Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine. Show all posts

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Step Up

one of the items on my list of Must-Have's was a step ladder that i could store IN the pantry so we could get to our IKEA Hacked pullouts at the top of the pantry & fridge.  both of us are only 5'5" & we cannot ask Tucker to come over every time we need the pizelle maker.  

4 of 5:  Handy Step Storage


so a LOOOOONG time ago, i found this ladder at The Container Store

but was too stubborn to buy it.  i was certain i could find something (1) local & (b) cheaper with my focus being on the former.  i also made the mistake of only concentrating on how flat the ladder could fold up & if it was shallow enough to still slide into the bottom of the pantry.  i never really focused on the height it would give me (or lack thereof) when unfolded.  so with that misguided priority in mind, i ended up buying a single step step stool from Target.



not a bad little step, but really what was i thinking?  one step?  i might as well stand on my tippies!
so i finally did an online chat with a CS rep & explained my delima & she graciously agreed to get someone to measure this thing folded up.  "it cannot exceed 23" front-2-back when collapsed or the pantry door won't shut & this MUST be stored in the kitchen or we will continue to stand on my refurb'd stools" i told her - that poor poor woman!  it came in at....drum roll.....dramatic pause.......i don't remember, but it was less than 24" hooray!  so of course i ordered right then & there...........NO!
i don't know why, i just didn't.  wait, i think i mentioned something about being indecisive?  yeah, that would be it.  so FIIINALLY i got my crap together & ordered it!  but not before online chatting 1 more time to make sure i'd made it absolutely clear that this thing HAD to be 23" or less when folded.  dear dog!  someone help me!  yet another CS rep chatted with me online & assured me he understood my question & it was definitely whatever measurement i didn't remember yet again - i have a feeling i'm flagged at their Call Center now.  so all that for this!
and i love it!  these upper cabinets by far are still one of my favorites HACKS in the remodel, second only to my wine storage.  and how did the ladder do when collapsed?  
perfect!  do we use it often?  sparingly, but the whole point of the top cabinets is for seasonal/lesser used items that had to stay - unlike the mounds of crap that never made it back into the kitchen!  but when i do want to get to it, it's not a hassel & i'm not digging stuff out.  
the only complaint i would say about this ladder is it's not easy to collapse back down.  i saw that in the comments section before i bought it & it does take me a few seconds to get it right, but it's worth it not to have to lug a step ladder through the house, watch Nacho stand on the counters, or risk some horrendous Darwinian episode from standing on those bar stools.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Punch List

oh my dog! some times you just have those weekends where, for no explanable reason, you get lots of stuff done! i don't know what happened to us this past weekend, but, whatever it was, i liked it! i always have my list of things to get accomplished written out for Fridays and i never get any of it done.  this last Friday was no exception.  instead of working on an endless ToNotDo list, i took Baxter over to my co-worker's house for some socializing work.  after we got back home, i had no motivation to do anything that i'd put on my list during the week.
however, for some strange reason, Saturday was a different story.  Nacho & i did our usual Sat morning breakfast at the Greece & when we got home, boy did we hit the ground running.  for me it was a deep cleaning Saturday.  we get a LOT of those wispy cob webs around here & i'd ignored them long enough. so my intention was to vacuum everything above eye level.  i did just that, but then it somehow led to more.  so here's just some of what we accomplished.....

Venting

Nacho proved me wrong for once!  he got this finished up in about 2 weeks

yes, we now vent to the outside!  horray!  so technically, the kitchen/dining remodel is complete!  i will post a full before/after soon!  this sets us up for the roof redo that we've been needing for some time. can't wait!

Wine Storage

i'd originally posted the bulk of this project here, but it was nowhere near complete at the time.  the steps have long been painted but i never did line the bottom drawers & get everything set up for storage.  check that off the list as well.
this is still by far one of my favorite items in the remodel.  and yes all of that is wine we drink with the exception of 1 empty bottle that is a placeholder!  i did add the verticle corks at the back of each bottle to prevent the bottles from sliding back & so far it's worked great!  the bottom drawers actually have room for 2 rows of wine & each drawer has room in the very back for 1-2 empty bottles.  i plan to keep those handy for that placeholder function so that bottles don't roll around when there is an empty slot.  and yes, Graffina is my current favorite right now - i have 3 different years of it. yum-o!  oh, and if anyone can find me a consistent supply of The Show Cab, i'd greatly appreciate it!

Sealed

okay, this i actually did Friday morning, but i'd been on Nacho to apply a layer of Tung oil to the bamboo counter tops.  why i didn't just do it myself to begin with, i'll never know.  but that's done now as well!

Trim

oh god how we hate HATE hate painting trim around here.  let's see with the kitchen/dining remodel, we had 10 windows to trim out & Nacho did 1. wonder who did THE OTHER FRACKING 9??? oh yeah, that would be me!  i am a saddist!

but it's done finally!  i did also manage to take some time to put 1 more coat of gloss on our bedroom window.  the photos above are the spare bedroom/office & they were dying for some attention.  anyone notice the lovely screen patch in the first photo (check out the right screen).  yeah, that's sticky Cling Wrap that's been taped to the screen on both sides using packing tape.  we can thank Baxter for that nice little remodel.  he wasn't getting enough of a breeze through his hair so he made a minor modification.  well, until we get it fixed.....  i must say, as much as i loathe painting trim, i do love how it looks when you're done.  i spent tonight putting all the hardware back on.  note to self/everyone:  it really is worth your time to remove all that hardware & don't bother taping the windows off, just come back with a razor blade after.  both those tips are such time savers!

Return of the Tarp Curtain

so i did finally get my sewing machine back a couple of weeks ago. and remember whe i modified that existing curtain to add a liner to it for use in the bedroom?  guess what?  i don't like it and i've changed my mind.  i know, simply shocking.  but i never did get rid of the old Tarp curtain!  you know what?  it's rough, but i really do like it!  so since the office/spare bedroom didn't have a good blackout curtain, just an old sheer from Pier1 way back when, i put Tarp curtain back up in here.
for some reason, i still like this curtain best. i like it so much, i'm changing my color scheme when we redo this room so i can keep this curtain. crazy i know!  i think the true test will be if Moser can sleep in here without the street light peaking through!

A Little Extra

and with the old Pier1 sheer i had in the office coming down to make way for the Tarp curtain, i had a tension rod with nothing to do.  so i borrowed from a popular Pinterest idea & repurposed that in our laundry room.
i'm going to revamp that room some day too so you will have an idea of just how small that space is.  it is my ultimate homage to organization and/or use of every square inch humanly possible!
actually this is not all we got accomplished.  we had a couple of other small items that made a big difference (or not):

  • Nacho pulled the dining slider door & cleaned out the track. i do wish i'd gotten a picture of this. the door was so bad that i often had to put all my weight into it just to get it to open the entire way.  he said it was amazing the amount of sand that had accumulated in the track.  i think in the 11 years we've lived here we might have cleaned that thing once.  that is on my annual ToNotDo list now!
  • i attempted to organize some speaker wire behind the couch.  why i have no idea, it will never be seen.  suffice it to say, those Command strips that seem like such a great idea on tv, not so much in my house. fell right off the wall.  i ended up using the plastic nail thingies that electricians use when running wiring to fasten the wire to a floating shelf so i could at least get them off the ground. certainly not photo worthy.
so, not exactly earth shattering, change the way i live stuff, but certainly changed the way i feel.  anyone else getting things off their punch list these days!

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Wine-OH!

one of my most favorite parts of our remodel is not the windows. it's not the countertops. it's not really even my faucet that i have promised to marry!  IT'S MY WINE STORAGE!  i think i've mentioned before that i went a little nuts with the whole "storage" idea in this remodel. if there was an empty space under or behind something, i wanted to find a way to use it. i did actually hold back when it came to all that blank space behind the seating in the banquette. you have to stop at some point or people are gonna think you really ARE crazy. i like to think i stopped just this side of crazy.  
the first time i mentioned the wine storage was in my little Check List of items.  i actually did finish it back in August.  okay, the top steps are finished.  and although i have not taken a true After photo, with the steps painted & all, here they are, or rather here they were in August!
how cool is that?!  keep in mind, these are the 2 sets of steps that separate the dining from the living room.  and that's just the first step of storage.  the step below that has drawers that are about twice as deep.  so here's how i did it!  oh, and forgive the pics, cuz, again, in a rush to get photos i used my phone & that's really not the best when you have the shakes from all that wine like i do!

Materials - aside from the drawers themselves that Tom @ PlumCreek made
  • i used cork shelf liner (to carry the wine cork theme, but also for grip)
  • Xacto knife or Box Cutter - aka Utility Knife apparently in the Mid-West!
  • Ruler
  • extra wine corks for spacers
  • and of course WINE!!!

oh, & btw, that is an original Charles Chips can holding my spare corks. i have 2 of them thanks 2 mom!
Assembly
make sure you have a clean drawer. i vacuumed it out & lightly sanded it.

Special Note:  Nacho had to use the table saw & sander to the bottoms & front panel because i ended up adding thin felt strips to the bottom for glide - or else it scratched my beautiful Marmoleum floor. i found the felt strips at Hobby Lobby & it came in a sheet of 8.5 x 11, just like paper.  even as thin as it was, this would affect the fit so he had to take a little off to make it work. this was trial & error so there were actually multiple trips to the sander & table saw before we got the bottoms & front whittled down so they didn't stick.

now, cut your shelf liner to size. the easy way for me was to actually turn the drawer over & trace the bottom. perfect fit every time - except for the 1st one cuz i didn't think of it until after that!
hold it down & peel it back as you go
and there you have it! a nicely lined drawer!
Spacers
since wine bottles vary in size, i didn't want to put anything too permanent in place where i might run into "accommodation" issues later. not that i can't drink my way out of any "accommodation" issues! but i wanted to leave a little wiggle room inside the drawer.  to do that, i sized the drawer up by laying out a few bottles without everything being crammed bottle-to-bottle.
anyone want to guess my current favorite wine?
take 4 spare corks & hot glue 2 to each side, placing them close to the front & back of the bottles. i figured this keeps the bottles from clanging against the sides of the wood.  i could have fit a 5th bottle in there, but, again, bottle sizes vary so i could run into issues down the road.
dab of hot glue on the bottom of the corks
THIS IS JUST ON THE RIGHT & LEFT OF THE DRAWER! don't hot glue anything in between bottles. i considered & even tried cutting some corks in half lengthwise & whatever the other direction is. wine corks don't cut so well, & since i've had some pretty serious run-ins with sharp objects, i'm restricted on how much i'm allowed to use a knife (just you wait Nacho!). so it was just easier to use the whole cork & glue it in place on each side.
now just lay spare corks in between the wine bottles as you need them.  i used 2 like the sides - 1 to the front & 1 to the back!
and what's nice about this, is as i take a bottle out, if i don't have something to immediately take it's place, i just put a bunch of extra wine corks in the gap until i get replacement wine bought!
and since i have extra space behind the bottles (to the back of the drawer), i just move the spare corks back there when i'm restocking the drawer. that way i always have extra corks right where i need them!

....and just wait! i have more ideas for all those corks! bwah ha ha!
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