If you Give me a hammer,

Have you read the book  If You Give a Mouse a Cookie by  Laura Numeroff and Felicia Bond?  It's about a mouse, when given a mere cookie an adventure ensures when he decides he needs something to go with it.  It's a classic children's book and my children loved it growing up.  I'm a bit like that mouse... 

When we bought our house back in 1994, we were moving from a 600 sq. ft. apartment with two children under the age of 18 months.   It seemed like a dream house to us, but little did we know it was our Money Pit.

 We found illegal wiring in the walls, the breaker box wasn't a box, but the individual breakers were sitting on a board in the attic, exposed to the insulation and junk.  The company that made the heater that the "builder" installed, was put out of business by the government 20 years before our house was even built, and it wouldn't heat our home and we constantly feared it would catch our home on fire.  The hot water heater was illegally installed and we constantly smelled gas. It didn't end there, but can you hear the money draining out of our account?  It was scary.   The builder, he passed away shortly after "finishing it", but we never found out why he was able to get away with so much. 

Tearing down the old

 One thing we loved was the space in the kitchen. I grew up in a home where the kitchen was the hub of the home and it was an important space for me.  Still is really.  I soon discovered that the  pantry was a wasted space.  Everything in the back of this deep cabinet was lost, like in a deep dark cave without light. I found some party decorations from Only's 1st birthday and a can of 2010 expired  cat food.  Yikes!!!  The small cabinet above the pantry was unused due to lack of easy access and many discussions have taken place with possible solutions.  

New and ready

gone

Two years ago, I began dreaming and perusing Pinterest (so addicting to me) for ideas on how to change and improve it.  A good friend's husband is skilled with vision and ability, listened to what I wanted,  and approached about building it, two weeks ago.  He had it built in a matter of two days, and installed in one afternoon. I was giddy!!!

While it may not seem like a huge change, it was for us.  My pantry space was doubled! I suddenly have FULL access to all parts of the pantry!  I think our whole family loved walking by and smelling the new wood that wafted through the kitchen.  I spent that weekend cleaning the kitchen, rearranging, throwing out, organizing, and thinking. So with the "cookie" of the pantry,  I started looking through Pinterest again and contemplating more changes.

Ugly brown trim is gone

 I've not understood the reason for the wood trim on the backspash and cabinet and have wanted to tear it down for many years.  This last Saturday, while Honey was at work (see the logic behind this timing?), I rummaged around in his tools until I found what I needed and started banging away.  Took a while, but it's really gone.  Honey had to cut the trim in half that was behind the faucet to remove it, but it looks more open and clean!  We were amazed!

Well, the "cookie" of a new pantry, lead to the removal of the ugly wood trim, and then Honey said, "I suppose we need to..."   Yes, if you give me a niggling of a dream, I'll run with it... More dreaming, improvements, and color to come!