In reality

Last night after finishing work on the Pantry

The last week I have been chasing my tail quite a bit insomuch as time seemed to get away from me fast and I hardly had time to do what I really wanted to do as I have been fully occupied in trying to get quite a few things done.  In the event, things did not pan out quite as I hoped they would, but at least I got some stuff done which is better than nothing, but not quite what I had hoped to achieve.  Perhaps I am too self-critical.

I did not manage to get the Pantry fully cleaned out yesterday. The Pantry as the photos show was untidy with bits not on their shelf or not in the right place.  That big tub is one of three that needs to be sorted out.  

The outline plan is that G will go in and do the flooring when he felt like it on Monday. I have left the Pantry accessible and so he can work. Sometimes he is awake earlier than I am and wants to get on with things. He has the old lino to take up in order to put the new laminate down.  That will make things feel a lot cleaner in there.  I am just so chuffed to be having a new floor covering in there. It has been a long time coming. 

Early Monday morning started with heavy rain showers, and started grey and dull and decidedly cooler.  Time for a jumper of some sort me thinks. I have not felt really cold for a little while but it is starting to feel a tad chilly.

G started with the flooring quite early on, and because it is not a particularly big space soon dealt with matters which meant that I was for the best part able to carry on with the sorting and cleaning where I left off from last night.  I have since cleaned the two upper shelves nearest the ceiling all the way round the Pantry sorted and washed down. 

Now to concentrate on getting the Pantry sorted a bit better - not its final realisation but working towards what that will be once  the other storage areas are sorted out.  Some things will not be where I need them to be to start with though as I need to clear room elsewhere.  Long-term, I intend for a lot of my homemade preserves to go in the under-stair cupboard.  The Main Pantry is what I consider to be more of a "Dry Larder/Pantry", whereas a lot of the time you just need the cold.  The under-stair cupboard is a lot cooler.

As I have mentioned I still need to re-organise.  Once the under-stair cupboard has been refurbished and painted and flooring laid, I can then re-stock and sort that out and add the homemade preserves I have made from the main Pantry.  I will also next have to sort out the Fireside cupboard for the same purpose.  

Once the preserves are moved in due course, the shelving in the main Pantry can then be used for storing more of those items currently in polythene boxes.  It is definitely a case of playing "shuffle" do a bit here, and then move the item up sort of a job. I want to see if we have enough flooring to do the under-stair cupboard in any event. Fingers crossed we may have enough and if we have, might get that done too. All out of sequence, but these days am open to change.

Talking of flooring, I am planning at the end of the month to buy in some laminate to finish the main part of the bathroom.  We also need a new light in there as well. 

Hopefully once the Pantry has been sorted and the kitchen put back to normal setting, I will then be able to tackle the bathroom and get that sorted out.  I am hoping that G will be able to start painting that room out next.  

Slight amendment:

Alternatively we could end up decorating out the under-stair cupboard so that I can get my preserves put away.  Not quite sure yet.  Think it may leap frog the bathroom as we have most stuff to deal with under the stairs, and I need to sort my preserves out. My plan is to get the under-stairs stripped out, patched up and painted.  Get the shelves lined with a PVC fabric (green spots) - I already have this.  I bought some reduced tablecloths £5 each (largest size which is an oblong).  Cheapest way to buy and then when the shelves are covered can then get my jars sorted out and the shelves re-filled.  The floor can then be done.  G has agreed to it, but as he has worked hard today, I will give him a couple of days of rest. Today's efforts have knocked his back up a bit.

Update: It would appear that we have quite a bit of flooring left (not enough to cover the bathroom)  and so G will tackle that later in the week.  Even if it is not a complete floor the bulk of it will be done and then it can be finished off when we buy in more laminate at the end of the month for the bathroom.  I have quite a lot of stuff in the under-stair cupboard so that no doubt will make a mess of the kitchen again.  To tell you the truth I am not that bothered.  Doing things in stages often results in a better outcome. Yes a lot of time and effort goes in, but if this is the way I have to deal with things then so be it.  I have this vision of my Pantry and how I want it to be and I will do the best I can with what I have.

I also need to sort through some of the Polythene containers with food in to see what is in there and to get busy using it up. There is all sorts of stuff in there including a lot of baking ingredients, pasta, rice, etc. 

I have for many years collected vintage Kitchenalia and have accumulated quite a few stone crocks for storing flour that sort of thing in. A lot of them are "Pearsons" of Sheffield stoneware which I love.  Some have been bought without their lids and I have plans to have made some wooden lids so that I can still use the crocks.  They have "Flour" or "Bread" labels imprinted on them, but turn the jar around and put your own sticker on and you have a re-usable crock. Especially if you have a Cricut crafting machine link on Instagram here Cricut  Would oh so love one of those.  You could make black vinyl label similar to the original print and then stick it on the other side without damaging the originality of the crock. Today I have sadly had to chuck out one of the crocks as it has become unsuitable due to a hairline fracture and large chip. If I used it, it would split so better to let this one go rather than scatter contents across a clean Pantry floor. It does annoy me when this happens. I will in due course no doubt find some more as my plan is to have a bigger Pantry one day with loads of these crocks for storing base ingredients in. These will be used alongside my "Sweetie jars" and my Ground Glass stoppered storage jars (think they are predominantly Rayware, but old they are.

The floor is done.  I am really pleased with it. G has done a really good job. Thank you.  It is not a big area, but it is clean and easy to clean which I am really pleased about. Once we have new kitchen flooring as well (yes that is also on the list) it will be ever so easy to keep both the kitchen and the Pantry areas clean.  For the time being I have popped the containers back  under the big shelf as I really needed to make room in the kitchen to move and to make tea for this evening. I will go through them a little later. 

Here is another photo of the Pantry, you can just about see the new flooring 😍 still untidy and still lots of work to do, but I have new floor covering.  So chuffed.  It is the simple things that mean the most.  The Big White Bucket is my Bread Flour storage.

And how I left the Pantry tonight.  The first three photos show the new floor covered with storage items. Yes I know! This is not how I want the Pantry to remain.  That will sort out in due course as most of the items in the poly tubs will be stored in storage jars on the shelves long term.  This is more for ease than anything else.  The brown paper carriers are recycled shopping bags which I have stored all my dried bread, for bread sauce, croutons, and Sage and Onion stuffing mix and herbs like Black peppermint (for use generally but predominantly as a tea for me) and bay leaves in.  Ideally I want glass storage jars, but currently as the Pantry is at the moment, I have no room for.  Therefore planning and plotting for a lot more jars to decant these into.

There are a lot of preserves on the shelfs in the Main Pantry.  They are not going to be staying long term but have to for the time being.

The photo below shows my bottom shelf which is where I keep my bread bins, eggs, cake and biscuit tins etc.  These preserves were on the kitchen worktop and have been put in here for the time being out of the way so that I can use the work top for general cooking.

It is planned that a lot of the polythene tubs/containers will not be staying on the floor but will be emptied out long term.  Current storage is a means to an end.  Hope to get this sorted soon as the containers are needed elsewhere in the house.

Tea tonight was going to be good old fashioned heart warming beef stew.  Going to serve with mashed potato. The first of the season.  Am so looking forward to this as it has been a colder autumn day.  Might also make a pudding Blackberry and Apple sponge sounds good.  This has now been deferred until tomorrow night due to the state of the kitchen. I have part of the Pantry back where it belongs and still have some more work to do.  We therefore had a fry up for tea.

Now we are entering into cozy season, I am craving a proper Saturday night High Tea, a proper Sunday afternoon tea with a bit of cake.  The bit of cake bit therefore requires some baking to be done. Need to get back into that as well, but need to get a little bit more focused  and organised all the way around especially on where some of the stuff is going to be kept for easy access.

I think what did it on the cake front is that when we went to the Butcher last week I came home with a Farmhouse spiced fruited sponge cake. It is baked by the Farm kitchen and it is one of my favourite cakes. I am keen to try and find a recipe that I can play with to replicate it.  What I call a proper comfort cake that goes down perfectly with a cup or mug of tea. Once I get myself sorted I hope to be able to do a bit of baking each week (whether that consists of a cake made here or there or whether I do a bulk batch bake) remains to be seen.  I am keen to get back into a bit of baking again of different sorts.  I am looking for the comfort of some traditional baking such as Ginger Parkin, Malt Loaf, fruited Tea Breads, Cinnamon Swirls, Cream buns, etc.  I will not get ahead of myself though, need to plan my weeks out a bit better and get into a proper routine especially if I want to bake, for a Sunday afternoon tea, and also a Saturday night high tea.  Need to sort out a plan to accommodate everything.

I do however have a beautiful Pine Ercol three tier vintage tea trolley and lots of lovely china for presenting a proper old fashioned tea of a Sunday evening.  This is what I am aiming for long-term during the winter months, but I have a lot of work ahead of me to achieve this.  The baking side should be relatively straightforward to achieve.  However I also have to work on my front room which is another big job. We need more progress elsewhere first. Will deal with that a little bit further down the line.

I am just so pleased that some progress is actually being made and I feel as though I am actually getting somewhere with this at long last

The plan for tomorrow is to get stuck in on the kitchen again and get that clear, and cleaned again.  The Pantry will now not be fully concluded until the under-stair cupboard has been sorted out.  As I have mentioned before I am planning on going on a big winter stock up shop for ingredients and need to be able to get these stored properly in the Pantry.  The Preserves whilst so easy to see in here will be transferred to the under-stair cupboard to free up storage space for those ingredients currently in the poly tub.  I want to get the contents of the polythene tubs out of the Pantry and into proper storage at long last.  My Pantry is always a constant WIP (Work in Progress), ever changing to meet the needs of the contents.

Am satisfied with how things are progressing, but still no end to do.

Catch you soon.

Pattypan

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