storage!

When I talked about my home goals for the year I mentioned we wanted to replace our baker's rack with real cabinetry.  I showed a picture of it like this.

Looks pretty tidy and not half bad but it generally looks more like this.

and this is after I removed the empty dog food can and assorted crud off the counter top.

It pretty much always looks like a sloppy mess and so I'm a glad to say that we will be replacing this with more cabinets!  An upper double cabinet that goes to the ceiling and some open shelving too.  Some lower cabinets, a little spot for a stool and a garbage drawer.  We'll be putting a butcher block counter there because we don't want to spend the money on more granite and I like the way the wood looks on the bakers rack so I think it will be a nice touch.  We're not excited to spend money but really excited to have more storage because we truly don't have enough room for food in this place.  I can deal with being minimal with kitchen dishes, pans and gadgets.  We have a spot in the basement for overflow and things we don't use all the time like the crock pot but not having enough room for pasta and canned goods is a serious problem!

So it will be about a month or so and in the meantime we have to move that pesky doorbell chime up above the bakers rack that you can see in the first picture.  This may be beyond our limited electrical capabilities so a call to the electrician will be in order. 

I'm excited.  It is another big step in making this house more functional for us like I talked about in my Home Goals:

7.  Work on making this house work for us.  Our house is on the small side but the truth of the matter is there is more than enough room.  The more we can fine tune the way we live in our little house the happier we'll be.  We might have to be creative and resourceful but this is and can continue to be a great home for us.

I'll keep you posted!  I have to get matching hinges, knobs and pulls for the new cabinetry.  It was only a year and a half ago I got everything so I'm assuming it is all still available.  Fingers crossed!

garden bed

We had talked about making a raised garden bed for our yard.  My husband came up with a rough plan and off to Home Depot he went on Saturday.  He came home with this from the outdoor wood section.

 a 4"x4" and some 1"x5 1/2"s

He decided 3'x6' would be a good size and I agreed.  That way we could surround it with wire mesh to keep the plethora of bunnies who like to chill in our yard out but I could still easily access everything from the perimeter.

The 4"x4" got cut in 4 equal lengths of 14" 

and the 1"x5 1/2"s were cut so we had four pieces 3' long and 4 pieces 6" long

 

Then it was time to screw the boards into the 4"x4".  The plan was that there would be a few inches of the 4"x4" sticking out so that we could sink it into the ground for extra stability.

Moving right along.  Olive is overseeing the project.  She is a master carpenter.  

Here it is placed in the yard before the holes were dug for the 4"x4"s.

Dig, Dig, Dig and in it goes

and one more with my ominous shadow...

 

I'm so excited thinking about what to plant.  Tomatoes for sure, cucumbers, zucchini maybe?  This was a simple project even for us and we don't have the best of tools or building know how.  Just pick a size and go to it!

I had some leftover dill from a recipe I'll share with you tomorrow and I mixed it up in some tuna salad for lunch.  It was delicious!  My little one wasn't convinced but I happily ate his sandwich too.  Try it!

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Not Just a Housewife 

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Uncommonly Yours 

Its Overflowing 

The Shady Porch

Delightful Order 

French Country cottage 

a little less impossible

My plan for the Imagine the Impossibilities challenge was to draw more.  I talked about it here.  I'd love to say I've been drawing everyday but I haven't.  I expected it would be slow going to make this a priority in my day and that has proven to be true.  My goal is to start drawing again just to enjoy it.  I used to love to draw and somewhere along the line it became something I only did for a gift or a project but I never pick up a pencil just for the sheer enjoyment of it.

I started drawing my little guy while he reclined on the couch sucking his thumb and relaxing but then he got interested and picked up a red colored pencil to "help Mama"

 He was so happy to color with me and I found the end result kind of wonderful.

I said I would count every little doodle so this "drawing" I did on the placement at Friendly's counts too right?

I'm linking up to show that I'm working to make my impossible possible.  Baby steps people, I'm getting there!

challenge!