I'm not much help in the early phases of this project except for occasionally applying a coat of paint. The design and execution of the shelf building I find ingenious. At each step the level proves this guy knows what he's doing.

After the initial wall surface was painted, Eric cut and mounted 1x1 inch strips to the wall with a spacing of 12 inches. That still gives extra wiggle room for even my tallest food storage containers. He first drilled pilot holes then attached the 1x1 inch strips to the studs of the new wall (16 inch centers), leveling each one. This is the foundation for the rear support ledge of the 12 inch wide shelves. Starting at the base he built a solid structure for the first shelf building upward with each consecutive shelf. The supports between the shelves are 1x2's screwed from the top and fastened at the bottom with L brackets. The shelves are 1/2 inch plywood. It's structurally very sound and will hold all the food I want to store.

The adjacent wall will also have shelves for kitchen gear and appliances. That will be next after the free standing shelves are emptied and moved out of the way. It's a tight space for one person to maneuver so I'm best standing back and playing cheerleader. His job is really something to cheer about!

The ceilings are 9.5 feet high so this wall alone will have eight shelves six feet long! I'm a very happy girl.

When this phase is complete I will be helping by painting and lining the shelves. Sometimes doingitlikeawoman means standing out of the way.