Some Photos

After a somewhat bleak winter, the financial situation is finally looking up in the Ott household. As many of you know, we had to postpone some of the work we’d planned to do on the house as the wiring in this place was ancient and required some qualified electricians to come in and fix it at the cost of almost two grand. At any rate, two weekends ago, after paying off bills, we decided that it was time for me to tackle upgrading our pantry. The project was simple: add an additional shelf down low, and widen three other shelves (from their current 12” width to a full two feet). We decided to leave the upper three shelves alone as we didn’t want stuff to get lost up there two feet deep into the recesses of the pantry. So, off to Home Depot we went on Saturday. Supplies cost us all of fifty bucks; which we crammed in to the car along with the baby. I’m not sure she appreciated having wood stacked all around her (note to self: leave the Missus and the Munchkin at home next time). I wasn’t actually able to get to the project until Sunday evening, but the job went fairly quickly. First I cut and framed in the support pieces, then cut out the new shelves and laid them in only to discover that they were warped more than I’d anticipated (the pickings were mighty slim at the ol’ hardware store that weekend). Fortunately, I was used to working with inferior wood after building up my chapel in Iraq using scraps, and this was just the pantry closet after all, so I wasn’t too concerned. I ended up screwing the shelves down to add an extra level of stability and counteract the natural curve of the wood. A few minutes spent papering, and Melissa had herself a new pantry. Naturally I’ve included a few photos of the project below.

Because I know that I’ll get in trouble if I don’t include photos of the Munchkin as well, here are some of Sarah reading. She loves books! Speaking of Sarah, she’s been enjoying sneaking in to our bedroom and eating cat food (along with playing in the dog’s water dish in the kitchen). The other day I followed her in and pulled her away from the cat’s dish asking her, “Why are you such a fan of cat food?” Only, it came out, “Why are you such a can of fat food?” Granted, she is chubby, but I’m not sure that she’d taste good carved and canned like Spam.