The Kitchen...For Now

You asked for it, you got it!

Here is how the kitchen is looking these days.  Nice and clean and WHITE! ;-)

The view from Robert's office.  As you can see, he still has a little work to do on those.  Paint, sheet rock, caulk, etc. 

BUT, even with a little work left to do on those windows, they still look MUCH better with out broken glass, and ugly metal frames just sitting there.

Loving the cabinets all one color!  And I have to say, the paint is holding up well.  It's also super easy to wipe down and clean.

Now about those light fixtures.  We may never agree on what to do with those.  Which is why they haven't been replaced yet.

I know the fan is ugly, but I love it.  And use it all the time.  It gets hot in this little kitchen!

I suggested that we get 2 matching fixtures and just put one up until we sell the house.  That way, I can still use my ugly fan.  ;-)

Robert wants to just get it all done at once.  Which I totally get.  I just know I'll miss my fan.

So would it be so awful to put a prettier fan up?  And then another fixture over the table??

Robert also though track lighting would be nice.

We don't know...we're so bad at this "deciding and picking out" thing.

My nice clean, white desk!  No more chip and scuff marks!  I was able to organize my file drawer full of coupons and now school files!  Always have to have my big calendar up or I have no idea what day it is!

So there it is!  It's just a simple, clean change that I'm enjoying so far!

Who knows when we'll actually completely finish it.  But I will let you know if there will be any other changes!!!!

Thanks for walking with me through it!

Labor Equals Value

* pictures and text have nothing to do with each other*



So the kitchen.  The painting is DONE!  Yay! But I can't decide whether to post pics before or after we do the lighting and once Robert completely finishes the window.  They're framed out but need to be painted. :-)

Y'all, I pretty proud my kitchen.  I mean, I actually did most of the work!  I primed 3/4's of them by myself.  Robert AND I both first and second coated them.  

Then I (yes, all by myself) re-hung every.single.cabinet and drawer.  Electric drill and all!


Oh yeah!

Then....I got all crazy and decided to repaint my desk!!!!!

Who am I!??!

It needed it bad.  It was all scraped up.  Now it's as good a new!  

I also got to rearrange my desk and clean/dust behind it!  Yikes, it needed it.

We still have to pick out and replace the under-cabinet lighting.  I'm not sure when that will be happening.  Hopefully soon!

The two ceiling light fixtures will be "dealt with" as well.  When, I dunno. 

Robert did a beautiful job on the windows in the kitchen.  I want to hang some window treatments above them to match the one hanging over the sink.  Just good old blue toile.  :-)

I'm also proud to say that there are NO random items (except for playdough - which cannot be left out within hand reach of my children) that are sitting on top of the cabinets!

Which brings me to the title of this post.  

Since I worked pretty hard on these cabinets, I practically won't let the kids touch them!  

And if one splatter of anything gets on them, I wipe it up ASAP!

And my desk....I won't even set my coffee cup on it!  :-)

I'm pretty sure the kids see it too.  If they start to jump up on the counter, they catch themselves as to not accidentally kick the cabinets and scuff them up!

It's such a valuable lesson.  Labor = Value.  And one that I'm afraid isn't around much anymore.  BUT, I hope to instill it in my kiddos!!!
 

I just hope it last a while for me and my kitchen!!

SOOOOO.......


Do you want pics NOW?  Or after it is like, completely done?  Which I have no idea when that will be?!???

The Kitchen Beginnings

The kitchen is coming along!!!  And I was quickly reminded why I'm not a "projects person".  BUT, before we get into that, let's see some more before photos of this "rigged" kitchen.

During my path of destruction around the kitchen, I also noticed this horrible molding hanging from the cabinets.  Other than holding grime and dirt, it's only function was to hide the under-cabinet florescent lighting.  Which was "rigged" and cords were hanging all over the place.

(Why this didn't bother me before now is completely shocking to me.  The only reason I could come up with would be that when we moved in I was pregnant (with Lillian) and wasn't all there, and then I guess I just got used to looking at it for so long I didn't "see" it anymore!)

Here's another place the previous owners "rigged" some lighting.  There are cords hanging all over the place above the cabinets.

So, we will be figuring out new lighting.  Especially under the cabinets.  But it'll probably be florescent lighting that doesn't need to be hidden.  Decorative florescent lighting, if you will.

Here's the opposite wall of the kitchen.  Hello, welcome to my world.  Yes, I put random things on top of shelves...we're pressed for room in this house!  I keep telling you I'm not perfect! Ha!

Saturday morning, I started taking cabinets off the hinges and hardware.  Yes, all 20 doors and 7 drawer faces.  (But we only have 5 drawers...I told you we're pressed for space!

And this was how we ate breakfast! Watching Robert staple gun things back into place.  Oh, and I threw away that toaster up top.  I guess if I haven't used it in a year or so, I probably won't use it again!  And maybe I can score a new toaster oven out of this project.  We'll see!

THEN, Robert gets all crazy and construction-man-like and decides to rip out the windows in the kitchen too.  Yeah..that wasn't in my plan, but something that NEEDED to be done!

The kitchen is in shambles at this point.  Not fun when there are 4 kids running around pulling things out of shelves!  AHHHH!!  Add in chainsaws and it's TOTAL CHAOS!

The cabinet doors and the bases were primed only on Saturday.  BUT, 2 windows were completely torn out! :-)


So day one was, how shall I say it, not the most "marriage building" of days, but we got through it unscathed.  :-)



Onto the fun part...PAINTING.  {insert Robert groaning}

We actually DID work as a team on this.  And he didn't get onto me too much about my bad painting.

Landon was actually a HUGE help.  And wanted to help.  Loved seeing his servant's heart come out!

Rhodes was toddling around while we were getting set up and he started walking with a leaf on his (left) foot.

So he tried to wave it off.  It was kinda funny.  He stood up and went back down twice to try and get it off.  Then just pulled it off with his hands.

The boys played around in the rain for a minute.  The girls stayed dry in the playroom watching "Annie". 

See....I'm painting!  I'm really doing it!

Unfortunately, it was SUPER humid so the cabinets took long to dry.  Hopefully, only one more day with a cabinet-less kitchen!

On the paint choice.  Let's just say I was more told, than got to choose.  Robert likes this Dove White Semi Gloss paint.  It's like $60 a gallon ($60.19 to be exact), and it's super tough.

Since we were basically working with "fake wood" that was underneath the vinyl-ish stuff, there weren't too many options for paint.  We just needed it all to STICK to the cabinets.  Plus, we can't go too crazy in the kitchen because in this area and home prices, etc....we would not get our money back if we went all out.  So we are doing the best we can with the house and area we are in.

But it doesn't rule out glazes.  We may or may not experiment with them.  We need to see how these cabinets turn out first.  There's absolutely no doubt that a fresh coat of paint in the kitchen will do it wonders.

We are also wanting to change out the lighting to two matching lights.  But one step at a time.  So far we've spent less than $100 (primer was $25), but we have so much leftovers, it's sure to go to more projects.  For Robert's business at least!

Another good thing about ripping off all the cabinets in your kitchen is it kinda forces you to go through your cabinets.  You see things and realize they're expired, or you have a better place for it which then frees up more space for other things!

Now, am I going to color code and line up cups smallest to biggest in my cabinets?

NO.  I'm not that OCD.  But it was nice to throw some stuff out!

Hopefully I can post "afters" soon!!!

Guess I Have A Project On My Hands

Y'all, I am NOT a "home projects" person.  It's just not me.  I don't pull pages out of magazines wanting to "get that look" or buy cute little things for my home very often.  I guess one day, when the chances of a random kid throwing up, or writing on walls, get super low...THEN I will desire a nice home and put our personal touches on it!

But by golly, I got SICK of looking at our kitchen!!!  You see, we have this fake, plasticy covering on the cabinets.  And with as much as all the drawers and cabinets get used, they started peeling off.  See below.

Well, regardless how long we stay in this house, it needed to be dealt with.

And let's face it....I needed a project.


Robert said he could get me a heat gun and start taking them down this weekend.  Well, I thought to myself...."I have a heat gun.  I just call it a hairdryer!"  And went to town about 2 days earlier than we planned!

Really, if I hadn't have gotten the ball rolling, who know how much longer we would have sat looking at it!!!

Here's what it looks like now! ;-)  Still in need of sanding...and then paint of course.

Please ignore random toaster on top of cabinets, nasty toaster oven on counter,  crazy rigged light over sink, ugly, multicolored floor mat, and baby that was SUPPOSED to be napping!  Mmmk...thanks!

Look at this gross stuff!  I can't believe we left it on as long as we did!!!

Good riddance!

My cute little helper!!!  Who clung to my leg whenever the hairdryer was on.  Then reached for the knives!  Seriously, there are way more forks and spoons to grab...why the knife?

So here is my question for YOU GUYS!!!

What color paint!?!?!?!?!

The counter tops are blue.  And we ain't replacing those....right now at least, so we have to work with those.  And the floors are dark.  There is so little natural light in this house already, that I hate to go too dark in the kitchen!  We need it as bright as possible.

On the other hand, super light colors show every.single.little. finger print and grim!


Sooo....any thoughts much appreciated!  Oh, and hardware suggestions too!  I'm not good at this stuff AT ALL!!!