Welcome back to Part 7 of The Accidental Remodel!

Next I learned to HATE blue painter's tape!  I spent sooooo long perfectly taping all FIFTEEN little windowpanes in our door and the floor where the cabinets would be painted.  Had to be perfect!  Was soooo careful to press the edges down tightly over and over like the compulsive overachiever I am.  But all to no avail.  Look at the horrid job it did.  I might as well have not taped at all and just used a razor blade....which by the way, I ended up doing so much of that I couldn't feel two fingers for days and days!  Then my daughter insisted I buy one of those razor blade holders ... a bit closing the barn door after the horse is out, but wow what a blessing!  I still haven't finished cleaning up all those edges.  So upsetting!  She has cleaned some of the panes up for me.  I chose to just move on to the next job, knowing this will surely still be waiting for me when I'm done with the rest and can use the kitchen normally again.  :(  It ruined my floor too.  I had carefully taped, but now there's paint all over the linoleum and I don't know how to get it off. 

Me HATES blue tape!  Long live the Frog!

See ya next time!

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Welcome back to Part 6 of The Accidental Remodel!

This is how bad it looked after the first coat of primer:

Last night I hammered out the panel at the top left.  I had hoped to make it into a shelf (closing off the top of the cabinets) so I could use baskets up there.  Sadly the panel is too deep to just lay down in the opening so I can add furring strips to support it, and too long to fit out the hole so we can trim and re-insert it.  We don't have any tool that will help get it out.  Guess we will have to let the cabinet guy earn his money to do it, if he ever comes!

I also bashed the snot out of the one over the sink and could only get the top loose and the entire valence was moving.  DH tried (hence the hole from a mighty blow) and then he saw it was actually inserted behind the face frame against the shelf that the light is hung from.  It's so not coming out without the special tools.  I give.

I'm toying with the idea of storing Christmas decorations in the baskets as they are only needed once a year and are light weight. That could make our closet much more livable.  We had moved Christmas to the closets long ago as getting in the attic isn't too friendly for either of us any more either.  Now that we finally bought a step ladder (so I could do this job), it would be possible to reach them.  All these years of stepping on a chair from the floor to reach things has been increasingly heinous on my body. Step ladder = GOOD! 

So, on goes our remodel with a second coat of primer...praying the cabinet guy does right by us. (Prayers welcome!)


See ya next time!

Please support this blog by shopping my PayPal store. God bless you! Digifree CraftCrave CraftCrave

Welcome back for Part 5 of The Accidental Remodel!

With the cabinet doors all finished, it was time to start inside.   I used the same 26 steps I listed in Part 4, along with LOTS of patching and sanding.  That impressive corner was courtesy of a puppy we had.  I told you that the "before" pictures didn't show how ugly the wood was, but now you can see!

I'm choosing not to freak...yet... because the first primer, even the second on the doors looked bad too.  In fact, it wasn't until the 3rd coat of paint I felt better.

The doors were hard, but this is so much harder.  After de-glossing twice, washing, drying, patching, sanding, the fact is that there are so many places I can't even get my brush, much less make nice marks.  Given that I'm not planning to paint the insides, I also have to be so careful about that...in areas I can't even access.   (Had to laugh later when someone showed me I COULD remove my drawers after all!  Too late!)

Taking it one step at a time.  Got a LOT of sanding to do when this dries, and more patching, then more sanding...

LOL and I had thought I'd get two coats of primer on today!!!  LOL! Then there's moving the fridge and doing the cabs above it, walls behind and the entire bay area and studio door...patience.  One step at a time.

I see now that the existing stove vent is going to look horrid when the paint is done.  Needs to be stainless I think because of the stove and the sink that will come with the counter.

Thanks for joining us on this adventure!

Please support this blog by shopping my PayPal store. God bless you! Digifree CraftCrave CraftCrave

Welcome back for Part 4 of The Accidental Remodel!

Here's a reminder of "before":

We didn't plan it, but once the new stove was in, the ugly cabinets became uglier...well, to my husband.  They were always ugly to me.  I was grateful to have them, but they were ugly and STICKY when we got the house and nothing I tried improved it.  I always felt like they were dirty.  The pictures make it look much better than in RL.

So, since replacing is horrifically expensive, that = painting.  When my oldest daughter's house was rebuilt after the tornado, they painted her kitchen cabinets.  It's been awful ever since.  Everything sticks to the shelves and you have to "break" them off to remove them.  It's NOT good.  And the doors stick and pull paint off when opened.  So, I didn't want to paint the insides of the cabinets.  The doors were ugly, but the shelves are ooooh so nice!

I have recently been seeing accent cabinet make-overs on line that are one color inside and a different color outside.  I have really liked it.  So, I decided not to paint inside my cabinets, even though I was going to paint the outsides, windows, doors and trim the same soft white Mascarpone that I'd painted the trim in the rest of our space.  It saved money for deglosser, primer and paint, tons of work and time, all with the bonus of no possibility of messing up my shelves!  Yeah!

Knowing that the cabinets were sticky to start with, I figured paint wouldn't want to stick.  I wanted to do it right so this would last.  I researched and asked experts and ended up with 26 steps for every single inch!

1. scrubbed with Murphy's Oil Soap
2. rinsed
3. dried
4. then twice with de-glosser from Lowe's
5. scrubbed with Murphy's again to remove any residue of the de-glosser
6. rinsed
7. dried
8. patched imperfections
9. sanded patches smooth
10. wiped with soft dry towel to remove dust
11. first coat of primer
12. patched again as more imperfections were revealed
13. sanded
14. wiped with soft dry towel
15. second coat of primer
16. patched again as more imperfections were revealed
17. sanded
18. wiped with soft dry towel
19. first coat of paint
20. sanded as needed for any drips or sagging
21. wiped with soft dry towel
22. second coat of paint
23. sanded as needed for any drips or sagging
24. wiped with soft dry towel
25. third coat of paint
26. no doubt, when everything's done, I'll have to touch up              

I quickly found out that the breeze was speckling my work with blossoms, leaves and tiny insects.  I had to sand the nature off between each coat!  For the final coat I carried them inside immediately, then went to paint the next door.  In the bottom right picture you can see how I had to move all the kitchen things into the rest of the house.  I left only the pantry, now moved to the middle of the kitchen floor.  You like my pretty yard?  :)  I  hope you will come back for the next step in our adventure!

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Thanks for joining me for Part 3 of The Accidental Remodel!  Just as a reminder...here's the before:

While the man was here to cut the cabinets down to fit the new stove, I asked him to estimate knocking out the panels at the ceiling and making them into shelves.  I plan to put baskets in them ... and maybe store Christmas in them ... all sorted!  An organizer's (me) dream!  And I asked for an estimate to put cabinets and counter on the empty wall that I had filled with homemade storage...even cardboard boxes to store Bible Class supplies in.  You can read about that project too under "Money Saving Tips" in the label cloud.  His price was better than the bottom of the line ready made, finish yourself ones at Lowe's.  He required a huge deposit to "hold our place" in their order of jobs.  He said it would be sometime in July.  That's like 5 months.  As an aside, he's not returning our calls and any prayers you care to give on our behalf would be GREATLY appreciated!

So, I started designing the room in PhotoShop, doing mock ups so we could see how things would look.  After tons of options for our little kitchen, we settled on a design. This first one is the wall of new cabinets.   Though it will be a very tiny cabinet, I wanted one open to show my pretty plates and add some style.
See the pretty new faucet below that my daughter gave us?

The inset picture was to give the cabinet man the idea of what kind of arch I wanted.

I hope you stop by next time to follow the story!

Please support this blog by shopping my PayPal store. God bless you! Digifree CraftCrave CraftCrave