There might be prettier corners of my cottage, but right now, this “after” pic of our pantry redo is making me pretty dang happy.
This closet sits above the stairway to the basement and is original to the house, over 100 years old. This photo is after ripping out the shelves to mouse proof, bleach, and repaint.
Maybe once or twice a year, I’d get a mouse, take everything out, clean or toss items, set a trap and then restock after catching the culprit. But lately? The critters were nonstop! My theory is that with the foundation repairs we made, the cracks and crevices shifted, leaving more space for intruders to enter from the basement below.
Our solution? Tons of steel wool and expanding foam to seal the space up, then adding a metal cabinet that we got on Amazon.
After the box arrived, we were smart and stood the panels up in the room to make sure our measurements were correct and it would fit under the slanted ceiling. And it did, so we put it together, and brought it into our patched, cleaned, and freshly painted cubby that I’d had to twist and turn and crawl around in to reach the tight corners.
And while we’d made sure the height and width of the metal cabinet would be perfect once installed, we didn’t think about how those numbers would work getting it into the area. See that step Rich’s knee is on? The next one above it was the blockage that caused us to have no way to turn the piece forward.
We could (barely) slide the cabinet into the pantry, but then it was stuck.
So this happened. Rich had to rip out the step I’d spent so much time sealing up and painting, then we easily swung the cabinet around and set it into place. Once it fit, I went to work refilling gaps, and touching up the paint. A lot of the old wood was either dinged up, or had come apart at my perfectly patched seams when he used his crow bar to pull the step out.
But hey, I think the efforts will be worth it. The area is a clean, tidy fortress now.