Over the last two years, Boy has gotten more and more into cooking. I guess he has my genes because there isn't a gadget out there that he won't buy. This boy has filled our pantry with all sorts of cooking tools and implements. He has at least 3-4 different coffee makers, one uses a fire from a wick in a bottle to heat. He has a blender, a food processor, ceramic pots, iron skillets, pressure cookers, rice cookers, and now a ton of small to large mason jars which he uses to can vegetables and "pickle" assorted foods.
This is all good and well, but we were getting crowded out of own pantry. As I sat in the kitchen last week, I thought "what if we used the space under the half walls between the kitchen and living room and put in some doors to store stuff on some shelves. We have a fat wall that is about twelve inches thick that separates the two rooms. There are then two big five foot wide openings between the two rooms about four feet up from the floor. At first, I was just thinking getting some doors like what we have on our kitchen cabinets, but then I measured the wall units and the wall and figured those wall cabinets should fit in the thick wall, if I do it just right. Today, after my folks left, we went and bought two of the closest thing I thought I could make work. They are not the exact same color as the kitchen cabinets, but since they are on the wall on the opposite side, they don't need to, I think.
I knew I had to deal with moving an outlet, there would be some 2x4 studs on both sides and then dealing with cutting the holes out. I had the dimensions of the cabinet frame, which is 36 wide by 30 high by 12 inches deep. I found the center of the wall openings, measured from there 18 inches to both sides, used a sharpie to draw a line where I would cut and after a little trepidation said "fuck it." DD came over from his room and was a little that I should make sure and cut the power to those outlets. I told him I was just going to be careful with them, I would just release the electrical line from the staplers and stretch the outlet over. He just motioned with his eyes like "wow, that's stupid." and said be careful. I cut a hole and looked inside to make sure I didn't cut the wires. It was fairly easy to use a sheetrock saw and cut out the rough opening, dealing with the electrical wires was the biggest pain. After a few minutes, I listened to DD, he does construction stuff for a living. He was too interested and decided to come over and help. I knocked out the three studs out, undid the outlets and then DD pretty much took over. Baby Jesus was there to help bring me stuff like the level and hand me screwdrivers and stuff, but DD has experience. He tied the electrical wires together since I am moving the outlets over about two feet, and he had a way to screw the newly located studs where I needed them 36 inches apart. My knees are bad, so it was a lot easier for him to just get in there and do the labor part. Once the studs were in there and we had 36 inches between them, it was just a matter of sliding the cabinet in and screwing it in to all four studs with the level. We only did one, I'll have time on Thursday to install the other one, but I really liked the look of the first one. I even bought some trim which covered the jagged hole edges and makes it all look almost professionally done.
I then almost instantly started moving Boy's stuff in it and it works out great on a couple of levels. He can now continue buying nick-knacks and filling "his" shelves, plus I won't be asked to move from my chair while he rifles through the pantry which is right by my favorite sitting spot on the table. Plus, we now have a place for all his mason jars, which he has a bunch in short and tall versions, he had just been lining them up next to the sink against the wall making the kitchen space look cluttered. Boy didn't help much because he starts his new job Monday morning (writing this Sunday night) so he was focused on that. Good luck, Mijo.
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