Bob: A bit of primer is applied, to start things off.
Nan: I wasn't here to see the primer go on, but it sure did change the looks of this room.
Bob: To make a bunch of shelves, you have to spend a little time establishing the alignment. These are just a portion of the alignment lines we put up to guide us. The lines represent the bottom edges of shelves and the right edges of vertical supports. Shelf supports (bats) are installed just below the lines.
Nan: It was so exciting to see the lines go on these walls. It made the shelves look
like a possibility. We have pictures of the end wall and the other long wall, showing
their lines, but they were blurry, so we didn't include them, but they showed where the
shelves were going to LIVE.
Bob: A few of the bat-stock two-by-twos turned out a little twisted. We couldn't use this one. ;-}~
Nan: You should see the twist in this. It doesn't really show up here. Believe it or not, it twisted AFTER we got it from Lowe's. Ya think they'd take it back?
Bob: Ahhh, twisted bats for twisted minds. ;-}~
Bob: All a fellow needs to cut shelves is a skilsaw, a relatively straight two-by-four, some clamps an old door, and some milk crates, always remembering, of course, exactly which piece is the scrap and which is the part.
Nan: Next winter, I'll be able to sit in here and think about all the cabinets and shelves
that wended their way through my nice living room.
Bob: The shelf stack starts at the bottom and works its way up. Vertical supports get cut to fit along the way. The point of reference for the room was on the opposite wall over the freezer at 72-1/2 inches above the floor. This ended up to be over 74 inches on this wall due to the slope of the porch.
The left ends of all shelves were reduced to a depth of twelve inches in order to clear the freezer door.
Nan: It was exciting to see this stage of the pantry go in. Even knowing it would be
coming back out for staining and finishing, it felt right.
Bob: Here, the bats are being installed on the plugged door-hole wall. The studs ended up not so difficult to find, due to the cute li'l sonic stud finder I purchased.
Nan: This installation was sort of a fly-by-the-point-of-the-drill thing. We had it on paper, and in our heads, but translating that to walls and such was different. We had no architect to tell us it was right. That's why the shelves went up, then down, then back up. We wanted it right.
BTW, I think Bob fell in love with that stud finder. :)
Bob: The shelves over the freezer included a floating support at the left end, allowing for one of those nicely refinished kitchen wall cabinets to be hung directly underneath (no bat). We used plywood siding scrounged from a construction dumpster two summers ago for the showy ends.
Nan: This is beauty in a much different light. I love these shelves. Can't you just see
them filled with all sorts of goodies?
Bob: Here, most of the shelves on the outside wall have been dry-fitted. The tall vertical chamber is for the tank vacuum cleaner we plan to keep in here.
Nan: The vacuum chamber was my idea. Bob implemented it for me, and the vacuum loves its new home. It will house all the fittings, and will be so easy to access. I have a vacuum, called The Boss, for the utility/kitchen, and my upright Hoover for the carpeted upstairs, as well as the tank vacuum that lives here. I have a plethora of vacuums.
That's no sacrifice!
Bob: To give front edges support with the least obstruction to access, I devised a cut pole design for a central support for all the outside wall shelves.
Nan: I'm gonna brag here: the cuts in the stud were my idea, and Bob told me it was brilliant. D'ya s'pose he meant that? Well, he DID use the idea.
Bob: All right, so it was a collaboration. Teamwork, partnership. A group effort. An alliance, an association, a relationship. Cooperation. We designed and egineered this solution together, as we did all aspects of this project.
OK, so it WAS her idea! ;-}~
Bob: Now, the pole is in place, and leaves no unsupported span longer than 31 inches.
Nan: This really works; no part of the shelves is inaccessible. I can even reach the
top ones with a two-step step-stool. But, I don't really need that, I have Bob.
(He's always telling me that!).
Bob: Of course, if we want these to look good, we have to sand, stain and seal them. We could have painted them white and be done with it, like the shelves in the utility room, but this solution will be more durable and maintainable (and more beautiful). So, down came all the shelves to be processed. These have already been sanded once with 60-grit cabinet paper.
Nan: I have to brag again. I helped sand these shelves. It was actually fun, until
the sanddust began to choke me.
Bob: Have you ever tried to refinish Douglas fir? It's both hard and soft. The hard areas are almost impervious to stain; the soft areas are difficult to keep from turning completely black. We are using Minwax Dark Walnut stain, brushed on and immediately wiped off. For expediency, 60-grit sandpaper was the finest used for this project, not a particularly high specification. The results were still well worth the effort.
Nan: I didn't get to hang around for this stage. I couldn't breathe the fumes.
Bob worked alone on this part of the job.
Bob: We used Varathane semigloss finish for these shelves. Here is a nice wet view of some of them. I applied the material to these surfaces, as they stood nearly vertically, with a three-inch brush. This reduced the settling of dust on the fresh surfaces.
Nan: Ditto on the finishing. I couldn't breathe the fumes. So I got to stay back
at Little House and play on the computer. :)
Bob: The entire pantry got a complete final coat of paint.
Bob: Here's me, installing the finished shelves over the freezer. These went up a lot faster this time! It must've been because it was leap year day, ya think? ;-}~
Nan: He let me use his digital camera. Can you believe that? Me with a camera in my
hands? Naw, I still don't like picture taking.
Bob: This is a shot with all the shelves on the outside wall in place.
Nan: I already have started to fill these shelves. Got lots more to go though.
Bob: This shot gives a better idea of the color. The tray on the floor will get wheels and two milk crates for bottles of water for coffee and juice.
Nan: This is still the most exciting thing. It's coming to life in front of us. One
little step at a time, and then done!
Bob: The freezer has finally migrated from the dining room, where it has been for two months. Also the first refinished kitchen cabinet is seen here, mounted under the shelves. This cabinet fits next to the freezer on this wall with NO room to spare (not an accident).
Nan: The freezer fits like a glove here. The step-back in the pantry shelves accommodates the swing of the door nicely, and no pinched fingers.
Look at that wonderful cabinet that fits exactly between the door frame and the freezer side wall. Why, you'd think it was designed that way.
Bob: It was, Nan. I might add here that the freezer still has the manfacturer-recommended
three-inch space to its right.
Nan: Nice shot showing the two wall cabinets. The far one will hold all those things one wants to remember to take with one when leaving, and a nice place to hide mittens, hats, etc.
P.S. I'll probably have to shoot Bob to keep him from stacking stuff on top of that one. :)
Bob: The closer cabinet will be where many of my accessories for the Coffee Center
will live, like coffee, creamer, sugar, filters and so forth.
Bob: The coffee pot will live on this base cabinet.
Nan: We decided that this is closer to the dining table than the kitchen counter for the coffee pot. Also, it is right next to the wheeled Water Trolley.
We use bottled water for coffee because Lebanon's water is less than perfect for coffee and oj.
Also the twenty-ounce bottles of water will reside in this room. I never in this life thought I'd prefer (and pay for) bottled water, but, when in Rome, or when in Lebanon, do as the natives do.
Humm, isn't that a song or something?
BTW, we're going to get an edge kit to fix the edge of the counter where it was cut to
accommodate the single base cabinet.
Bob: This tray now has the wheels installed, and will hold 96 pounds of water (twelve gallons) very nicely.
The pantry now has all the essentials in place, except for a new electrical outlet above the Coffee Center for the freezer and the coffee pot (thus the extension cord here). Sure, there's those coat hooks and what not, but the kitchen calls louder right now. Screams, actually.
Nan: This Water Trolley is another of my ideas that seemed to take on a life of its own. It morphed from a slide out tray, to sitting on a piece of carpet, to these wonderful wheels that Bob found at Tractor Supply for a song. The wheels work much better than the slides or the carpet piece would have.
I was very concerned that the tray would scratch my new floor, so Bob kindly built this for us.
Bob: I may have sung a song, but I still had to pay cash for those wheels. ;-}~
Bob: This is a picture from some months later, after we've had a chance to lay in some supplies. This room meets or exceeds all of our needs, giving us oodles of space to store lots of goodies.
Nan: Stocked Up? No, no, no. We do not have cattle stored in here. What we do have is the
opportunity to buy in bulk, and store. We're eating $.99/can beans now, when the store
has them for $1.89/can. When I need something for a meal, I merely ask Bob to go to the
"store", and he does; it's very nice that the store is only a few steps away from the kitchen.