As I Type... (12:03 AM on a Tuesday)

Mad progress today, y'all. I finished the last coat on two of the doors upstairs and got the first coat on a third. More than halfway done painting those doors now. Sam and I cut the entryway in after we put the kiddos in bed, and now - thanks to my rolling fiend of a husband - it's white! :)



The wall on the far left gives you an idea of the creamy-yellow color it was before. Not at all a bad color. I just don't think this house is feeling the warm tones. The white is much crisper and works really nicely transitioning into the greige kitchen.

More soon!

(By the way - that trim color, Sherwin Williams Accessible Beige, was a "test". I liked it around the closet, but not around the black doors. The trim [and mostly likely the closet door, too] will be repainted the same white as the walls - Benjamin Moore "White Dove")


It's getting fun around here :)

Playing Dress Up With The Sink

In my last post I promised we'd show you our fun idea for the kitchen sink area. Remember how filthy it used to be before Sam cleaned it up? But by the time he was done, the walls and floor beneath the sink were gleaming with glossy white paint!

I love him.




You see, the under-the-sink-area had to be cleaned up and made spiffy in order for our next project to really work out. Were you wondering what that pile of fabric on the floor in the last pic was? It was linen :) And in a few hours at my good ole sewing machine, I turned it into...




A sink skirt! I love it!!! (Please ignore the shiny brass curtain rod for the time being - thanks)





This little kitchen is finally beginning to have some personality. Even more exciting news - we ordered our bin pulls for the drawers last night! Hopefully soon I'll be showing you a few photos with the skirt's curtain rod painted to match the hinges, the last cabinet door back on (should happen tonight!), and the new bin pulls in place. Then, I think we've both decided we'd better hightail it to another room and get some painting done before the cold weather really sets in.

So, what do you think of the sink skirt? Please say something nice. It makes me smile :)

No Whitewashed Tombs (Funky Under My Sink)

The post title is a Bible reference. Google it :)

We've been taking on the last of the kitchen cabinets, and we are close to done with them! Yay. This last bank of cabinets has been the lower ones on the sink side of the galley. There aren't many doors and drawers - easy as pie. Well, it would have been, if I had been able to ignore this...




We could have just painted the doors and the outside of the cabinets and never, ever opened them again. No one would know about all the ick. Apparently, the previous owners had been able to carry on just fine while ignoring it all.

It was really filthy. There is not a current leak/water issue, but there clearly had been at some point. The wooden board that was inexplicably placed on the concrete floor showed proof. It was warped and a little molded. Super gross, y'all.







We decided that making it look great on the outside while ignoring such grossness inside would be cheating bigtime. Besides, I saw this area as a potentially usable space. Break out the bleach for this one, honey.

Sam is awesome, by the way.






Scrub, scrub, scrub and get rid of the nasty board.

After a good rinsing and time to dry, Sam primed it with Kilz. Awful stuff, but sometimes you just have to break out the big guns.




The last photo was taken just as Sam started priming the floor. He finished priming and coated the entire inside with 2 coats of high gloss paint the same color as the cabinets. We have a fun little idea for this space, now! :) I'll show you what we do with it this weekend. Stay tuned :)

More Kitchen Progress (Photos!)

Here are the photos I promised :) We are getting there, friends, we are getting there. Sam and I hope to finish up the last bank of cabinets this Sunday night!!! Can I hear a WOO-HOO?

The yellow countertops stand out now more than ever, but I'll just have to deal with that. Honestly, they aren't as vivid as they appear in the photos. Don't get me wrong, they're yellow. But, it's more of a straw/maize color than a bright yellow. We're still tossing around countertop ideas, but probably won't get to them for 1-2 more years. We have a few little jobs in here to take care of this fall and winter (adding bamboo blinds, a light over the sink, organizing type things). The next big kitchen project,though, is slated for Spring 2010 - we're busting out that awful garden window and expanding the opening for a larger, more traditional replacement :) Yay for more natural light!!!

Hope you all like what we've done so far. I'm pleased with how it's coming along on such a major budget. We're not finished, so I can't really call these Before and After pics. Maybe we'll call them Before and During pics. Here they are!




























The light is new from Overstock.com (sold out) and the curtains are Ritva from IKEA. Curtain rods from Target. Wall color is Sherwin William's "Balanced Beige" and the cabinets are SW "Panda White". The new hinges are oil-rubbed bronze in stock at Home Depot. Bin pulls to come next month!!! I had the tablecloth already - I think (I bought it at Kohls about 4 years ago). I switched out the old chairs for some others I already had, too.


P.S. We changed the flourescent bulbs from "Kitchen & Bath" to "Office" lights. It's a much whiter light now - more like natural light, I think. Definitely an improvement to hold us over until the ceiling can get raised in that part of the kitchen and new (not flourescent!) light fixtures can go in.

Thanks for looking!