Rack-olution

Have a look, Darwin; my kitchen is evolving.

A few weeks ago, I overhauled the spice rack.  The results were impressive:

And then something happened.  Something amazing, terrifying, and thrilling, all at the same time.

The Sous Chef received power tools for Christmas.

And he so wanted to try them out.

So he looked around the kitchen, and he got an idea.

"We shall hang the pots and pans from the ceiling!"  (He didn't really say "shall", but doesn't that make it sound so much more like an important and classy mission?  Can't you imagine him riding on a big white horse, waving his circular saw in the air, proclaiming, "We shall hang the pots and pans from the ceiling!"?)

And then he promptly ran out to his truck, drove away, found a sycamore branch, and brought it home.

It's really too bad that it didn't work out.  We have a soft spot for sycamores.

Undaunted, the Sous Chef moved on.  He had a day off from work, and spent two hours of that day at a place called - truly - World of Hardwoods.  When I heard the name, I feared that my beloved Sous Chef may never return.  The man loves his trees, you know.

He found a piece of pecky cypress that in a former life had been a ceiling plank down South (hooray for reclaimed wood!).

He circular-sawed it.  He jig-sawed it.  He drilled it.

He spaced out the hooks for the pots and pans.  He used a level.  He used a stud-finder.  I joked about being something of a stud-finder myself, pointing to the Sous Chef.

He did not laugh.  He was on a mission.

Lots of loud noises later, and the next stage of our kitchen evolution was complete:

Not too shabby, eh?

I wonder what we'll come up with next...