Basemental Storage.

My Mom arrived for a two week visit on Saturday. Its been fun so far, although I'm embarrassed to admit it was snowing off and on when we left the airport. By the evening the sky was filled with some of the biggest flakes I've ever seen in my life! So it was somewhat pretty (with a lush green backdrop), but still disturbing. And all these lovely Albertan farmer types keep on reminding me that we need the rain for our crops. Um, excuse me, what crops? Might I point out that I neither own nor tend zero crops. Sorry, in this sense I'm just not a big picture thinker. Water comes out of my taps, my food comes from Safeway, and well, I just darn well like the sunshine. And yes, I'm a city girl, and proud of it!

So back to the basement. While our storage options aren't the prettiest. They work, and have allow us to put our junk...oops, I mean stuff, in their own place. And I will put it out there that I got rid of at least 10 boxes of stuff. A good friend is planning a garage sale in a few weeks, so I've got my pile of things to contribute. Whatever doesn't sell, its going to VV. Its actually kind of freeing, this purging business.

So onto our new storage shelf. This came courtesy of my cousins. I'd like to call it "Vintage IKEA." My cousin figures she bought it around 20 years ago (first of all, let me point out I was only 8 years old, not to mention I probably didn't know a thing about IKEA until about 10 years later when I was 18!). She's kept it in incredible condition. So while they often say they feel bad for unloading their junk on us, I say, its some of the nicest "junk" I've ever seen!

So I figured it would be fun to set it up before Rob came home and surprise him with a new tool storage area. Well, lets just say there were some technical difficulties. Ahem.
Lets just say I finally walked away when the swears outnumbered the nice words. Sigh...
Carpentry is definitely not in my blood, although if provoked, apparently I can speak like one.

So when Rob got home, the expert put it together. I mean look at this, he actually used a square to do it. Sheer brilliance.
Voila. All put together, and it required zero swearing on my husband's part. Good man.
So within 0.5 seconds, I took all of this...
And came up with this...
So this now holds all of Rob's tools (minus the ones that aren't in his toolbox), and all of his fish keeping apparatus. Plus, a few random things.

Under the stairs, I've squeezed in this new tool rack (that I got at a G-sale last summer for $5). More tool storage. I've put all my Rubbermaids under here containing all sorts of goodies. Fabric (seriously people, I need to get sewing). Christmas stuff (in green bins thank you very much!). Books. Some decor stuff. Some mementos. Etc, etc, etc. Its amazing how much we can fit under here when its organized!
On the other side of the under stair storage you can see the second access door. See my green Christmas bins? Not to mention a spare air conditioner and a fan. You just never know with those hot summer days.
Next is my new pantry room. Its a bit of an odd shape, but this IKEA shelf fits quite well and gives me loads of storage. Once the electrician comes back and finishes up the stairwell stuff, we can put up the rest of the drywall in here, and one day we will finish it. I'm just not one of those gals who is too concerned about finishing drywall inside a pantry. As long as it has a pretty door I'm happy. As you can see, I actually have very little "bulk" stuff to store yet, but its nice to know that I have the option to buy a gazillion rolls of TP next time I'm at Costco. Or stock up on paper towels. Or buy 15 boxes of cereal.
So there you have it. Loads of storage. Its just so lovely to know that stuff has a home. This week my mission is to find a desk for the basement. Rob's Mom wants the desk that I currently use, so I need to find something, preferably with plenty of drawers. We're also hoping that our Airmiles GC's arrive in the mail this week, so we can get some doors up. While my hanging fabric looks, um, nice, it would be even better if we could get some doors up.