Ask The Helpful Housewife

Before & AFTER!!!!!

The old fireplace:

UGLY.  When we moved in we vowed we would do built ins.  We moved in May 5th 2001.  This photo above was taken Christmas 2008.  Seven years of procrastination.  (And 4 kids! lol)  Fast forward to this past fall....  In October 2011, the carpet was already ripped out and the fireplace torn apart.  And then Andy got down to work.

There were tears, fights, words, conversations....  he was building something completely different than what I wanted.  (See previous post.  He tends to do that.)  He couldn't comprehend what I was trying to describe.  And then it began to come together.  And by Christmas, I had my dream gift!  I love my incredibly talented husband!

I LOVE the bamboo flooring!  It is from Lumber Liquidators. It is the Carmelized Strand floating floor.  And I can't say it enough - I truly love it!

Beginning to move back in....

Back in our comfy family room!  And in love!  We still have to finish up the lower cabinets - the doors still need to be made and installed, and drawers built and installed in the lower left cabinet, but that will happen soon.  I'm just thrilled with how the whole thing turned out! And I finally have my crown moulding.  Now that he sees how it really does finish off the room, he has agreed it does need to go throughout the first floor.  YAY!

NOTE:  The tree, stockings, and general Christmas decor are gone now...  but it still looks beautiful to me.  I may never put up window treatments.  I love how the light makes the floor glow, and I know I will never get a rug to hide it!  :) Over time, I will take care of all the little details that will finish it, such as what will go on the shelves and walls, but the big job is done.  And I am so proud of my husband again!

I Love My New Pantry!

Come on in! Right through this door....

OK, so my pantry isn't NEW, so to speak.  It's been finished for over a year.  But I love just as much now as I did when I first walked in the day Andy pronounced it finished.  We had this weird extra room under our front porch that made no sense.  So we stuck some old metal shelves and a freezer in there as a makeshift pantry as, even though our kitchen has plenty of cabinets, it still didn't seem to have adequate or even useable storage.  So he built me a proper pantry in here!

 

You can see he went way above and beyond what I asked for.  I just wanted him to build me some real wooden shelving that would be stable and efficient.  I got that obviously.  Along with wood laminate flooring and  even dimmable lighting above each of the built in wine shelves!  He is kind of like Tim "the Tool Man" Taylor, and usually in the bad way.  He always makes things bigger than they need to be.  But in this case, it really worked out. 

I now have space for all of my appliances I only use occasionally.....

And room for my pantry stock of non-perishables....

And it's easy to keep organized.  When I originally moved everything in, I took the extra time to clearly label every thing.  This way even my kids and husband can make sure to keep it from becoming a chaotic mess!

Behind the door is where I keep all of those extra things that take up space but we always seem to need more of! I can keep a stock of paper towels and paper plates and that type of thing here, because there is nothing worse than needing a paper towel, reaching for one, and finding an empty cardboard tube and no more in the house!

 Last but not least, here is the little extra Andy built in just for me.  He is so thoughtful!  He thought I might want a "desk" in here for looking through cookbooks, setting down grocery bags, etc.  It is a great bonus to the room!  I use it a lot.

I know, the drawers underneath are a MESS! I need to get on that.  I threw all the plastic picnic ware in there after the summer and didn't get back to it yet.  I need to asap.  But I love this area.  The walls are all done in white board material, so I can just grab dry erase markers and scribble my grocery lists on the wall! I have found this makes it really easy for shopping.  I simply take a photo of the wall on my cell phone, and then I have my list with me, no matter where I am! 

Across from the desk under the snack shelves are drawers for potatoes, onions, etc.  And next to that is the upright deep freezer.  So there really is a place for everything!

So, there's the pantry.  You can see why I am in love!  One of these days I'll have to show you the built-ins he did for me around the fireplace in our family room this Christmas. OMG!!!!!!  This man missed his calling!  But for some reason I can't find a before picture.  I have to find one of those first.  Otherwise it doesn't really do it justice!  (Can you tell I'm really proud of him?!?!)