i blog daily

So if you don't see a blog for a couple of days, that might be a sign of a baby. But seeing as there's a blog post for today, guess what? No baby.

But there is a beautiful new pantry at the bottom of my stairs, courtesy of Al's work today. Okay, well, not exactly beautiful. Just a bunch of plywood, actually. Some painted white since it was the old owners' closet that we (meaning Al) ripped out, turned around, and refurbished. Some not painted at all (that's the newer stuff, either Home Depot bought or others' leftovers that would have ended up in a trash bin). But beautiful in their spaciousness. Seven shelves, 2 1/2' to 3' deep (you'd have to ask Al the actual proportions), several 14" apart and a couple 2' apart so that we can store big items. You don't know how long I've been waiting for this.

Some people (like my brother) look at my kitchen and wonder why I don't have enough cabinets in there. There does appear to be a lot of space, but when you try to put away all of the small appliances, pots and pans, and baking dishes that aren't used every day, they tend to fill up the cabinets and spill over onto my countertops, of which I'm not too fond. (Currently Al's walkman--yes, a walkman, not even his iPod Shuffle, and his old knit cap are sitting on top of my crockpot next to three pound weights that I had to use for physical therapy. These are crammed in front of the toaster and a jar of dog biscuits. See where I'm going with this?) So my task for tomorrow (and I'm looking forward to it so much I'm almost giddy) is to start pulling things out of the cupboards and off of the countertop and organizing them in my beautiful new pantry. There are no words to explain how excited this makes me feel. Sad, I know.

There's one more thing put together in my house: the baby's changing table! This almost completes the baby's room, so assuming there isn't going to be a baby here tomorrow or Wednesday, I'll be posting pics of that. We've got The Matter of the Drawers to settle. The original changing table was blond wood, and everything in the room is espresso or a reddish stain. I wanted to (and did) redo the changing table to match the room. The only problem is that the drawer faces are not wood; they're formica or whatever that fake wood stuff is. Al wanted to paint those, but I explained that if you can't sand them to stain them, you can't sand them to paint them, either. The paint will chip right off. Spray paint with a primer might last a little longer than the paint Al was thinking of (leftovers from the baby's room), but still--not very durable. I had the idea of upholstering the drawers with leftover fabric from various projects in the room. Simple: fabric, staple gun, staples, done. Only the staple gun I was thinking he could use was a bit too big for the project.

After two weeks of having the drawers sit there with the fabric cut, Al again said that we should have just painted them. I explained (very frustrated at this point) again why we shouldn't, and asked Al if he wanted me to go out and buy an upholstery gun and do it myself. Or if he had other suggestions as to how to attach the fabric. He didn't, had just been thinking "paint." Augh. Finally, this afternoon, I tried supergluing the fabric on since he obviously didn't want to upholster the drawers for me. This even though the superglue container said it was "not for use on fabric." I only got a bit done, knew it wouldn't really stay, and ran out of superglue anyway. I went downstairs where Al was working on the pantry almost crying and very frustrated. I told him what I had been trying to do and he said, "I think I have one of those staple guns either in my truck or the garage. Or my dad has one. I'll look for it." Thank you, but argh! Why couldn't he have just got the darn thing out two weeks ago? Or mentioned it this morning when I was upset about the matter of paint at breakfast? I told him I'd like it done tomorrow and asked if it was possible since he's decided he's installing his parents' attic insulation tomorrow. He hmmmd and hawwed about it, but I got a tentative agreement that it was possible. When that is done, so is the baby's room--and you'll see pics!

Off to watch Chuck. Also recording House and Castle (Nathan Fillion in a new show! Let's hope it's good) on the DVR. Got my television viewing set for the week...