In the time that it takes to write this I find that the children no longer are 5 or 10 or even teenagers. I should have had this when they were little or when Billy would pop me with a sudden surprise of 'honey, can you fit in four more for dinner tonight?' Well, I always managed to stretch the chicken into as many days as possible. Now try that with Costco a few block away. Where were you when I needed you! The kitchen is what it is and I don't think I need to remodel it. What does two pro agers need with a larger kitchen? Perhaps fit in more modern appliances? The only consideration necessary in my point of view of my kitchen space now is the fact that I can organize as much as I desire but a kitchen wasn't ever designed properly back in 1957. We have no pantry, deep and narrow shelves and limited shelf hight. It makes it really hard to organize when your cereal boxes have to be repackaged just to fit in any of the cupboards. The floor space design is fine, but most of the storage areas were not designed for any quantites that you can buy at Costco. I can't see going on my knees anymore to get a can of beans or look for the olives...if there is any more left.
Our house was built with a entrance hall and immediate coat closet just as you pass the entrance to the kitchen. The furnace door is facing the kitchen. How stupid is that! That could have been a pantry and a sufficient space at that. But for the last 10 years that coat closet had been the office and bill area with a shelf and organized mess we could just close the door on and it would disappear from our busy minds, for awhile anyway. I emptied the office closet. I went about measuring and selecting the wood from Billy's woodshed. Measured twice for accuracy, drilled holes, countersunk holes, made sure I found the studs. By the time he came home from work that afternoon I was very pleased with what I had finished so far. Needing to include him in this project was necessary as he had some really nice finished shelf boards that would be perfect for this project but I wanted to have him give it to me to use for this pantry and not just start sawing everything he had if he had saved them for another project I didn't yet know about. He wanted to put off his decision till tomorrow. Augh! Procrastination is his best defense for no answer again. Well, I wanted him to give freely and not just take it so I let it just settle. So, I distracted myself with something on the stove for awhile.
Enough time had passed that I started looking for him in the carport as dinner was ready. To my amazement, he had picked, stacked and had the table saw plugged in and ready for me when I found him. He had seen how I carefully hand sawed all the material for the shelfs supports myself without his help and was truly amazed at what I had completed that day. Together we measured and cut to fit the boards and it was now a completed converted coat closet to pantry. I continued that evening to relocate and sort the canned and dry goods into this pantry. I did discover how much I had packed into those original kitchen cupboards. But now anyone in the family can see what we have, have not and needed without stopping to ask me where something was.
Sometimes what once was a coat closet morphs into a office space and morphs again into a pantry for the kitchen.
Green effects: No cost, found material and hardware, minimum labor, more efficient use of space and more importantly...no bandage or visit to the emergency room for stitches.
Learned: To have more patience waiting for my project or idea, to be accepted and appreciate the gracious rewards of praise for not going over my head in a project and maintaining it a safe one for me to do. Keep it simple, safety first. I excersized our rule not to use hand power tools that are potentially dangerous tools without Billy at home. Using only hand tools and gloves and not rushing to finish before the sunset that day.
