Kitchen Shelves

We added rustic kitchen shelving to the blank wall in our kitchen.

I found shelf supports at IKEA and painted/distressed them. 

Quinn put up the supports (making sure they were in studs) and adjusted the boards to fit.

Old fence boards became shelves. 

The shelves hold my white dishes, vases, platters, & pitchers and is constantly changing as I find things at garage sales. I love the shelves!

The Boys' Room

We've been in Mom's house for several months now, and we're finally getting settled enough to start a little decorating. One of the first rooms I started on was the boys' room (Tanner's room).

Tanner had chosen gray, navy and blue as his colors in our other house, so we kept them here.

I created the headboards from old fence boards we brought over from our home. The boards were mounted on thin pieces of wood. They lean against the wall and the beds hold them in place.

I love the look and the blend of blues and grays we've used in the room.

The gray curtains I found at Red, White & Blue (a favorite thrift store) for $3. 

I wanted a clever way to hang them and found conduit pipe at Home Depot that I had cut to fit (had to cut it twice!). Pipe ends finished the pipe curtain rod. At first, I was going to mount the curtain rod directly into the wall using short hooks, but the metal rings on the curtain didn't have room to move. I bought longer hooks and had to have Quinn stretch open the hook so that the rod would fit. We used another fence board for mounting the hooks. It works great.

I have been collecting both "T's" and hooks for a while; waiting for the perfect project that could utilize them. Yet another fence board became the base for mounting "T's" and hooks and became a spot for Tanner to hang jackets and coats.

I saw the sailboat at Michaels and LOVED it but didn't buy it for weeks until it was 40% off AND there was a coupon for an additional 25% off. The old suitcase I found at Goodwill and even though it was expensive--$14--I just had to buy it.

I set the suitcase on a folding canvas camp chair at the end of one of the beds. I'll put spare sheets inside the suitcase. Gray flat sheets are the bed skirts for each bed.

We added a wicker couch for some seating (pictures will come) and still have several other projects to finish for this room to be complete. The photos on the wall between the bed have changed. I'll post photos of that project soon.

New Armoires

We needed tall storage upstairs in the bonus room and downstairs in the craft room. We had a lot of boxes of books and movies to unpack upstairs. I was tired of unpacked boxes cluttering up the bonus room and frustrated that all my office/craft supplies were in 3 different places. Mom and I were going to share the craft room downstairs as our joint office, and to do that, we needed storage!

I had priced built-in shelving from IKEA and the total (even with their 20% off sale) would have been over $5,000. Built in shelving from other sources would have been $10,000. Arrgh! 

I had been searching Craig's List for weeks and finally found a listing with armoires for sale.

Taryn, Monica & Karen (Hopkins) rode downtown with me to check them out. The YWCA had sold their building and was downsizing to a smaller location. They had pine armoires for sale for $25! Five were available. I bought all 5 for $120. 

Here are the armoires in our driveway.

Each armoire has a cupboard and two drawers. They were made from pine and seemed pretty sturdy. The cupboard had a hanging rod but had holes drilled for shelving.

I bought all 5 that were available!

Our friend Steve followed Quinn and I downtown the next morning to pick up the amoires in his trailer. He also cut off the overhanging edges of each armoire, so the armoires could butt up to each other.

 

Taryn and I sanded, painted and distressed each armoire. I ordered new crystal knobs on the internet for a great price. Quinn and Taryn hauled 3 upstairs to the bonus room. We went to Home Depot and had them cut shelving for us.

Two armoires were moved into the craft room. They look great! And were a great price. We've almost got them all filled!

Pantry Walk

Tonight, for our ward's Relief Society meeting, we had a pantry walk. We visited 5 pantries to gather ideas on food storage and organization.

Susan's food storage is in her insulated garage. Her husband Randy built the shelves in 4 heights (all the same widths). They are stackable and can be configured in a variety of ways.

One height of shelves fit #10 cans. Besides standard #10 canned items, they use the portable dry pack canner to can noodles and shredded potatoes and many other things their family uses regularly.

Boxed foods like cereal, crackers, cookies are stored in plastic bins on top of some of the shelves. This protects them from any bugs or mice.

Here are some of the shorter shelves for canned goods. They use juice bottles to store water. The water bottles are stored on the bottom shelf and stretch from one end of their shelves to the other end. When she's filled all the water bottles, she starts over--empties the first water bottles and refills them.

Kathy stores her food storage in a pantry closet and

in roll-out drawers in her kitchen.

Shawna's food storage is in her basement. Shelves hold bulk items and #10 cans.

Smaller staples are stored on wire shelves.

They store propane for their stoves and lanterns.

Canned meats are stored in drawers. The drawers protect the glass jars from breakage.

They keep a list of their inventory.

Wheat and beans stored in big buckets are stacked using pvc pipe as shelving equalizers that allow various sizes of buckets to sit on top of each other.

They've canned potatoes, bacon and even butter.

Craig, Shawna's husband, built boxes for their mylar water bottles. The bins below the water hold dehydrated food.

Susan regularly uses her food storage. She keeps open cans in her kitchen.

She stores all her baking supplies together in a cabinet.

The bulk of her family's food storage is in their garage. Shelves hold #10 cans, standard-size cans, and big bins of beans and more.

Other shelves hold smaller items.

Susan keeps an inventory list on her computer of the foods they have stored.

Cindy (and Quinn) are still trying to figure out how to store their food storage (they just moved). Their smaller food storage and more perishable items are stored in their kitchen pantry.

Baking supplies are stored in drawers. The are going to try to store their #10 cans and big buckets in an attic for now.

It was a great activity--it really helps to see how others do things in the space they have and to gather new ideas!

Finishing Details in Mom's Kitchen

Yesterday and today they worked on Mom's kitchen. They laid the new vinyl, they permanently installed the range cabinets and the countertops, they fixed the new broom cupboard, and restretched the living room carpet into place. They also laid a new vinyl floor in her bathroom.

This pattern really goes well with Mom's cabinets. 

The living room carpet will be cleaned in a few days.

With our reward points from Sears (for buying the appliances), we were able to buy an area rug in the addition living area, four entry rugs, several curtain tension rods, and a tub shelf system. 

Here's a view of the outside of the addition.

I'll post more pics tomorrow.

Lots of last-minute details are happening now. 

Mom decided that she wanted to add onto the back patio now instead of waiting until spring, so the cement company came and did the job in an afternoon. They originally said that they couldn't come for at least a week, but the job they had lined up was delayed, and they were able to come the day after Mom decided to add to the patio. They poured a new step and another 10x12 section for the patio.

Steve laid out the stones they had rescued from the demolition of part of the original patio. He'll get more to fill out the rest of the new section of patio.

Preparing the ground for the pour.

Building the form for the step.

This crew works fast and the weather was beautiful--clear, sunny, and cool.

They backed in a cement truck and used wheelbarrows to truck them around the addition to the patio.

It's good they added to the patio. You need a lot of room for a table & chairs, a grill, a mini fireplace and lots of people!

Work is continuing on Mom's kitchen/dining room. They brought the new broom closet cupboard. The cabinet maker copied Mom's original cabinetry. We thought it was just one new cupboard; both Mom and I were surprised when they brought in this BIG section of cupboards!

There was a crew that delivered the cabinets and then there was the crew that set up the cabinets.

They did their best to match the stain of the original cabinets. The new cupboards are a shade darker. In dim lighting or on an angle you can't tell the difference. Steve had them make the cabinet about an inch shorter (not so deep) to differentiate it from the original.

Some things Mom likes about them--the garbage/recycling cupboard, the grand number of shelves/drawers. 

Some things she's not fond of--there's no room for her broom (the whole reason for adding the cabinets in the first place--we did figure out a solution for that though), the top cupboards are pullout drawers and they are quite tall and hard to see/reach (but cupboards would be too), some of the pullout drawers in the lower cabinets should be lower and the shelves up higher. There were a few mistakes, and they will come out this week and fix those things. The great thing is that it adds so much storage to her kitchen.

The range and cabinets can now stay in place permanently. They had to go out on the front porch for the inspection (that's what the county told the contractor to do!)

Taking off the old baseboard; getting ready for the new vinyl that will be installed tomorrow (Monday).

There's surprisingly little waste with this project. No more dumpsters parked for weeks at the construction site like I remember seeing years ago. Steve said that much of the materials can be recycled and with careful planning there is little waste materials. Jake loaded his pickup with a load for the dump (the only load they took, I think) and he loaded my van with cardboard to be recycled. Both were filled to the gills.

After our van was full, we hurried over to take it to the only recycling center we knew. It was in Lake Oswego and by the time we got there it was closed :(

The next day Quinn took the load to a different, closer recycling center after work.

The washer and dryer are installed in the hallway closet of the addition. These are full-size units. We used Mom's washer (front-loading) and a new dryer. The old washer is quite a bit bigger than the newer models. It was a TIGHT fit to get both in place--with just an inch to spare! 

I put up a clothes pole in my section of our closet and brought over one shirt to make sure I installed the rod at the right height. I also got some cupboard boxes, assembled them and had Steve put them up for additional storage. At the back of the closet is the crawl space access so we can't put anything on the floor there.

We brought over the baking supplies from our house (our oven doesn't work, so we wouldn't be baking anyway) and placed them in the kitchen. Everything is construction dusty, so we clean first and then arrange. 

Taryn used the new vacuum to vacuum the carpet. New carpet has lots of fuzzy leftover pieces.

The kids took our camping cushions, their blankets and pillows, and toilet paper over to the house and spent the night in Tanner's room. Just a maiden voyage...

Our friend, Ed, brought over his trailer for us to use for moving our stuff. He and Quinn were able to get it into our garage (a tight fit) so that we could load things over several days. This is the part I am not looking forward to--packing up and moving and arranging. I guess the good thing is that we have never moved more than a mile--it was only around the corner from our first apartment to our house on Lee and not quite a mile from our house on Lee to our house on Creswain; and now it's just around the corner to our new address on Ruby Drive.