Closets and Chili

This week was a mad rush to get our house guest-ready for our annual chili cook-off! We had been so busy with goat prepping that the inside of our house was neglected for a while and for weeks we've had a ton of boxes in our living room, waiting to be unpacked. The contents of those boxes are now in our "hall" closet, on neat, organized shelves, next to the new water heater! We had been waiting to install the shelves in the closet until the water heater was delivered to Home Depot and once it was, we were eager to get everything done! 

My dad came up to help James get the water heater installed and after the guys took the old one out, they realized that the cold and hot water connections were flip flopped... most likely the main reason why we couldn't get much hot water for an extended amount of time. Although the first water heater wasn't huge, it was 40 gallons and brand new, and we couldn't figure out why it didn't produce hot water for that long... who would've thought! (Not surprising though, since our house was bank owned) Regardless, my bathtub is still 65 gallons and I'm sure the new, bigger, water heater is going to be a much better fit for us! (Also, I tested it out that first night and was able to take a full steamy hot bath!

 We were also able to recycle the pedestal that the old heater was on... it is now a goat pedestal!

The next day James and I got to work installing the shelving in the rest of the closet. We went with the same prefabbed shelves that we used in our bedroom closet since they were so easy the first time around. We got them finished pretty quickly and then I took over the task of unpacking all of those boxes and filling the shelves. I wish I would've taken a picture of everything scattered everywhere as I attempted to fit basically ALL OF OUR THINGS into this closet in an orderly fashion. I learned that I have entirely too many cake stands for somebody who doesn't bake and even more scented lotions for someone who doesn't use lotion. In the end, I was barely able to fit everything that I wanted to into the closet, but I did it! We finally have storage for: all of our linens, the small kitchen appliances, all of the cake stands and random appetizer server ware I've collected, all of my miscellaneous mason jars and hand me down vases, my makeup, toiletries, medicines, paper goods, mops and brooms, the dog food and a fire extinguisher! I also left the lower shelf open for dirty boots and such (my husband is currently using it as a beer pantry).

"Hall" closet BEFORE...

...during...

...and AFTER

 

We were planning on eventually hanging some doors, but in the mean time, we hung some curtains. I actually kind of like the curtains as is, so we may hold off on the doors for a while...

With a clean living room (with no more boxes all over the place), it was time for our annual chili cook off... I thought I'd post a few shots since it was the first big get together at our place... this was during the judging...

The night was a success and though our house may be small, it can still hold a TON of friends! So that's it for this week, we still have quit a few big projects to finish inside the house and we will most likely be tackling the kitchen tile back splash next! But until then, here is some completely unnecessary but totally presh baby goat spam... lucky you!