Chips Falling: Part 2

I sent the Where the Chips Fall post to Andy to read over before I posted it.
What follows is an interpretation of our phone conversation:

...After telling me that he'd read through the post, he hesitates, ever so slightly, searching for the right way to ask - “So, were you just talking about doing something or are you serious – I mean, there’s a lot of little stuff that needs doing-"

Basically – was I serious or was I just blowing wind? Hmmm. Well. Time to show my cards.

“I think my project is going to be the pantry.”

The current pantry has the most rickety, ill-planned shelves you have ever seen. I need the space. I need to find my flax seeds, jars of homemade jam and pasta sauce. I dropped my bin of flour last week because the shelf tipped slightly as I was putting it back. That was not a happy moment.

Long pause. “The pantry?” Slight confusion and then I can hear his thoughts catch up, “Oh, the pantry shelves. Okay, alright. Well, you’ll need to take everything out, and you’ll want to –"

“Andy.” Said just sharp enough to stop his high speed train of project design.

“What?”

Now I take a moment to find my words, “I want to do this. I want to be able to ask you questions, have you show me how to do what needs to be done but - I.Want.To.Do.This.”

“Oh.”

Silence. Okay, I think he feels shut out - that’s not what I wanted. Pinching the bridge of my nose, I attempt explaining, “I want to do the research, find what I want and then deconstruct it with your help. I want to do the work – so you don’t have yet another thing to think about­ - you have enough projects and enough on your plate and I figured that this was fairly straightforward and that it might be a great way for me to figure out how to use a table saw and power drill.”

“We don’t have a table saw.” He says absentmindedly. Uh oh. I hear him typing away on his computer, “huh, doesn’t look like IKEA has any decent options either…”

“WILL YOU STOP????” He can’t see me but I point to my own chest, “MY PROJECT!” And I wasn’t yelling, just being forceful, honest. Kind of. This was harder than I thought to get through to the Renaissance man that I am married to. “Look,” I say, trying for reasonable, “I’ve just sent you a link for a DIY pantry project that I found.”

Click, click. “Huh. Oh, that looks great. Okay, yeah, no problem. We’ll need –“ and he starts rattling off lengths and widths of wood, types of screws, braces and god knows what else. I love this man. He is the most capable, smartest man I know. If I ever get to choose one person on a desert island with me – it would be him with a Swiss Army knife. I could digress into other reasons why I would want him with me but his mad MacGyver skills is almost at the top. And he is having a really hard time allowing me to take point on this.

“Andy.”

"Hmmm?" I can hear the excitement – and humor in his voice.

“What are you doing?”

Now he sighs, “Gosh, hon, I guess I got a little excited about working on a project with you.”

Oh. Trump card. Not fair.

How do I resist? He is so helpful, so sweet - and will have my shelves done by the end of the weekend if  I don't nip this in the bud right now.

Twenty nine years of marriage has me saying, “Sweetheart, you will be helping me, we will be doing this together, but you are going to teach me how to put up my pantry shelves. You are going to answer my questions, teach me about buying straight wood and grimace when I cut something wrong. Let me take the lead on this – let me ask, help me learn.”

“Okay,” He draws out the word on a sigh but I can tell he’s fine with what I’m asking. Maybe he was just testing my commitment. Maybe he figures he'll be doing the work anyway-  ha! I don't think so. I have plans. I need this. 

And...

Old pantry shelves gone...getting ready for the new

I haven’t told him yet what my next project is going to be. We'll see how the first one goes. 

Update... two months later....

Using the biscuit cutter

New and improved

Project inspiration: The Craft Patch blog's How to Build Pantry Shelves