Pantry Project- Before

Who knew that when I was dreaming way back in 2007 that I would so soon have a pantry of my own to make pretty. Not me! But now I do and as it turned out I was just in time to catch the last weekend of the Container Store's elfa sale. So, after some consulting and confusion we picked up all the ingredients for new shelves and a cart for the microwave. Now that I have so much more counter space I don't want to donate any of it to the ugly appliance. The nice elfa-elf that helped us was almost giddy to hear that I shared her distaste for the cooking box. I will someday also get the over-the-door storage system, but I couldn't go whole-hog just yet. Maybe next year's sale will bring the opportunity. Anyway, here's what I'm starting with. You fortunately can't really tell just how gross and grimy it is in there right now. I'm going to tear out the shelves and supports, scrub the walls something fierce, and maybe even paint it (if I could choose the right color, which we all know is quite the ordeal). I am very excited about having a nice, new and well-organized pantry in my future- even if I have to work hard for it!

The Casa: Before Shots Volume I- The Kitchen

Okay, posting some pics of the house as it stands, before we really get down to work this week and weekend. Starting with the kitchen/dining room. Looks a little messy because I took these after we had dragged in our supplies for staying the night.

















The refrigerator has now filled in the space on the right. I'll have to take a new pic of it in all it's shininess.



















































Here is half of the dining room area. Small door is the pantry (I have a pantry!), and larger door goes to the garage. I'll be sharing my pantry plans later. And of course, I just realized since we're not even painting this space there isn't going to be a huge difference between the before and after. Oh well, ha. Going from a 64 sq. foot kitchen to this space makes me giddy. I only have 2 drawers in our apartment kitchen. My new kitchen has 5 times that many! And more cabinets than I currently know what to do with. Josh was a good husband though and stood glassy-eyed, but patient, as I rambled about which cabinet I think I'll put the plates in.