Lots of Lessons

Hi all!
Sorry for the long and delayed post, but a lot has happened this week! Plus my post was just about ready then blogspot bombed. (crying....)

I re-read my last post when I wrote about the ceiling monster being removed, taking off cabinet doors, etc.  First, a clarification that I did sand doors SLIGHTLY which translates into probably spending about 20 seconds on each. I won't do this on my next round of doors because I then had to wipe them with a tack cloth. And, I hate that - both the time involved and feeling that cloth on my fingers.(Lesson 1) :( The whole sanding thing was a comfort move for my DH-- so I could say I did it. I have about 20 more doors to do for other cabinetry. I won't be sanding.

So, on Friday (1/24), I got everything ready to go for the staining. This included setting up all of the doors in the garage on painters pyramids so I could reduce my time waiting on getting these dried and returned to the cabinets. This set up took forever. :/  You can buy pyramids at Lowe's/Home Depot, etc. for about $4-6 for a package of 10.

A package of 10 pyramids can be compared to a package of 8 hot dog buns.  They don't correlate to what you actually need! You need four pyramids for each door - a package contains 10??? (Hot dog buns in bag of eight compared to six dogs in a package???) It's a conspiracy, you know!

Anyway, on Saturday morning (1/25), I stained four doors -- then DD1 said they were going to the KC Royals FunFest. Hmmm - stain vs. family time at the FunFest? Yup, that's where I went, too! Lesson #2 - always make memories first because that work will ALWAYS be there.

This would be me with the Hoz cutout. If you look at my pointer finger, it has the telling brown stain on my finger from the four doors. :) By the time we got home, it was too late to do any more on Saturday.

On Sunday, I started early on the staining (7 a.m.-ish) and had the doors done by 1-ish.  The good is that I had the doors done!

The bad is that I about asphyxiated myself! Honestly, I thought there were enough holes around the doors to take care of ventilation. I didn't put it all together until the next day, and I won't bore anyone with the details, but MAKE SURE you have ventilation when staining almost 30 doors! That's definitely Lesson #3. I ended up taking a sick day on Monday and sleeping until about noon.

Lesson #4 - In my attempt to save money, I painted the hinges that I removed from the doors.  They were faded gold-brass (20 years old, too.) Because of how the hinge opened, the first time I opened one on Saturday morning, it scraped the paint. ARGH! Emergency purchase from www.99centknobs.com!

My handles and hinges arrived on Wednesday, and I could not wait to get started! I found them at lunch time (I work at home) and had to install a few hinges while my lunch was heating and I was eating. Multi-tasking at its best!

Picture of desk (old color and handles) vs. pantry with new color and hardware. (LOVE!)

After work, you know I had that drill bit burning up in getting that hardware on!  I'm holding out on the before/after cabinet shot so it can be part of the whole kitchen make over. There's still several steps to go.

Lesson #5 - keep your head in the game.  This is what happens when you're planning your next project in your head before finishing the first!

Oops

Yes, I put the screws in without the hinge! I had to take a pic because sometimes I crack myself up!

I finally got all of the hinges on the doors and the doors on the cabinets, but the company sort of forgot to send me screws for the handles. A quick call, and those were on their way. Plus I'd forgotten to count a couple of hinges so I added those on.

A note about the screws from 99centknobs - they all come in one size with marks where you can break off to the length you need.  I did this for all of the hinges; although I don't know what I was thinking. For the next set of doors and drawers, I'll be using the old screws and save time!

BTW, sadly, I have to work to fund my crafty addictions, so it's only evening, weekends and vaca days for me to play.

Friend Alan was scheduled to come over on Friday (1/30) to take out the black bathroom sinks with leaky handles in the master bath for my next project. Thursday night, I took out drawers and emptied under the sinks and then, YAY! they're gone!

On Friday evening, I prepped. This included sanding the counter top and front edge with my sander using 220 grit. I probably only spent about five minutes sanding. Not long and I didn't use a lot of pressure.  Can you tell that I'm not big on sanding? :) I also put wide masking tape on the tile around the counter as I'm pretty messy. Then I wiped down with warm soapy water (with Dawn).  That was it on this as I got the screws for the kitchen door handles and wanted to finish that. I also needed to do some other unrelated things - actually put Christmas stuff where it's supposed to be on shelves, fixed the dishwasher, and put lights above the kitchen cabinets. As I was kicked back with a beer and popcorn, DH asked about the propane torch on the bathroom counter. Bawhahhaha!)

Saturday morning I started by wiping down the counter with white vinegar. I read somewhere to do that and figured it wouldn't hurt. Then I used a foam brush and small dense foam roller to put on a coat of Kilz. I let this dry a couple of hours. As soon as DH left to go to a basketball game (couldn't have my creativity stifled with him looking over my shoulder - lol!), I started painting with  black craft paint from Walmart and scrunched paper towels. (BTW-all of the paints are Apple Barrel brand.) I put the paint on a styrofoam plate, dipped my paper towel in and blotted.  Every thing I read said to blot it off and I did ... in the beginning ... BUT I needed to cover the majority of the white on the counter, and I don't have a lot of patience, so blotting was minimal until the majority of the white was covered. Also, use a foam brush to paint solid in the creases then blot other colors on.

DD3 was bored so she decided to help out. She started using the Chocolate Bar behind me and before the black was completely dry. All of the paints dried pretty fast.  IMO, the Chocolate Bar was really reddish and not a color I was overly fond of so the majority of it got covered in the blotting. In addition to the black and Choc Bar, we used Antique White and Transitional Beige.

Let me back up just a bit and mention why I chose those colors. I've been studying marble samples and marble-looking everything - formica samples, pics in Lowes booklet, on Pinterest, etc.  I narrowed down and figured out what I liked (and didn't ) then I took my samples to Walmart to match paint colors. I limited to the four and figured I could mix using those shades.

I will tell you, when I started and for about the first 20 minutes, I was SCARED!!. It looked ugly!!! And like splotched paint!!! And I could just feel the disappointed look from my DH!!! BUT, we kept going. And if you do this, KEEP GOING! It gets better!!! REALL!!! Also, look at it from a marble perspective, not seeing just splotched paint.

DD3 and I got it covered and looking blended with the various paints and using scrunched paper towel and sea sponge (buy wherever paint is sold) but I wasn't totally happy with it.  The counter was pretty dark - more black than I wanted. DD3 took a break while I added more white and beige and smooshed, smudged, blotted here and there with black, blended a bit, etc. I also stepped back to the doorway to look for even spread of colors (not having a blob of black) and kept calling for DD3 to come look. She just loved it every time I called her to come look!

I'm really bad about remembering gloves, but craft paint washes off easily!

Finally, when I liked how it was painted, I wasn't sure about using glitter. (I bought Martha Stewart fine silver glitter at Michael's to use.) However, as I was trying to open the container, I spilled it on the counter. Decision made.  I spread it with my hand and added a bit more to even it out across the counter.  I also added some flecks of silver foil gilt by putting a light touch of tacky glue on the spot with a qtip and using tweezers to place the foil. I only put about six little pieces on the counter. A little goes a long way here and too much is really too much in this case.

I waited about an hour to make sure everything dried then put cardboard under the sink holes and lined the inside of the holes with tape to keep clean up minimal. I also added more tape to the backsplash and taped trash bags on the cabinet fronts and about 2 feet out from the cabinets on the floor.  I did not want to clean up Envirotex.

I then re-read the directions for using EnviroTex for about the 10th time and followed them implicitly in double mixing and using the paint stick to stir. I would recommend a clear pitcher or something to mix in. I used two black buckets from the dollar store and couldn't see what I was mixing. It was a crap shoot. :(

I poured the mixture all over the counter and spread it with a 4" foam paintbrush making sure to get corners and creases and have it slip over the front edge. I would catch as many drips as possible and put it back on the counter, etc. After I thought it was all covered, I got down to eye level to make sure it was spread everywhere. Envirotex is self-leveling and resin - not paint. Don't continue to move it around or 're-paint'. Let it do it's own thing.

I was in a time crunch as Alan was coming back on Monday, so I ran a little room heater the rest of Saturday evening and most of Sunday. When everything seemed dry, I turned off the heat, did some clean up of the tape and trashbags, etc.  On Monday morning, I used an X-acto knife to trim the tape on the back splash and peel off.  Alan installed the sinks on Monday.  Here's the before:

Here's the after:

In addition to the counter top, there are new sinks, faucets and handles.  YAY! I LOVE this bathroom now.  Only one more thing to do. But that's after my kitchen remodel, basement remodel and pool put in - you know - projects for the next few months!

Thanks for reading my post and I'll catch you up again next week. I have a four-day weekend coming up so weekend warriors beware! 

House Renovations - Kitchen (Day 1-ish)

Dear hubs and I bought this house in August 2013 from an older couple in their 80s.

The GREAT is that it's a downsize, we are back 'in town' and on  1/2 manageable acre, and it backs up to 6 acres that we don't have to maintain! (YAAAAY!). The NOT SO GREAT is that there was wallpaper in the kitchen, back entry and wetbar, - I'm pretty sure from 1994 when it was built - and almost every other room was painted white (I guess the white would be a good thing).  Anyway, there is a lot of wood and almost EVERY bit of the wood is 90s honey oak. (Insert crying here.)

The former occupants even had honey oak furniture to match, but to each his/her own. (YIKES!)

So a couple of months later, in October 2013, when we federal employees received a three-week vacation compliments of our Congress, my mom and I spent our time trying to get that wallpaper off.  It was horrendous. I'm pretty sure that they adhered it directly to the sheet rock. At one point, my mother said that we should have left it on because it would have been additional tornado protection. Grit and determination took that paper off!

Over the past 18 months, and not knowing what to really do with the kitchen, it just sat there while we worked on other rooms in the house. Our friend, David, painted the living room and dining room. I painted the master bed and bath, DD1 bedroom, DD2 bedroom, DD1&2 bathroom, DD3 bathroom, created a craftroom, built lots of storage shelves (with the help of two nephews) and downsized stuff considerably as I went.

OK - I have to throw in a few pics of craft room pics here cause it's pretty awesome if I say so myself!

Sewing center

Altered art books

Sewing center and cutting table to the left

Jewelry table

Scrapbooking and photos

Other misc art tools and supplies

Needless to say - it's not so neat anymore (sigh)

*******
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when our friend, Alan, arrived.  Alan does general contractor work, and he's DH's best/long time friend.  And, he can fix anything! So our major kitchen surface renovation began. Alan first took the monster box from the center of the ceiling. YAY! Gone! I hated that thing! It could have been it's own room! After I removed the black tile from the wall  behind the stove, Alan fixed the bowed wall surface. He also did fun stuff such as sanding a basement wall, putting up sheet rock so my office video isn't showing the lean-to sheet rock background I was using, putting under and over cabinet lights in for me and moving a ceiling fan box so it's actually over our table. (I say 'for me' because DH really only wanted him to do a little sanding and painting.) Alan has also been my consultant on a couple of other projects (translation - listened to me ramble about the light I am making, painting counters and staining cabinets and how I'm going to do all of that). My creative genius coming out. He's a really great listener and gives me a lot of uh-huhs and you can do that, and what-abouts.

After numerous trips to Lowe's and Home Depot in the last couple of weeks to get this, that and the other, and ordering from Amazon and buying from Target, I am FINALLY ready to get working! (Alan's been moving along doing all of the aforementioned stuff. And, let me tell you, under-cabinet lights!!!! Gotta have them and they are fan-tab-u-lous! (I've missed them since we moved here.) I leave one on every night just because I can!

OK - so moving right along.  Friday evening, I installed a new ceiling fan and it was like WOAH - let there be light!

I basked in that glorious light and throw my hands open wide every time I turn it on. (I also sang an off-key 'let the sunshine in' and threw in some alleluias for the first 24-hours!) And I sold that UGLY ceiling fan for $20 on Saturday night! Nobody's wanting that ceiling monster, imagine that! I envision a ReStore visit coming up.

I also spent a few days in the past couple of weeks searching the WWW for how-tos, and I've listed what I want to do, the steps to get there, what I needed/did buy, etc. I'm all organized and ready to tackle the first step of my part in this kitchen reno. Alan ultimately gets the walls, ceiling and tile. I get the rest.  Are you saying 'what else is there'? Well, my friend, there is a lot, but I won't throw a spoiler in here today.

Rolling on to today (Sunday,  1/26/15) -- I took 26 doors off of the cabinets and removed all handles and hinges including nine drawer handles. This was followed by washing all doors, drawers, cabinet framing, and hinges and then sanding and cleaning the dust off all cabinet framing. In the midst of this,I was rearranging stuff, selling/delivering stuff on FB and fixing roast dinner  stuff before the girls head back to school. (That's a lot of stuff! Yes, I am insane, and at this point, I am dragging!) Tomorrow (if I can get out of bed and after a day of office work), I plan on sanding all doors and possibly start staining!  What gets me through this you may ask? My motivation is knowing that this is my ONLY option to NOT looking at honey gold cabinets with faded gold handles and hinges for as long as we live here. (Sorry, if you have and love honey gold, I'm happy for you. But, I don't. :()

I would love to post a pic of what my kitchen looks like at the moment (not!) but let's just say that if I liked to cook, I would be weirded out about it.  Good thing I don't and I'm not!

More to come!
B