Kitchen Re-furb part 1

Since it is Christmas break and freezing COLD! Why don't we just do a remodel job?

At the end of May we painted the walls, replaced the wallpaper and border and put in the black and white floor tiles.

The kitchen counter is almost 31 years old and it was not top-of-the-line when we put it in. So when hubby says, "lets replace the counter top." 

I say, "what about the doors, can we paint them?"

He says, "well you can, but let me know when you're finished."

Ahem....

See, he works at the place that makes these doors and in this case the entire kitchen. It's almost more than he can stand to see this carefully selected oak wood grain covered with ....paint.

Of course he didn't let me sit with the whole project, we both spent most of Christmas break (his work was slow and he's "recovering from knee surgery") I put that in quotes because his recovery has thankfully been a breeze. Where was I? Oh, we spent most of Christmas break doing the painting and re-assembly of the kitchen. We were thankful for Sunday.

The day after Christmas he was busy with the screwdriver...well the girls decided they needed to help. And since we were refinishing...why not?

It took quite a bit longer doing it that way, but he's a patient daddy.

I went paint shopping- information gathering.

Found out that I needed to wash/wipe the cabinets down with a product called Dirtex.

Just mixed with water and wash...no big deal.

Sand any rough spots.

And cover with BIN original stain blocker.

Then I was shown the different types of paint that are supposed to work well with cabinets.

I initially chose the Insl-X paint,but they couldn't tint it in the dark gray we wanted.

I ended up choosing Benjamin Moore Advance. The messy one in the middle.

The BIN stuff is a mess to work with, it's drippy and dries incredibly fast. Hubby was worried that our finished doors were going to look like a bad paint job.

We got them to tint it from the normal white to something closer to gray.

One night we ordered out for pizza and ate on the living room floor.

I was almost liking the open door plan.

The only draw back was that my normal quick-slam-the-door- so- the -plastic- containers- don't -fall- out method didn't work so well.

I got Faith to "redd- out" some of the cupboards so I could stand the rest of the  mess a bit better.

The newspaper taped to the floor was there for a few days- just don't look- focus!

We took the appliance garage out- to paint it, then decided we liked the room.

I'd better not change my mind.

Now the counter top really will need to be replaced, it looks terrible with the dark gray

and we still need to paint the stove hood because it is beige.

Patience! It was time to go back to work. Maybe next week end...or the next.

The doors are all back on,but the handles are still enroute from Amazon.

I think I love my new kitchen....just need to get some good pictures.

Ah! the lady in the house with the new camera, I'll get her!

QOTD:  Shekinah describing an incident "One day Anna wasn't trying real hard to keep her feet on the ground and the wind just blew her over."

Then we had a discussion on the difference between a "banister" a  "barrister" and a "barista".

We learned that while a barrister might stand at a banister and he should take a bar exam, he does not normally work in a bar. (Well unless he is moonlighting as a bar-tender to pay off his college loans.)