Project Pantry - 98% complete

I have been wanting to re-do our pantry shelves pretty much since the day we moved in. I hate these wire shelves.  Everything falls off them and they can barely support the weight of a can of soup.  The most annoying part they weren't installed very efficiently.  See all those big gaps of space.  I added in a few on the left a couple years ago.  The new ones are adjustable!

This is a project that I knew would be a super pain in the but once it was finally go time.  I ordered the shelves from Menards and they took a ridiculous amount of time to come in and I did not want to get started until they arrived (see kitchen table picture for reasoning).

First step was pulling out all the food and old shelves.  The boys were extremely helpful and had a blast helping me.  I've heard them tell like five people about it!  And they really were helpful and worked super hard!

I initially thought I would load the food up in the office, but this all conveniently worked out the same time we were cleaning our carpets, we had to squeeze our massive couch into the kitchen too!  

After I pulled out all 100 nails/anchors (which did no tome out that easy), we had to fill all the holes (twice) and sand!  I think that was Thursday night.  Then we had to move our furniture and get ready for the zerorez (the radio commercials sucked me in).  

Next step was painting!  Not my finest job, but I can't tell you how excited I am to no longer have nasty, chalky ceiling paint in the pantry.  

First unit in.  We used the same system we used in our master closet, so Keith is almost an expert with the system now.  We did run into a few challenges (hence the 98% complete).

I'm sure you are thinking... they weren't very efficient, look at that big gap.  The shelves come in sets of 3 and you have to screw in the middle one.  So our cereal goes on this shelf, it's working out OK for right now.  However, I do like to maximize closet space, so if needed, I'll add a shelf.

And at about 12:30 AM on Saturday Keith was cutting the last few shelves, I was doing a bit of multi-tasking - peeling hard boiled eggs for Easter dinner, tagging garage sale clothes and installing shelves.  I finally got most the food back in by about 1:30. 

So we have one more shelf we need to buy / install and fix all of our cable box cord business....(I DON'T LIKE MESSY CORDS!)  

So overall, I'm pretty darn excited about the new pantry, it looks much better and seems to be much more organized for now!  

This would also be a good time to share my new tupperware system- not sure if I've shared, but I HATE TUPPERWARE!  I mean it's great, but really freakin annoying when it comes to unlatching lids and a cluttered mess that falls off your shelf every day.  So i am trying these soft baskets.  Working great for the lids so far, could be better for the bowls.  Great excuse to buy a new basket, have I mentioned I can barely walk past these things without buying one.  

Making Progress

I would say the hardest part of the patio project is complete!  Digging in the backyard has been giving Keith flashbacks to installing the irrigation system last summer - which will always be known as the worst DIY project ever taken on by the Bormann's.  Mostly because - this might look like dirt, but REALLY, it's much more like CEMENT.  

You have to dig down about 7", which equals A LOT OF DIRT.   Basically, this would not be complete if it weren't for my sister's fiancé, Mark.  Lucky for us he owns a bobcat / rental business and has all the things you really need for building a patio and is also has some super Bobcat Skillz!  He was so kind to meet Keith at our house one afternoon and Keith said it took him about an hour to dig it out.  Even with the Bobcat I'm sure it would have taken Keith a good day to dig it up.  The second thing - look at all that dirt!  They filled two of those trailers.  I was shocked when I saw it - it doesn't look like you could possibly dig up that much dirt.  The sweet thing about this- it was a hydralic trailer so they didn't even have to scoop the dirt back out.  So it is safe to say that if it weren't for Mark, we would be digging this thing until August!  

 

Keith had to hand-dig this small chunk and it probably took him at least 3 or 4 hours.  Finally he started to water it to soften the dirt.  Then we remembered from putting trees in last summer - to make any progress digging in our yard - you need a pickaxe.  Took three stores, but I found one at Home Depot.  Then progress went much quicker! 

So what is next?  This weekend Keith spent time tamping it down and working on leveling it out and making sure it slopes away from our house.  Now we are ready for the rock, which I believe Mark will be helping us out again.  From there we can finish leveling and it will be time to work on the wall / fire pit.  We also need to order the rest of the pavers this week.  Somehow when we squared off the patio we ended up getting an additional pallets worth of pavers larger- oops!  But it is what it is now.  Hopefully I will have more progress to share this week. We are at about 5 weeks until the baby is here!