A Beautiful Pantry--Finale!

These BEFORE pictures are from last January when I cleaned and organized the pantry...

THE PROCEDURE

Last week the daughter and I covered the shelves in "sticky paper"...

The daughter loved it and said,

"Wow Mom it looks so vintage, wait, what exactly does vintage mean?"

We almost finished it but ran out with only a couple feet of shelf left to cover...

Today I painted the last of the door trim ...no one will ever see it but it's high gloss white, just like I like it!

AFTER...

D believes that children from age 6 to 11 usually give the best help around the house. So this is the age to train them to be really effective in their responsibilities and to make certain that proper work habits and traits are being formed.

The daughter that helped me is actually 14...she was a good helper on this project but on other projects she's easily distracted.

My 6 and 11 year old are by far my best workers.

Too bad the 11 year old turns 12 next month.

A Beautiful Pantry--Day 8

Doesn't look too bad for a BEFORE picture...

You can't tell by the picture but the baseboards were a little hammered and needed to be touched up.

The casing around the inside of the door also needed to be painted white.

No new TOOLS
Here are 2 new splashes of yellow...



AFTER...

So I may or may not have worked on the pantry a few days last week and didn't blog about it...with all the excitement of the outdoor projects I decided to omit the pantry stuff.

I'll show you the entire pantry tomorrow--finished!

D shares advice on "Growing Your Own...

Along with encouraging your children and expressing appreciation in the usual ways, it can be lots of fun for everyone concerned to do some things a little different. Have any of your children ever found a special thank-you note from you tucked under their pillows? Have you ever included a thank-you note for some special service on your son's part in his lunch along with the sandwiches and an apple? Or how about a little expression of thanks in verse taped to your daughter's mirror? Here's a sample ditty:

I'm really not a poet,

But in some way I must show it--

That I think it's really great

The way you keep your room so straight!

I haven't ever put a note under my kids pillows.

I do put notes in their lunches...

In regards to their rooms my poem would have to read something like this...

Roses are red

Violets are blue

If you don't get your room cleaned soon

There will be no food for you!

Almost forgot the other AFTER picture...the casings still need one more coat.

A Beautiful Pantry--Day 7

The last of the red paint went on this wall behind the door.

BEFORE...

No new TOOLS, but here's a splash of yellow...

After spending billions of dollars on the Wii and XBox the children seem to have just as much fun playing on their old Nintendo 64.

Go figure.

AFTER...

Only 2 more days in the pantry...I won't miss it, since I visit it several times a day.

We are on FACET #12

D has 20 FACETS

We only have 2 1/2 months left

(I'm so excited I can hardly stand it)

We may not make it through all of them.

FACET #12

GROW YOUR OWN--

OR CHILDREN CAN HELP

She will be ideal in her role as a homemaker, not only because of the countless current values, but because her example and teachings will live at least another generation through her children. She must help them to be valuable diamonds too.

A Beautiful Pantry--Day 6

BEFORE...

I'm afraid this pantry project has gotten a little boring.

This is me with the mom and 3 of the 4 sisters...

Sadly, no one is wearing yellow:(

My sister Natalie (the one in the green shirt) sent me a fun Halloween surprise today all the way from Seattle Washington!

Aren't they so cute!
They go great with these...

(a gift from the mother-in-law a year or two ago)

AFTER...

I can see the light at the end of the pantry.

This area needs a 2nd coat of red.
There is one small wall to paint.

The baseboards and trim need a fresh coat of high gloss white.

And of course, the lovely sticky paper on the shelves.

D says To prevent silver salt and pepper shakers and other silver pieces from tarnishing, store them in air tight containers such as plastic bags tied with an elastic.

I currently don't have any silver salt and pepper shakers...but when I get some, I'll know how to store them.

A Beautiful Pantry--Day 4

Yesterday's AFTER picture is today's BEFORE picture.

A splash of yellow...

THE PROCEDURE

7:30am--I took care of all the 2nd coats and added a 1st coat to a new section. I also put everything back on the top shelf.

7:45pm--Gave the new section a 2nd coat.

AFTER...

D says to Have pride in your home, be interested in it, be creative and imaginative, and it will reflect the best that is in you and change from a house to a home.

A Beautiful Pantry--Day 3

BEFORE...

This is the 3rd day in a row my kitchen has been a bit of a disaster...I thought only doing a shelf or two at a time would keep this from happening...not so much.

One of THE TOOLS...



THE PROCEDURE
The aroma is a little strong in that pantry so I decided to take D's advice about the "bucket of water" trick...I think it works.
I got an early start and worked for about an hour.


I ended up painting a first coat on the wall and the entire 2nd shelf.
Busy day.
By the time I could get back to the pantry for a 2nd coat it was late--I opted to watch The Office with the husband and save the 2nd coats for tomorrow.

AFTER...


It will look much better tomorrow when I get around to that 2nd coat.

D gives some principles of color decorating--Never use equal proportions of warm and cool colors, It is good to have one predominating color in a room, and an easy formula to remember is: "Something dull and something bright."

A Beautiful Pantry...Day 2

BEFORE...

Add these TOOLS to the ones I used yesterday.

THE PROCEDURE
I painted one coat of the orangeish/red/brown color at about 7:30am--took about 40 minutes.
Then I took a 12 hour break to take 4 kids to the dentist (always a good time), meet the mom and the friend for lunch, and about a million other little things.

At 7:30pm I went back to work for about an hour painting a second coat on the walls and painting the top shelf brown--the 2 shelves that aren't covered in green wallpaper are getting paint instead of "stick-on" paper.

AFTER...

The thing about a space like this is it takes much longer to paint than if it were a regular room.

Patience is a virtue.

A virtue I don't have much of.

D gives more painting advice...To restore a neglected paintbrush, soak it in hot vinegar.

Question: What are the chances I painted the top of that brown shelf?

A Beautiful Pantry...Part 1

I decided to start at the top and work my way down.

So today we paint the ceiling.

Remember how I LOVE high gloss white ceilings?

BEFORE...

THE TOOLS

THE PROCEDURE

Cleared the top shelf.

Cut in the edges with a paintbrush.

About 5 minutes into it I started getting a little dizzy from the smell.

I turned around and realized I had shut the pantry door.

Brilliant.

I opened the door, opened the kitchen window and back door.

Then I used a roller for the rest of the ceiling.

D says After painting a room, set a bucket of water in it and the odor will go away more quickly.

AFTER...

Sorry.

The pictures are SO boring.
Here is something that is not boring.

This book...

I'm reading it to the kindergartner and we laugh and laugh.

(And Tami, now I know what you were talking about when you mentioned the cheese on the playground...funny!)

Painting the Pantry...Some Good News & Some Bad News

Good News!

Costco actually paid me today!

That's a switch.

AND the mother-in-law made us these delicious sugar cookies!

More Good News!

The husband and little boy are back from their mighty hunting trip.

I guess our little boy is not all that little.

He's almost 12.

He's our child that flies under the radar.

He's quiet, polite, so helpful, and NO maintenance--which I really appreciate since he was followed by 3 HIGH maintenance little sisters!

Bad News...

I struggled big time trying to find my last tool for this project.

I needed some contact paper to cover the shelves

(since there was NO WAY I was going to remove the ugly green wallpaper).

My choices were limited.

Home Depot ended up having the best selection...which wasn't all that great.

I settled on this...

It's not great, but definitely better than forest green wallpaper.
Now that I have the final tool I'll get started painting tomorrow.


The Final Good News!
The Mouse problem is under control!



BAD News
I cannot seem to get past feeling puky.
Every night, around the time I need to start fixing dinner, it hits.
Makes preparing dinner extra fun.


D shares another use for contact paper (or "stick on" paper as she calls it)...One mother decided to prepare some Treasure Chests as Christmas presents for her three children. She secured some appropriate boxes from the grocery store, covered them with attractive stick-on paper, and then began filling them.

Maybe I'll have some "stick on" paper left over to make a treasure chest or two.

The Pantry Project...Finale! Well, for now anyway.

Today I broke another one of my housekeeping rules...

Just close the door and pretend the mess doesn't exist.

D says Getting dressed means putting on something that is comfortable, combing your hair, applying some make-up (remember even a barn looks better painted) and putting on shoes. Shoes which support you well will do wonders to eliminate fatigue and leg and backaches...Don't be just two feet from happiness!


Normally, with a project of this magnitude I would skip getting ready and just dig in. But I took D's advice--showered (and shaved my legs) put on my favorite yoga pants (I haven't actually ever done yoga but the pants sure are comfortable), did my hair and make up and changed out of these (see above picture)...


...and into these!


BEFORE...

There's really nothing to say...

The pictures say it all...it's like a bomb went off in my pantry! I don't know how it got away from me.

THE TOOLS
Now that I'm using this shop vac on a regular basis I should really get me some ear plugs.

I had to restock the Peanut M&M's for this project. The husband won the BHEA (Best Husband Ever Award) when he made me a country mix tape and a disco mix tape on my IPod to get me through the day.

THE PROCEDURE

First I cleared the shelves...I had my cute little helper, thank goodness, she was with me from start to finish. This would be a good time to say, I did not install these ugly forest green wallpaper covered shelves, they came with the house. I'm seriously thinking of replacing the shelves and painting the entire pantry barn red to match my kitchen...but that's a project that will take me months to work up to.

Wait! there's more...

At this stage I was feeling just a little overwhelmed, but past the point of no return (love that Phantom song).

The husband won his second BHEA for the day when he brought me my favorite lunch! And then he won yet another BHEA when he ran to Lowe's to get supplies to build a shelf for the top of the pantry. (See the following post for the pantry shelf project.)

This was a gift many years ago from my BFF Shelley. The poor little guy LOST his nose, so for years he's had a pretend nose drawn on his face. But today, the nose was FOUND! Yeah! She also gave me that cute little quilted snowman on my pantry door...such a good friend!

You would never guess, but this little box from the pantry holds it's very own project that will probably take longer than the entire pantry project...I've put it off for 3 years now.

AFTER...

It's a total miracle isn't it?

Every one of the kids said, "Wow mom! It looks so much bigger!"

Apparently LESS CLUTTER=MORE SPACE! Good to know!