Finishing the Pantry - January 3, 2025 @goldenoakfarm

What the kitchen looks like now

On Friday morning I was up at 5:30AM, got my post up, fed the cat, cleaned the kitchen, did the milk order, and got a shower before 8AM. My helper friend would be here then and the plan was to finish the pantry.

So we unloaded the lazy susan and I proceeded to take it apart. I handed him the top shelf to clean in the kitchen. Then I started taking out the bottom shelf and the door.

Now this cabinet is 40+ years old. The lazy susan has been in use all that time, daily. My husband had to repair the top shelf a couple decades back. Then one of the support brackets broke when being cleaned. So I got photos and sent them to my contractor to see if he can do a fix on it.

The other side hasn’t broken, yet. But it’s just a matter of time. So I’m hoping that what he does to the broken side he can do to the other one also.

My helper friend has bad knees, so the job of scraping paint off the floor, washing it and rinsing it fell to me. It took me about 1½ hours to get this far. While I was doing that, he went to the cellar and finished sorting the kindling bag. Now we just have to drag the trash bag and the bark bag out and dump them over the bank.

I sat down for a while as I waited for the floor to completely dry. My helper started on a bookcase.

The work was supervised.

He got one more shelf done after this photo, so it’s ⅔ done. He takes all the books off, vacuums, dusts and polishes the entire shelf area, then vacuums the outside of each book and puts it back. I’ve found doing this once a year, keeps the mold and bugs away.

I got the first coat of wax on the pantry floor at 1PM.

I protected it with this while I went to PT. Once home I pulled the shades as it was 4PM and cloudy, made supper and watched a couple movies. I got the stoves going and at 7PM I put the second coat of wax on and went to bed at 8PM.

It’s a relief to finally have the last bit of the pantry build finished. I dread scraping paint off the new floors, and it has to be done in each new room. So far I’ve done the bathroom, kitchen, and pantry floors. I still have the laundry room, hall, and dining room to do. I don’t think there’s paint on the living room floor, or not much.

On Saturday I put as much stuff back in the pantry as I can and clean up the kitchen. I need to finally finish the bills/budget and I should sort the huge box of recycling for shredding. That will be the last of the end of year chores, I think.