Kitchen Update!

Finally, I know you've all been eagerly awaiting this one...

Here is the kitchen table as I ate dinner at the table for the first time in a while.... Apparently Madison was pretty happy too! More updates to come in upcoming weeks.

2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17...

Theme: Prime

I spent my weekend working on the kitchen. Namely, preping and priming it. hardy har har...

I finished off the cabinets. They just need new hardware and the doors can all go up. I need to put up a little trim, however that will be one of the last things to go up. Then I washed down all the walls, spackled up the fifteen million holes left by the previous owners, and sanded down the areas on the walls and doors where there were giant globs of paint left hanging out by the previous owners. Next came removing the remanents of the wallpaper border around the top of the paneling and above the cabinets, not entirely a small job. Finally, I brought out my best friend, the painters tape. I should note, current pet peeve: people who paint over outlet covers and the outlets such that the next painter is worried that she is about to rip the electrical box out while taking them off.

Last step: priming the sheetrock, paneling, and doors. It took two coats of prime to get it past the point of being gross. The A's who lived here were just gross. Not only did they do things like leave globules of paint on the walls and paint over the switches and outlets rather than installing new ones of the appropriate color, but they had a wood burning stove that smoked up the entire house. Once their pictures etc. were removed you could see the outline of everything they had on the wall. It was also apparent once the wallpaper border came off. I'll be painting everything with real colors soon. Here are a couple of 'befores' that shows the goreous border as well as the grease and smoke outline on the wall as well as some 'middle of the project shots' to keep your curiousity at bay. Look for more to come in upcoming week (s)!

Pantry Painting

Not to much to report on from the Ladies of the House. We were quite excited by the lost premiere last week, in case you hadn't gathered. It was great, but introduced many new questions and didn't help me to come to any sort of closure. I'm going to be very very very sad when it ends. I might have to do something drastic and turn off cable or something. I just don't watch that much anymore, nothing meets my expectations after L~O~S~T.

In household news, I'm back on the improvement bandwagon. You might have been wondering what all I had been doing lately. The answer was nothing much. Two weeks ago I took everything out of the pantry. I threw out anything past date (which was scarily more than I want to admit)and gathered things that were in date that I have no real intent to eat to donate to the food pantry. Turns out I have a LOT of grains. I could have told you that though. Everything that was left after the purge made it's way into the cabinets with rolling drawers while the pots and pans eventually made it into the pantry. It seemed like a better way to organize things and not waste so much food. Before re-filling the pantry I repainted it. I don't think it had been painted since 1979!! It was all yellowed and gross and full of scratches and whatnot. After painting, it turned out nice and clean and white and crisp :) Next task, painting the hall closets.

RPP -- yeah you know me.

We are back in kitchen mode. Ugh. Doors are being replaced. The final cabinets are being sanded. Painting will be extensive. In preparation for painting I decided we needed to start emptying the pantry (it will be painted) and the fridge (painting will occur behind appliances).

Today's effort: cheese ravioli, peas, and pesto. aka RPP. If I hadn't used all my cannelli beans earlier I would have thrown them in. Perhaps some tomatoes or some green beans next time. Simple, quick, yum (my favorite kind). No real measurements to report for this episode of cooking with sarah -- just throw them together -- more veggies = more yummy!

cabinetry

Getting there with the sanding thing.

Progress, finally

i've been working away at the cabinetry. it is slow going to say the least. however, check out all the doors and drawers i've stripped, sanded, and am about to stain. tonight i got the first coat of stain on the fronts. i know that the color looks sort of similar to the existing color, but really, it is better. and not mucked up with 30 years of scum. if it turns out as well as it might, i'll be way too impressed with myself. there are still a couple more doors to finish, and the cabinets themselves. however, today was a big step in the right direction.

most of the doors, pre sanding


the drawers pre-sanding


the doors, after a coat of colonial maple . they definitely need another coat or two pre-polyurethene

the drawers after a coat of maple on the fronts and sides. still need to re-paper the insides though. also note my cool bike.

Sanding away my Friday

I've been sanding the cabinet doors. They will look good. My hands feel like vibrating away though.

Kitchen Remodeling Update

Seriously, I question the people who built my house.

Cabinet doors were stained while hanging up.

The stipping goes slowly but surely. By the time I'm done with this kitchen project they'll have a job for me across the river