Snowball Project: New Home for Cookbooks

Since the divider shelf from my home came down, there were the obligatory knock knacks and photos that needed to be dispersed elsewhere. Those were easy. But it took some thinking to answer 'where should my cookbooks be relocated?'

Luckily, my handy husband Dan helped me out on this one. Spare laminate shelves cut to size, then sanded, primed, and painted - voila! An extension of our kitchen cabinets.

Bonus: it's way easier to meal plan now that my cook books and menu planner have been reunited!

Step One: Remove the circa-1974 Room Divider

I love our house. It's a 1974 split level - back when split levels meant you walked into a real foyer with room to take off your shoes, set down groceries, and have more than two people come in at a time. 

One thing that wasn't so hot was this room divider the previous owners installed decades ago.

Sure, I can see the attraction at the time. But now it closes off our dining room from our living room, causes our long living room to be difficult to arrange, makes me dust more, and results in clutter! Yuck!! 

So, on a Saturday morning my DIY friend, Amanda, and I tackled it. It came down easy. Like, 20 minutes and done. As easy as it was to remove, it resulted in a snowball effect of cleanup, patching, and additional projects. Fun!

Best way of going about patching where the room divider came from? The walls were easy; the floor needed some creative thinking...