First things First

I promised the story on the vanity as this next post but I am still waiting on the quartz top and showing it without would be, in my opinion, not satisfying.  So, soon, very soon, I hope.  In the meantime we are moving forward.

Step one of this new powder room was to remove the pantry cabinets and relocate them to the basement.  So to refresh, here it is...

and here it isn't.

I should have documented the removal with photos but I was helping where I could and it was too late when I thought of taking pictures.  The doors and shelves were removed first.

Then the trim at the top was removed.  At that point we attempted to remove the entire upper cabinet frame.  Remember, we are in tight quarters here.  It was quite tricky as there was no wiggle room..this was wall to wall cabinet but my brother, Dan, managed it beautifully.  Once it was on the floor some of the top braces had to be cut just to get it through the pantry door.  There was more cutting involved in an attempt to get it down the basement stairs and, finally, as a last resort, one side had to be removed.  This small paragraph does not do the process justice, but only a video could tell the real story.

 Here it is being reassembled in the basement.  There was no back on this cabinet so I backed it with a piece of toile fabric I had on hand.  I didn't realize we would be going straight from tear out to reinstalling the cabinet, so this was a spur of the moment decision.  I measured out the yardage and stapled it to the frame before it became permanently attached to the wall.

I couldn't just use the wall as the back because there was an opening in the wall with a door that opened to reveal chicken wire stretched over the opening. (don't ask!  I have no idea why) 

I think it's going to work out well.  Before I could only reach the bottom two shelves and now I can reach them all.  That's a big plus right there.  There is some trimming out to be done, a little painting, and it will be back in service.

There is a small storage area in the room behind the cabinet wall.  The cabinets overlapped the entrance to this room by 1 1/2 inches so we decided to remove the door and extend the wall to fit the cabinet. 

The entrance to this room is to the left of Dan's hand.  The removal of the door was no big loss because it has never been closed in the 35 yrs. I have lived in this house. (somewhere in the history of the house,  a light was installed in the storage room while the door was open and resting against the wall.  After the fact, I suppose, they realized the door hit the light fixture when it was swung around to close.)

This is the door we removed.  I asked Dan to save the doorknobs for me and he said, "I suppose you want the lockset too."  I shrugged from my observation deck at the top of the stairs.  Then he handed it to me.

My jaw dropped.  Can you believe the detail on something like this?  And it was installed in the basement!

My second shocked response was, "This was here all this time and this is the first time I'm seeing it!" 

My friend, Vicki's, response was, OMG, it's Ralph Lauren.

So what happens to the bottom half of the pantry?

It will not survive although I will save the doors, the drawers, and the piece of wood that forms the counter.  It has the patina of 110 years of use and I know I'll find a way to recyle it.

I did find this advertisement behind the bottom cabinets.

It shows a housewife in her ruffled apron looking out the window at her clean clothes drying on the clothes line.

A  Blue Bird electric clothes washer for only $7.00 down.  They even offer a free demonstration in your own home with your own clothes.  The ad reads: Clothes washed by Blue Bird wear five times longer than when washed on the rub-board.  And if that's not enticement enough....Even the daintiest garments are washed by Blue Bird without the slightest harm.

The back of the card was lined for frequently used phone numbers.  Notice there were only four digits with an exchange as the prefix.  I was hoping to find something interesting (ok, valuable would have been nice) behind the pantry cabinets.  I wasn't disappointed.