Pantry tour

My love of pantries began with my love of old homes,probably on the show This Old House!! It is one of my happiest memories of my childhood,watching the show with my mom. My mom loved that show and although we never did renovate our home growing up ,my mom would clip out ideas from magazines and file them away.I have kept up that tradition,lol! I call my notebooks with all the magazine clippings my "dream books". I have been lucky enough to have some of my dreams come true!!! One of those dreams was to have my own pantry! I have been obsessed with pantries especially after watching my favorite movie " Practical Magic".The whole house would be my dream home really but I learned in order to manifest your dreams it starts with appreciation for what you have. I do LOVE my home it is small but it has a charm about it.When we came to look at this house my hubby and I thought it had good bones,lol! We have been lucky enough to transform it into my little dream. So back to my pantry,this home was built in 1898 and it is almost the exact replica of Trent's grandparents home in Harvey,Il. Very strange since we live in Wisconsin but not so much if you believe in coincidences.I really loved grandma's sink which was an old cast iron farmhouse sink and the first room that reminded me of their home was our kitchen which has a huge cast iron farmhouse sink! The Harvey home had a pantry which was long and narrow in the back of the kitchen but our home had a huge kitchen with no pantry! Our house had a side enclosed porch that was small and wasted space.We basically didn't use it except to let the dogs in and out to the yard. One day about 3 or so years ago I told Trent that we should convert the porch into a pantry.He thought it was to much work and basically said NO.I kept talking about it and a year later he caved and said we could turn it into a pantry.Well, we started working on it and immediately stopped because the floor was sagging and we would have to rip it out and reinforce it and it was too much money.I still imagined the pantry and talked about it and then this June while we were cleaning out the porch ,the boys told me " dad is ripping out the floor" . So the pantry project began! My hubby redid the floor joists and re built the inside of the pantry!! We added wood ship lap looking walls and shelves ,a new hard wood floor ,electric and lighting ( which never existed before)and we have a dream pantry!!! The exterior is still being worked on but it now is to cold outside to complete.Hopefully it will hold up until we can complete it but here is a tour .

Happy Halloween

Our Haunted Porch tour!!! Have a safe and spooky Halloween!!! It is 36 degrees and snowing here in Wisconsin.Last week we were in the 70's bummer!! We will be trick or treating with our winter coats on .Also it started snowing!Yikes!!

Baby Raiden

Baby Raiden was born on October 15,2014.My last post was about our son Tristan and Marta's baby shower in Chicago.It seemed like a long two weeks until he was born!! So glad we have finally met our new grandson.We have been so busy that I never had a chance to share the news!.We went to Chicago twice in the past couple of weeks to visit with them.On our way to Chicago I remembered I had written to someone on Craigslist about purchasing a claw foot bath tub ( they lived in Chicago) for Marta and Tristan's bathroom. I rewrote the person and said I was in the city for the day and would like to see the tub.So after a while the man called me back about the tub.The bathtub was a really good price and we figured we would see it and buy it on the spot.The only problem was that we had my small sporty car and needed a truck to get the bath tub to my dad's house (where Tristan and Marta live).After trying to see who we could borrow a truck from we finally remembered you can rent a pick up truck at Menards (home improvement store) hourly for a good deal.So off we went to rent a truck after spending most of the day with Raiden and purchase the bathtub and the hard part was carrying this bathtub up to a second floor bathroom.I don't know how my husband and boys did it but they got it into the bathroom and by a miracle the bathtub fit in the spot(which was another challenge).My husband had built this bathroom years ago in the attic of my parent's home.When we lived there we had a mini size claw foot bathtub but the one we bought for Tristan and Marta was a full size claw foot tub.So this was the adventure the first day we met our grandson!!! Never a dull moment in our family.

Halloween Baby Shower

This is breaking news to my blog,we are going to become grandparents again very soon!!!! My oldest son Tristan and his girlfriend Marta are having a baby Oct.10 or so. We wanted to throw them a baby shower and since they live with my dad in Chicago we had the shower at grandpa's house.This is the house that I grew up in.It is a Chicago brick bungalow.Most of the city has versions of these homes. The kids decided we should have a Halloween theme since it will be an October baby and Tristan has always loved Halloween(he trick or treated until he was like 18 with his younger brothers,lol)!! So the boys and I made a lot of the decorations and we bought a lot of different items and used some of our Halloween Stash.I bought a blowup Hello Kitty(at the end of the season last Halloween) to put up in the front of the house.We thought it would look cute for the shower day so everyone would know the "party house". The boys and I went the Friday before and cleaned and rearranged my dad's house and decorated.The party was on a Sunday and we went early to finish the prep work.Chicago,Il is about 1 hour and 40 minutes from Kenosha,Wi(depending on traffic).Luckily we arrived on schedule and the party was a success!!! My friend Maureen made the baby shower cake and the boys and I made cupcakes.One thing I have learned is that it is definitely harder to throw a party at someone else house and in another state!!! I am still recouping and it is 4 days later,lol!!! Here are some photos of the party..

Pantry

Hi everyone!!! We have been SUPER busy at our house.So much going on!! We have been on a stand still with the pantry because we wanted to board up the windows from the outside and add siding to them before we finished the interior.Well,that plan didn't work since we have a huge bee hive in the outer part of our home and we are under attack from the bees,so we decided that we will wait until later in the month when it cools off a bit and the bees leave the area to finish that part. We had done some inside work little by little but have made the most progress yesterday:) That is how hubby works,he gets inspired and then knocks it out.We went to Menards yesterday for more plywood ,insulation,and car siding wood then came home and started building.Also we found a shallow cabinet the perfect length for the pantry.So here are photos of the room.

D.I.Y. Cupcake Stand /Jewelry Holder

Hi everyone!!!We have been so busy over here with family stuff.Paloma moved to another area with her family this weekend and we helped her move.As always moving is stressful and takes a lot of time and energy.We also did extra work with our hair clients so it seems like we are behind on our pantry project. So I have been wanted to get my creative juices going and have wanted to make my own version of a 3 tiered cupcake stand and a cake plate.I have seen photos posted on instagram. Well I finally made mine and they turned out really cute!!! I filmed a tutorial for my YouTube channel so I will insert it at the end.