady...

      Delete
  5. My first thought was "can you reach the buttons on the washer?" (I think that's what on top, I can't really tell but logic tells me the washer would be on top and the dryer on bottom). I'm pretty short so I would need a step ladder to reach it...just wondering how you handle that. I LOVE the pantry! What a great idea.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i thought washer up top too, but the delivery guys told me that front load washers are like 3x heavier than dryers. so dryers up top. and yeah i am 5'7 so i can reach fine. all the laundry supplies are on top of the dryer and i do have to get tippy to reach them. but hey, calf workout!

      Delete
  6. I swooned a little.

    ReplyDelete
  7. oh my gosh- I so thought you were pregnant. seriously- your honesty about being ok with two kids and feeling somehow guilty for not currently having a bigger family and all of that business makes me feel ok about not wanting any more kids (at least night now).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i bet we will have more sometime, but i am JUUUUUUST now getting to the point where we can admit that. still so not ready to start anything real or sexytimes. 2 is JUST starting to get fun. no shame in that game.

      Delete
  8. Replies
    1. two swoons! maybe you should see a neurologist. :)

      Delete
  9. THIS IS SO AMAZING I'M SHOUTING.

    We have no space for any sort of pantry, so I'm way jels and thinking this is great. And way to represent with (what I think is) barbeque sauce!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i was SO hoping that someone was a photo-scrutinizing creeper like me. there IS some bbq sawz there, but some are dressing and wing sauce and other trans-fatty dispensers.

      Delete
  10. My laundry room is upstairs, on a completely different level from my kitchen. So this is a no-go for me. HOwever, for you, it rocks!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yes, that proooooobably isnt ideal. the one time my tiny ranch wins!

      Delete
  11. That was a seriously good fake out. And I love your genius idea of how to get a pantry in your kitchen! We have a tiny one in our new house, but the shelves are super deep. You'd think that'd be nice, but it makes things harder to find. I get hives when things are disorganized, so you better believe I was at Target buying lots of canvas bins the day after we moved in. So much better now!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YES! shelf depth is the enemy of kitchen storage. vertical space is where its at and is my love language to myself.

      Delete
  12. 1. You are bad and seriously made me have a contraction! Come on!!! Want me to send you some water from upstate NY? Cuz there seems to be something in it that makes your implantation chances much higher...

    2. I don't need a pantry since I have a perfectly good shelf right in front of me holding a huge pile of pretzels, oh yes I do!

    3. Marthanius?! You are killing me!

    4. Your pantry is beautiful and ingenious and hot. Much like you.

    ReplyDelete
  13. 1. are you TRYING to impregnate me? 2. haha, i should have just put all my food THERE. 3. she watches over me and mostly says i'm doing it wrong. 4. ok. with that attitude, you can impregnate me.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Yay! LOVE IT! And I don't know if you're kidding when you say you get out of bed to look at it... but I TOTALLY do that every time I do a big project. Rearranging the furniture? I love to go look at it at night - or first thing in the morning. Paint a room? I have to go sit and look at it for awhile when the house is quiet and dark. Seriously - the time Chris actually cleaned out our pantry when I was pregnant - I LITERALLY stared at it for at least 5 minutes one night before bed. Just looked at it. :) I am so happy for your new addition! And yes - I did think you were preggers - but I also was NOT surprised that you were! I am expecting an announcement this year. ;)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. i am NOT kidding. yes! i am so glad i am not the only ome-gazing freakshow. i cant resist. i CAN resist being pregnant even a little bit in 2012, thank you very much.

      Delete
  15. "umbilici" almost made me spit my coffee out at the screen.

    so much win.

    ReplyDelete
  16. I knew you couldn't be in the early stages of pregnancy AND kicking my butt in the June VaVoom! Score!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 10 points for sleuthing (but not real points....youre too good already)

      Delete