Building my Pantry #3 (Shelving...or something close to it.)

I muddled my way through the installation of 3 shelves on Sunday and ran into a few snags. First is that the back wall is the absolute opposite of level…like – we’re talkin – Alice the Camel’s back is more level than my wall! Snag #2 is that the left wall of the pantry is full of wiring, the stack for the bathroom, and not a single stud to anchor into for support! Now that I’m typing this it occurs to me that the pantry wall used to be the opening into the kitchen…so why isn't it hollow??  I can’t imagine why there would be wiring in there?? Oh well – who knows…my friends used to call this house “Lego Land” for years! Lol The strapping for the first shelf took the longest, and the next 2 shelves went in pretty quickly. Even though I had a chop saw readily available, I opted to use the hand saw to cut it all (cuz it was quieter and less scary).

When I finally had the 3 shelves installed it became very obvious that the walls are beyond crooked. There was an obvious hump in the wall that was keeping the shelf pushed out and off of the strapping. 

I had to cut into the drywall and create a space to push the shelves into (more mess). Once that was done, hubby silicone all the shelves down and caulked all around the top to finish the seams and make it look "pretty".  (Trus that it looked WAY prettier once it was sealed...I'll post more pics later)



…and 2 hours later I stood staring into my pantry, even more perplexed than I was before my last post… A Pantry, by definition, is supposed to be for food storage and I get that – but – in my case, my Patry is turning into a “Kitchen storage closet”…

Time for a cake break

I really do Love to bake (which is unfortunate for my middle).  Life has been pretty nutty lately, though, so I haven't had the chance to bake as often as I would like.  Today, though, a co-worker had a birthday and since I was out sick yesterday...he didn't get his cake today. :(  (Bad cake lady!!)  Anyhoo - I decided that I'd bake a cake tonight.  The only problem is which cake to bake??  I know I want chocolate with boiled icing...but which recipe to use?  I've been using my "old faithful" recipe for a dogs age, but really want something different so tonight I picked this recipe that I found on relativetaste.com.  I've made it before and I recall that it was delicious...but I'm nearly out of sour cream. :(  When I made it tonight, I had to use half sour cream and half mayonnaise...then I added a little extra vanilla (not by choice).  It's in the oven now and has been for about 30 minutes...I reeeely hope it works out cuz I'd LOVE some alternatives to my old faithful chocolate cake. :)

Building my Pantry; #2

Yesterday the impatience kicked in and forced me to Home Hardware.  I had a brief chat with hubby before I left and was pretty much forbidden to bring anything home.  His reasoning was sound - I just didn't care. ;)  He's still not back on his feet from surgery and the table saw is buried in the shed - so - he wasn't able to rip the pine needed for the shelf brackets.  Ok - I understand - and the other pine is too expensive - bla bla bla...But...since hubby used to work at this particular Home Hardware - the guys are super helpful.  They pulled out some very clear 1x2 pine for me and cut my 8' shelving down to 6' so that it would fit in the civic.  I only picked up 3 shelves...then didn't get to do a darn thing with it last night.  this morning, though, I'm up and attem and reeeeely wanna put some shelves in there.  The trouble is...I found THIS article...and now I'm second guessing everything.  *sigh*  What to do??  I bought 3 shelves that are 12" deep...time to think some more I think...