pantry before and after

my pantry was one of the last areas in my house with those darn wire shelves. it's hard to tell, but Erin had just reorganized it like a week before this picture was taken. it just wouldn't stay neat. i really wanted to "fix"it, but so many other things were higher up on the list.

Eric finally persuaded me to have California Closets come in and put in new shelves for me. this feels like cheating to me, after all, i am perfectly capable of building shelves, and i even like doing it (not to mention that i'm a cheapskate.) but, with starting school, i knew that having our family's food strewn all over the kitchen for two weeks while i finished up the project would not have been fun, so i relented.

i wanted to wait until i got all of the stuff put away and labeled to post about it, but i just couldn't wait any longer! i love it SO MUCH!!!!!

Somebody loves me...

Look what Eric made for me this weekend:

The builder wouldn't put slide out shelves in this cabinet because the gas line caused an obstruction in the back of the cabinet. But my smart husband figured it out:

He just put a notch in the back corner to allow for the gas line.

Here they are with the pots and pans in. It makes me so happy! Thanks, honey!

lego my messy legos

I wrote this post a few weeks ago, knowing I would be too busy to blog for awhile. The table's been finished for almost a month now, and we are still loving it!

if you have boys, then you know what i'm talking about. legos have taken over our lives here. my 8 year old son LOVES them, asks for them for every birthday/christmas. the problem is, with so many different sets, how do you find the teeny tiny specific piece that you need when making a particular project?

you dump out all 240,000 legos all over the carpet in your bedroom and dig through them. then when your mommy comes in and says it's time to pick up and get ready for bed, you cry because you just spent the last 6 hours hunting for that piece and still didn't find it, and now you have to pick them all up and start over tomorrow.

my kids may tell you differently, but i really am a compassionate person. i TOTALLY understand the frustration of not being able to find something when you need it. believe me, a good portion of my childhood was spent searching for things and then giving up on whatever game/craft/school project i was working on because our house was a black hole.

this boy is so creative and i don't want him to give up on that. coming up with a lego solution was on the list, but lots of other things were coming first, until my friend Kathleen needed to go to IKEA and even though i didn't need to, i went along (because i can always find something to buy at IKEA) so the project began, even though it was probably not as urgent as some other things on the list.

here's how we did it:

i bought two TROFAST units in pine and primed them.

eric and i went to Lowes' and got some 1/2 inch MDF and 3x1 birch boards, and built a top for the tables.

then we painted the TROFAST units black using a gloss latex enamel and a sponge roller (and lots of Flotrol)

two coats

he spray-painted the table top - it needs to be a bit more durable.

we sorted all of the legos by color, as well as people and wheels, and any other categories that make sense to the kids. (there is room for 18 small bins)

Eric went to the Lego store and got some of the flat gray base pieces. he was going to glue them down, but then we wouldn't be able to use the table for games or other stuff, so they are just sitting on top.

i made some labels using clip art from Just Something I Made, cut them out and taped them on with packing tape.

the kids were thrilled, and I love that the legos get put away! there is a huge resurgence of creative building in our house thanks to this simple and awesome organizing tool!