Boy, DID they have concrete in 1940! My apartment building was built in 1923, and it has plaster over wire lathe over concrete. Push a nail or your drill bit (off the drill--or at least unplug the drill) into the hole, and see how deep you can get it in--how does that compare with your anchors? Probably it'll be too short--HOW short? If it's only a teeny bit short, you'll need to drill INTO that masonry. Which means you will need a masonry bit. If it's more than 1/8 or 1/4 inch, you'll need to consider that masonry as the thing to anchor in--and masonry isn't very good at holding the sort of anchor that swells up. (and, is there enough room in the back for those two "wings" to spread out?) If you can't drill into that concrete with a plain masonry bit, AND you need to rely on that masonry to be the anchoring wall, you may need to use a Tapcon screw (for which you need, if I remember right, a Tapcon bit and Tapcon screws, avail. at Home Depot, and probably even a hammer drill (rentable, usually at Home Depot; I recruited my Uncle Mo to bring his). The hammer drill works exactly like a regular drill, but it makes a LOT of noise. But... I can't really see your wall, and I only know what *I* have gone through. You might post this over at Remodeling and at Home Repair. Good luck! (you'd have the same problem, times 6, if you tried to use the vertical standards anyway)

Are there going to be supports on this? A deep shelf more than a yard wide, particularly if part of it is going to be cut away for venting, doesn't sound real stable if it's built out of particle board.

I have Elfa ventilated shelves (and some drawers) in my pantry and laundry room both. I love them BUT I use liners so I don't have the wobbly issue going on. That would drive me crazy. Elfa's ventilated shelves, unlike what you can find at Lowe's, HD or Ikea, have the wires a lot closer together. They also "lock" into place so the wire part is sitting really firmly in the bracket - not just a piece of wood sitting on top of the shelf bracket. As far as organizing little things, Elfa has "shelf baskets" that you can put dividers in and stack stuff in if need be. In the pic below, I have one of those on the immediate left (3 shelves up) and above the counter top oven in the back. I use it for bags of baking stuff like chocolate chips, coconut, etc on the left and treats in the back. And I absolutely love their big drawers. Container Store's return policy is great too - anytime with a receipt and the best Elfa sales is 30% off all Elfa products. It starts Dec. 24th and goes through the end of January typically. There is one in the fall that isn't as good - 25% of Elfa Shelving. (No, I don't work for Container Store, I am just a big fan and will be buying some more Elfa stuff during their Dec. sale.) Here's a picture of our new pantry.

To post pictures: 1. Open an account on a free picture hosting site such as Photobucket, Webshots, Flickr, etc. 2. Make your album "public" so others can see your pictures .....In Photobucket: Click on "Account Options" (top right corner) ..........Next, click "Edit Album Settings" ..........Then, where it says "My album is", be sure it says "Public" (if not, change it to "Public") 3. Using camera software that came with your camera or other software like Microsoft Picture Manager, resize the picture so it's less than 600 pixels in both directions. It's best to resize based on a percentage (like 20%) so the picture dimensions remain consistent (not stretched out vertically or horizontally!) 4. Upload the picture to your account (see #1) 5. If you use Photobucket, when you see your picture on the site, copy the link from the box labeled "HTML Code" (I don't know where the link is in Webshots, Flicker, etc.--I use Photobucket) .....[BTW...You can also resize your pic on the Photobucket site] 6. Simply paste the link from the "HTML Code" in your message...you're done! When you preview your message you will see the picture. Is this understandable??? [Please let me know if it's not so I can re-work the instructions!]