thesimplehaus

So We needed to grab some shelves from Ikea for Jessica’s library. Well Simon(Zeemon) and I went to ikea to do this after jess went to work. Well we didn’t realize that Ikea opens at 10am. It was 9am. Simon and I both just were like “ahhh crap didn’t even realize it was so early.” So we were about to just go to some other store and then we saw that Ikea’s restaurant opens at 9:30am. Well we finally got into Ikea and I had to pee really bad, so we made a detour into the restroom. Well hung up in front of the urinal there was Ikea’s “whats happening this month” calender. Well how awesome.. The day we were there was the day they had a buy one 1.99 breakfast, get one free..!!!! Sweeet!! Well we went to do this and they said no that isn’t true. We both said that is what your calender thing says. So long story short the manager literally went into the restroom to find out we were right. The coffee was free too!!!

Everything started with the fact that our amazing apartment is pantry-less, and we are tool-less. When Grant and I first got married, we never got any tools. We got so many other things, and we figured since we made our wedding so cheap we would just buy some tools later. Well, later has come. Now that we have an income, and a place we decided to buy some tools. The tools that Grant bought were a little bit more on the expensive side, but we wanted to invest rather than a crappy 20 dollar drill that breaks half way through all of our projects. Â So here you can see the first set that Grant purchased.

So here you can see the Makita drill set that Grant bought. We used it to put together our pantry,and it worked Great. It came with a flashlight, a drill, and a driver drill? I think is what it is called.

In order to finish this pantry project, we need the wood cut for us at Home Depot because as you can see above, there is no saw of any form in that set. So, Grant and I went to Home Depot. We waited for about 15 minutes because not a single employee could use the cutter, and the ones that did were in a meeting. Grant and I were about to walk out and just go to Lowe’s across the street to have them cut the plywood we needed when the found someone to help us. They turned on the machine, and all we need was our plywood sheet cut into 3, Â 22” runs of plywood. Then we needed one of those runs to be cut smaller into shelves for the pantry. The man who came to help us told us he couldn’t cut the shelves because the saw only cut vertically. Once we explained to him that he should make the vertical cuts, then turn one of the pieces horizontally to get the cuts we wanted. Â The worker, did get this concept for a while, and then ended up cutting on of the pieces an inch too long. This was not a good Home Depot Experience. So we get back to the apartment, and Grant started working with the pieces that we did have.

Here you can see Grant working. He wasn’t too happy with me taking this picture, but he always takes pictures of me when I don’t want it so HA. Anyway, here you can see him using his Amazing Laser level that he got from his Grandpa. Man this thing has come in handy so many times for people like Grant and I are who very picky with how things are hung and spaced.

Grant Drilled the sides of the wood into the wall so we were making as few holes as possible in the wall.

Here you can see the shelves we drilled into the wood rather than the wall -Great thinking Grant! This closet was supposedly for coats, but our bedroom closet is VERY large, and so this sorry excuse for a coat closet is now my pantry WOOT!

Here is the pantry filled which is pretty sad because it is already filled up with stuff. We might have to keep the ugly black shelf after all. Â There are still a few organizational things I want to put in there. Above the cans, I want to put some drawers that pull out for some more storage, but other than that I am very excited with how it turned out.

Here you can see that I have doors on this closet which is amazing! So my pantry is looking very good. Â I am so happy to have a husband who will take the time to Â fix things like this for me, especially when he does such a GREAT job!

Now, you are seeing another picture of a different tool set, Why you might wonder, well I will tell you why. Grant was veryÂ frustratedÂ by the fact that he couldn’t fix the shelf that the man cut too big, so we started looking into tool sets by Makita that had saws with them. So, the set that Grant has above is the home version rather than theÂ contractorÂ set. It is more light weight and portable, where the tools below are the contractor grade with bigger and longer lasting batteries.

So, Grant was able to sell his first set on Craigslist, buy the set below for a little bit more money, and he got a lot more tools. They also had a deal going on where he gets a free tool, and he will be able to get the Driver drill that he had in the first set,but not in this set. The main saw that he was wanting is the jigsaw which only works with the contractor grade batteries. So that was the main reason that we switched to this tool set, and of course it has more tools! So, that is the next tool that we will be saving up for.

Next Project = Hanging our shelves for my books!