Signs of Normalcy

This weekend we were able to tackle a number of projects that have been sitting on our "to-do" list for a while. The main source of motivation is our upcoming holiday party (T-minus four weeks!).

The kitchen gets the majority of our attention these days, primarily because it would be nearly impossible to host a party without a way to cook and refrigerate things. While the cabinets are awaiting final assembly and finish, we tackled a few smaller projects at home.

We put plastic sheeting over our antique pool table and set up our paint station for doors and shelves.

The shelves for our pantry were cut from 1x12" pine, and then painted the same white as the trim in our kitchen. We also cut the bottom off all the doors in (and adjacent to) the kitchen since the new tile raised the floor level by a good three-quarters of an inch.

Inside the pantry, we cut and painted some 1x1" to 12" lengths to give our shelves something to sit on.

Here are the shelves - level and installed. We are really pleased with the yellow walls inside the pantry. (And how much does the Threadless "Cookie and Milk" print rock?)

The top shelf is a little close to the top of the doorway, but I think we'll still be able to put a good amount of food up there (as the ceiling in the closet is 9' tall!).

It's pretty sad that unpacking food and cooking utensils from boxes and placing it onto shelves can provide such a sense of accomplishment. Finishing this job made us realize how much we take the little things (like not having to dig through boxes to find a shaker of salt) for granted.