A few folks have inquired recently as to our current home projects. Well, the chicken coop/shed is the major project de jour but that one is mostly reliant on Chris' availability. Summer is quickly filling up with weekend events so I have a sinking feeling that the coop will languish for a while. Oh, how I would love to have the chickies out of the laundry room. They had a exhilarating time cavorting outside on the lawn this evening whilst I was doing battle nearby with some stubborn ivy. Clearly, their outdoor existence would be good for both me and them.
But I digress. I have been hard at work on the downstairs pantry. Picture, if you will, a long, narrow closet, encased almost entirely in concrete. Add a non-functioning light, tall dusty shelves, and a mysteriously rotted drainage system. As someone with an overactive imagination, let's just say that it wasn't a room I visited frequently. But my fabulous husband fixed the light (oh, electricity. How I love you. Thank you parents, for birthing me in the 20th century, complete with modern conveniences!) and once I spied the rows upon rows of shelves, just waiting to receive my foodie concoctions, I knew it was truly a match made in canned goods heaven. 
Greg and Katherine kindly volunteered to clean it out and remove the shelving. Then I spent a day removing old nails, scrubbing, and prepping. Ahem. The observant reader will likely note that the linked post was dated in May, meaning that I began this project very, very many days ago. Welcome to my world, and the fascinating concept of Sonja Time.
~-~Greg and Katherine kindly volunteered to clean it out and remove the shelving. Then I spent a day removing old nails, scrubbing, and prepping. Ahem. The observant reader will likely note that the linked post was dated in May, meaning that I began this project very, very many days ago. Welcome to my world, and the fascinating concept of Sonja Time. Anyway, I schlepped more coats of white paint onto those walls than I care to count. The wood is old, has been painted many times, and I was getting tired of putting coat after coat down onto the same areas. So, it doesn't look as great as it could, for which I am slightly disappointed in myself, but I suppose it won't exactly be the centerpiece of our home so I shouldn't worry too much about it. In a few years, I might remove the old shelving and replace it with something of a slightly newer vintage. But for now, it works well. 
I ran out of paint, so the ceiling remains unfinished and I'm waiting until we paint the shed floor to do the pantry floor since we're going to use some fancy garage floor paint. So don't look at those non-white areas, please. Instead, feast your eyes on the awesomeness that is the shelving. Oh! Lovely white! 
Of course, this is my favorite shelf: 
Duh.
Duh. Yum!
By the way, jamming has been going pretty well this year. The strawberry rhubarb is my favorite, closely followed by the plain 'ole raspberry. I picked every single berry with my own two hands so I'm doling out those jars very, very carefully. In fact, as soon as I got the jars properly stored, I started having nightmares about earthquakes and horrible images of my lovely pots of jam cascading off the shelves and breaking, dying a horrible death, on the concrete floor below. I wasn't joking about my imagination. You wouldn't too, if you knew how many hours went into creating that thar jam.
So, tomorrow's project: Installing little earthquake barriers across the font of the shelves. Juan de Fuca plate: Don't even THINK about doing any seismic shifting tonight. Tomorrow afternoon would be acceptable.
