For years it had sat in boxes and crates in the recesses of a storage area in the barn back in Illinois. As a kid I remember many times having to move it here or there with instructions to keep the boxes together when ever that part of the barn was ‘reorganized’.

Each box had a few pieces of this and that and a drawer front or two. Here and there a stile was mixed in with a piece of molding or a shelf. Larger pieces had been neatly stacked atop or along side the boxes in no particular order. Some boxes held doors, handles and hinges and a small drawer or two and always provided perfect shelter for spiders and mice among the captured debris.

The cabinet itself had been reduced to a stack of slats and boards tucked away in the corner loosely tied together with baling twine.

Read more about the kitchen hutch

I needed a pot rack here at the lodge. I couldn’t have one hanging overhead with cathedral ceilings in the kitchen and even if I could I didn’t want to interrupt the space.

I use my copper pots and pans. What is the point of having them if you don’t use them?

I have seen iron pot racks, wood pot racks, stainless steel pot racks and an assortment of others but I didn’t care for the designs nor the cost. I wanted a simple pot rack that I could mount on the sidewall. The pot rack needed to be simple, about 5 to 6 feet long and tight to the wall.

Read more about making a copper pot rack

I have not been a big fan of track lighting but it does have its place and time. In an effort to provide more light in the kitchen here at the lodge, the previous owners had installed track lights on the log trusses overhead. As if Ethel Merman stepped in to sing Ave Maria the two were not a good mix.

The white plastic tracks and large white canister lights screamed out in their stark contrast to everything and immediately drew your attention upwards, not to the cathedral ceilings but to the lights and tracks themselves. It was one of the first thing noticed in the kitchen.

read more about camouflaging track lights

I come across these great photos of homeowners that have beautiful kitchens. Some of the old four square homes and Victorians among others boast large pantries. No doubt I wish I had a large pantry. I came across this old photograph — thought Id share it with you.

In an old log home you do what you can with what you have.

The pantry here at the lodge, just off the kitchen, is actually the stairwell to the basement. Using a stairwell as a pantry is not an uncommon thing mind you but it does make reaching for things a bit of a balancing act at times.

Today being a rainy day - was the perfect time to clean and reorganize the pantry and as much as I hate to disclose it mice do leave their ‘presents’ (pun intended) known.

With winter approaching they seem to race into the house from all directions. The cats, whose sole purpose is to catch mice as far as I’m concerned, will bat one around every now and then and on the rare occasion catch and kill one. So the traps have come out. To tell you the truth as much as I hate taking a dead mouse out of a trap I do get a twisted pleasure hearing that familiar snap of the trap.

Read on about the painted steps in the pantry