248 - Progress

We've been talking about how to solve our kitchen issue... the lack of a pantry, how closed off it is. Initially I wanted to put shelves in what is currently the mancave, but then I had an epiphany. The wall is offset where the chimney comes up from the basement, if we moved the kitchen wall out and made it flush, I could have a pantry in the kitchen where it makes a whole hell of a lot more sense, and we can use our dining room table as a countertop until we are ready to install something more permanent. It's not as open as we'd like, but it's a start, it gets us a pantry and a casual eating space/counter space and opens up the kitchen a bit.

We also need to add some shelves to the bathroom closet, rearrange the closets in the bedrooms, and add shelves to the basement so we can better organize our things. But one step at a time, the kitchen frustrates me the most and is a cheap fix. We've already scored some free pallets that I can use to make a decorative wall. Trust me, it'll be cool.

Anyway, we got started tonight. For about $100 we bought some lumber. The framing within the walls is also in very good shape, so if we can reuse them, we're even further ahead since that leaves the other lumber for the basement.

It may surprise you to learn that I didn't participate much in the demo. Mike was having too much fun and I'm still recovering from my cold. I helped clean up a bit, we'll finish that up tomorrow.

And, the job thing seems to be working itself out. That's all I know right now, but things look good and the happy feelings about the future that I experienced the other day seem to be bearing fruit. The fruit is always bittersweet, but at least there is fruit right?

Yesterday I made boudain. It wasn't the *best* boudain, but the fact that I made it was somewhat impressive and it looks like boudain. It's a start. I don't know how other people do it, but it took both Mike and I working together to stuff it into the casings.

I forgot to take a before picture, but this is about mid-demo on the living room side of the wall.

Kitchen side before... the wall heater has already been removed.

Mike working out some aggression.

Ta-da. Now we have to install headers where the pantry wall will go and remove the studs where the counter will go.

A mess.

So our plans are coming together. We have two versions, one where we have the money to do an addition, one where we make the most of what we have now with an eye to the future. They're both pretty exciting. Honestly, once we get our stuff out of storage we'll have two bedrooms so it won't seem as urgent to build a master suite... nice yes... eventually we want to... but for the moment we think maybe a half bath where the coat closet is, better storage options, get rid of some stuff, replace the windows, and we'll be on our way to living more comfortably. Mostly we just need to find a place for our things, to reduce the clutter, which will make the house feel bigger.

Being back on track feels nice regardless.