Closet Case Continuum

The pantry in my kitchen was terrible, dirty walls, plastic wall paper in sporadic places, haphazard wooden boards with faux wood-grain shelf liners, and ugly plastic bins. Ugh. Plus it's a very small space, but utilized properly, it could store all the necessities. The previous owner took no pride in his pantry at all. For about a $100 and an afternoon, I transformed the dirty disarray into a static clean delight.

I tore down all pre-existing shelving with pleasure. Demo in small doses is good for the body and soul.
Kilz primer is phenomenal for problem walls; I used three coats - that's how bad the pantry was, and left it the stark white color.

From Home Depot, I purchased two 84" shelf rails, found in the closet system isle, $14 a pop. Matching white brackets, 12 of those and 6 white shelves. Including the primer, I spent $ 98. Demo and patching up took about an hour, after everything dried, I sanded and painted for another hour or so. Installation of the shelving unit took 25 minutes. I am very happy with the results, ... just want to look at the damned thing.

Below is a photo of the fruit of my labor, a nice clean pantry closet that stores everything I need it to. Photo sucks, but you get the idea.

Friends, Beer, Chemistry - Sounds Like a Party!

Ever find yourself in this situation?  Food is all done and out on the buffet table, the music is playing, the grill is hot, friends are ringing the door bell and oh! you forgot to chill the beverages.  Not to worry, science to the rescue. My favorite TV personalities, the Mythbusters, have demonstrated that getting beer to it's perfect drinking temperature takes only 5 minutes. Yes, 5 minutes. How? you ask...

...by adding a mixture of salt & water to the ice in your cooler. The salt melts the ice and lowers the waters freezing point resulting in water that is as much as 10F colder almost instantly.  Use a generous amount of salt for large coolers, just pour it on. Room temperature beverages will chill to perfection in 5 minutes. 

Cheers!