Reincarnation of the Butler's Pantry

Back on November 3, 2008, when I was working in Luray VA and Pete was starting the first day of the job, he called me at the front end of the demolition phase and told me the butler's pantry would need to be dismantled. He'd found evidence of old termite damage underneath, and he felt like we'd have a heckuva time getting the floors to match up if we tried to build around it. So he had his guys carefully remove the original cabinetry and it's been stored in his shop in Mocksville these last six months. The room for it to go in has been completely rebuilt as part of the kitchen complex addition to the house, although it is still in the exact place as the original butler's pantry.

This pantry is a big deal to me...while there might not be anything all that remarkable about the cabinets themselves, the fact that no one ever tore out the original cabinetry and turned that room into a laundry room or extra powder room amazes me. I've been in so many houses where those big changes had been wrought. So I very much appreciate the care Pete took in trying to restore this space.

And the result is mighty nice. Kevin and Joe got the old cabinets reinstalled, I bought a slightly-too-expensive but very nice light fixture, and Pete ordered a frosted full-glass door for it. (In one of the following pictures, the glass looks dark pink, but that's because of the deep red color of the anteroom wall behind the door, picked up by the flash of my camera.) It ended up being a really tight fit, so the wall at the far end is still bare sheetrock; they'll tape and mud that next week and then it will be painted to match the rest of the pantry. Comparing the old with the new pictures, you might also notice that I had Pete eliminate the window in the pantry; it seemed unnecessary plus sunlight sometimes came in and melted my big bag of chocolate chip morsels.