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.