Hello Pantry, Goodbye Dirty Laundry!

I would say the hardest part about remodeling has been deciding on a new layout for the kitchen. The funky 70's layout we had was nifty and unique, but not something we were going to do again. This remodel has not been as easy as just changing out the cabinets. The layout needed major help.
So, first I had to decide what I was willing to move. I decided that I would be willing to move the electrical for the range, but not the plumbing for the sink. I was also willing to realign non-load bearing walls. It all came down to 2 layouts that could work in our space.

There was an island layout where we could do an L shaped kitchen with a small island

Or a peninsula layout where we could do a U shaped kitchen with a peninsula.

 I won't go into details about how I agonized over these two layouts. I really love the island idea, but in the end I felt like the peninsula idea would better suit our families needs. We have 5 children and the peninsula bar will give us enough room for 5 bar stools, where the island would only leave room for 3. I also have a son with food allergies and the peninsula layout gives me a totally separate counter and cupboards just for his food and prep area.
 So, now it was time for more demo! This time the kids got to help knock down the wall.

 Which leads me to the title of my post. For many years all of our guests have had a wide open view of our dirty laundry. You may have seen in previous posts how there was just an open doorway leading right into the laundry room. It drove me crazy!

We had our handy friend come over again and frame over that opening and frame out a new opening into the pantry. This time, instead of just being an opening there will be a door. But not just any door...we are installing a pocket door!
I never would have imagined we could do something cool like a pocket door, but I got to watching some youtube videos and found that it is entirely possible to put in hardware for a pocket door during a remodel. Not only that, but see that drywall hanging there in the picture? We were able to preserve that drywall and still frame out the opening for the pocket door. There are lots of tutorials out there on how to to do that, so I won't go into details, but that's what we did.
Oh, also during this process of making a new opening there was an outlet coming out of the floor right in the middle of where my new doorway was. Our friend that framed the opening was able to move the outlet pretty easily using a metal hanger.
And that's how the kitchen looked for a couple weeks.