A few days before Christmas, we had a problem. It was a big one. The supply line for the toilet had been leaking and it caused the ceiling in the pantry to collapse. Of course I had no idea that was going on and the kids said “oh yeah, the floor is always wet”. Days before Christmas we had a ruined pantry, a leak, a mess and to top it off we were leaving for two weeks.

Fortunately, we have a friend that has done some work for us before and we were able to get him to work on the repairs while we were gone. After fixing all of the damage I started looking at the empty pantry and thought, this would be the time to make some changes if I wanted.

The old pantry

I talked to my wife about the situation and she was game. So I started thinking about what I wanted to change. I didn’t like how full it was or all of the clutter, brooms and mops blocked the dryer door when carelessly stowed. I wanted to add a wine cooler (mini fridge for now). The bank of drawers were largely useless. The shelves were added as an afterthought and were at risk of tipping over or collapsing when pressure applied.

At first, I wanted to do this the tyical way. I was going to use prefinished plywood and build cabinets quickly. But, my wife didn’t want the expense so we compromised on this idea that I had always had. Back when we moved into this house, there was a Douglas Fir that we had removed. I hired a portable mill to cut the lumber and it has been dried and stacked, waiting to build a project that belonged to this home. So, that is what I am going to do.

Plans for the pantry

It wont be the fastest way to get this done, but in the end, I think the story will be worth it. Stay tuned for updates, I estimate this will take six weeks or so to complete.