My Second Pantry!!

Growing up, we had a cellar under the kitchen, that held all the canned goods Mom would can during harvest season. It was a pain to get to it, as we had to move the kitchen table every time we wanted something, but it was nice to have a small room full of shelves since Mom did a lot of canning.

When we moved here, I planned a nice size pantry, so I had a place for extra food and storage for kitchen things, right IN my kitchen. Least I thought it was nice sized...not ever having had a pantry before, what did I know. LOL

With doing more and more canning I've discovered that it's not big enough...not even close! I've had to clean it out several times, and put more kitchen stuff that doesn't get used as much up in the attic, just to have room for the jars and cans of food.

Last year's harvest season was the last straw. I decided we HAD to find a place for more shelves, there was just NO WAY around it.

Our side porch, was where I was going to have an extra day bed set up, so we could go out there and watch storms in comfort, or have a place for more people to sleep. We had put drywall up...not finished & painted...just up, & painted the floor, but never got the old day bed down from the attic for some reason, where it had gone to live when DH's sister was staying with us. So that's where we decided to build some shelves.

The PERFECT place, would have been DH's office, since it's right outside the kitchen. However even though he offered to move his office to the porch, I didn't want to have him out there, as it's easier to talk to him in his office...and it can be warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter so figured the food would be better there, than him. He needs his comfortable room too. :)

So we started making plans for a 2nd pantry on the porch, and figuring out what supplies DH had, that he could use for shelves. Finally this month...with spring just around the corner, I told DH he HAD to get it done, so I could get the pantry cleaned out and things moved around ready for the busier season's coming up.


DH knew he had 4 metal shelves left from those that he made my soap center out of,(he had scrounged them last summer figuring we could use them for something) but the rest would have to be wood, so he has been keeping his eyes open for wood he could use. He found a construction site that had some nice crate's with 1 by's on them, and asked if he could have them. Since they said yes, he brought them home, tore them apart...and there were the shelves I needed for the rest of the new pantry!

Finally this week, he has pretty much finished getting my 2nd pantry ready for me. Yippee!! (Just have one more small shelf unit to build...but it can be done outside hopefully and brought in whole when we get the supplies for it...oh and one long shelf almost the length of the porch to put up, once we have some more brackets.)

My 2nd pantry is not as pretty as the pantry in my kitchen, but I don't care as long as it holds our supplies and anything else I put in there. I'm so excited to get it filled, so I can go through the kitchen stuff still in the attic, and decide what to bring down to be able to use again!! I didn't get started on it today, cause he just finished it this afternoon, and I was busy doing other things.

DH covered the two windows we had in there with cardboard, so we can still open them if we need to, yet the sun won't warm up the porch quite as much this way we are hoping. The vent that goes out on the porch, has trouble cooling (or heating) the porch, but that room is staying warmer now that the wall is up...so maybe it will be a little cooler in the summer between the wall and the windows being covered.

I knew once spring got here, DH would be wanting to do things outside when he can, so I wanted this done this winter. This week wasn't the best choice on when to do it, since it was so nice outside...but since it hadn't been done before, he got stuck doing it now. Praise God for giving us most of the supplies for it for free...and thanks Darling for doing it for me!!!

Now....about those thresholds I've been waiting 7 years for! *giggle*