Be still my heart........

I just got a new pantry! I'm so excited! What can I say??? I'm easy to please? Doesn't take much to make me happy?  I must live a pretty dull life? You're right! ..... on all three counts......... what woman/cook/housekeeper/collector of kitchen things, doesn't need some room to store her more than ample "stuff"?

What's this you say? You're looking up towards the top from the floor.

This is not your everyday, hole in the wall, pantry. This is a pantry extrordinaire....... freestanding, white, decorated, baskets inside, little shelves in back, custom, handmade.......... the size of our fridge but taller..... made about 11 years ago by my ex husband. Yes... my ex! At that time, my current husband and I lived in Washougal, WA and we were neighbors with my ex of 20 years and his wife. (Never planned for that to happen, but it just turned out that the house and 5 acres we loved so much was that close to my ex!) We were somewhat "friends" after many years of ups and downs with our kids.... many years of having to work together for the good of our kids.. of learning to compromise and work together.

Ex had made this pantry for our house there... it had a specific area he fit it to, a skinny area but tall, so he made it "custom" to fit there and we paid him a good price for it. It's made of 3/4 inch plywood and painted with oil based paint, many many coats, plus wait until you see the inside! (Note.. we never asked him to do what he did on the inside.. but he's very creative and artistic, and did it on his own).

What??????? .... the artist within I guess. My ex made pine furniture (and I helped) when we were first married (our "hippie" days in the 70's)... and  his signature carving was a tulip. Everything he made had tulips and vines carved in it.  So............ of course I needed more tulips, not carved this time, but painted!

Can anyone have too many tulips?

This had been sitting (stored) in my ex's barn since we moved here to Madras 6 years ago. We didn't have room for it in our moving van, plus it was WAY TOO HEAVY for us to load. My son used it in his little apartment off the barn so we left it, with the plea from me that someday I wanted it back.

Ex so kindly brought this pantry down to us a few weeks ago (with the help of my son loading it into the truck - and the help here of a neighbor and a dolly). He's finally selling the house that he and I built in the 70's and 80's, and that he has been totally remodeling for the last 3 years. Everything he did in that house was unique and original. In the remodeling process, due to codes, etc., some of the wood art, carvings, unusual beams made from Alders off the property, had to go in order to meet with the inspectors' approval. He did manage to save some of the original quirkiness.

NOTE: I hadn't meant to make this post so long.. but in the telling of the "pantry story", I decided I just NEEDED to show some of the beautiful custom work that my ex completed over his 35 years of living at that house (that by the way, has just sold after only 10 days on the market.)

The house I lived in (and helped build) from 1975 to 1989 - after extensive remodeling.... the original house was covered entirely in cedar shakes. Same GORGEOUS 9 acres though!

Some of my ex's craftsman style:

Wood stove with river rock from the Washougal River in back... surrounded by alder logs from the property.... stone hearth with wood edging.. I'm surprised there aren't any tulips carved in that wood edging!

Carved custom door he made.. with carving (of course!) on the inside.

Rock fountain... again using river rock..... which has a "switch" to turn it on or off..... which comes from the pond over to the right, which pond comes from an underground spring... which underground spring also results in the waterfall he built (shown below).. all custom cement work, carvings, and river rock from the Washougal River.

Log (Alder) beams in the kitchen.. from the property... oops! There's the tulips!

More Alder beams in the dining room...... that  fencelike looking door on the top has a loft behind it, and that door/gate  hinges downward so a person can get a bed or furniture up into the loft! Because... to get to said loft, you had to climb up a ladder on the wall, which ladder I climbed up and down until I was 8 months pregnant with my first child)!

BACK TO THE PANTRY STORY:

I'm afraid the pantry got kind of "musty".... as that area is a very damp climate. But I'm working on trying to get that musty smell out. I'm about halfway there.

Look at those baskets that pull out...... the little shelves in the back.....the huge storage area at the top (behind the door- first picture up above shows more tulips on that door on the inside!).......the large area on the "floor" for spuds, onions, veggies, etc. ........ swoon.........

And after all these years... it's a perfect fit in our new (old) house. Who would have thought?  I'm so glad to have it back!

How do I love thee pantry??? Let me count the ways...........

~Marilyn~