Kitchen Renovations III

The progress with my kitchen continues as the cold wind blows outside - and painting weather is nowhere in sight... I became friends with the chop saw.... Yes ok - I'll admit, I've always been a bit afraid of the chop saw... something about the spinning blade.... and the fact that it cuts and cuts and then all of a sudden splinters wood and explodes it all over the room... makes me just a tad nervous....  that and the spinning blade part....

 It looks so mild with it's blade all tucked away like this .... so harmless and benign.... mwaaa haa haa (insert evil laugh here) but I don't trust it at all....  oh wait... did I say I made friends with the chop saw?  I digress... yes  - I made friends with the chop saw... old habits are hard to break.

But - after cutting trim for about  30 cabinet doors .... we are definitely friends....

(notice I STILL had to keep them numbered) - I did have a regression of fear when I tried to cut the trim for the drawers... it was eensie weensie trim so the blade didn't like it - and, of course - the chop saw EXPLODED and threw wood all over the garage!   so.... I'm still a little bit afraid of the chop saw.  I had to revert to using a miter box to cut that trim and it took me 100 years... 3 blisters and a sore shoulder.... but... ITS DONE!!!!



Before Trim - plain drawer fronts









After trim - much better!


Then I filled in all the cracks and holes with wood putty - then sanded some more - painted with pretty rust colored primer....... so many steps - so little time
(always keeping them numbered)

Meanwhile - the hardware has3 layers of paint that hads to be removed - we plan to paint it a brushed nickel - it was originally a copper color and has, over the years, been painted white and then black.   All of this has to be removed somehow - and, of course - I'm going to have to do it and still keep the hardware separate and numbered...... I'll have to go on line and look for ideas on how to remove paint - I hate to use chemicals - - - anyone have any ideas?



A House In Repair - Kitchen Cabinets Phase II

The demolition continues - our poor kitchen - no fridge, no stove, no dishwasher... (like Robinson Crusoe - not a single luxury -for some reason that song keeps going round and round in my head) well - at least I don't have to live there!  I've become hooked on my cold beverages and NOT having to wash all the silverware!!

You can see the next step in our project - my husband has ripped up the floor (I'll cover that in another blog) and has a few tiles down for me to see - I'm just showing you the before pictures of the cabinets before I remove them from their homes.

A House In Repair - Kitchen Cabinets Phase I

So the main thing we have to do this year - and quick - is get our other house ready to put back on the market.  It's been on the market now since 2007 - and earlier this summer we realized that there was some major water damage  going on in the basement, so my husband has spent every spare minute all summer, fall and into the winter removing damaged wood, sheetrock and carpet and replacing everything with new.  It has been an enormous job - way more than we ever thought it was going to be - and we are not even half of the way to completion.  (or so it seems some days) But when I look back at the progress he has made so far (with just a little help from me and a lot of help from other family members) - I guess we really are closer to being done than I think we are.  My job right now is to take the plain Jane kitchen cabinets and spruce them up.  We're replacing the linoleum floors with tiling in the kitchen and dining room - so new cabinets will be the final piece to make the kitchen pretty and sellable.  

I actually found these pictures (above) of the kitchen before we ever started doing anything to it - excuse the mess  - I should have washed the dishes before I took these pictures  : )