More progress

Last night I put the last coat of paint on the drawers, started papering shelves and migrating dishes to the done part of the kitchen. That trend continued this evening to stay ahead of Karen and the primer. Also, in preparation for some friends coming over, I organized the painting chaos a little and swept the floor, which made me feel a little more like a person. More exciting than a swept floor was putting the hardware on these drawers and putting the drawers back where they belong! Yay!! It's almost like living again.

Thanks to my friends who came over tonight to help me with the kitchen!! Hannah and Andrea repapered shelves while Karen cleaned and primed the upper cabinets over the sink, hurray!! I love visible progress and great company while it happens. Thanks sooo much ladies! You rock!

And for the record, I LOOOVVVEEE the colorful cabinet insides and this awesome contact paper. So much contact paper is hideous or old lady-ish, but this styling green really looks great and adds another fun color to the inside of the cabinets.

P.S. I do apologize to all of you who are bored to death with my updates about the kitchen... just a couple more weeks and I'll stop (God willing). (At least it isn't like Operation Kitten that went on for months!!)

P.P.S. I should also mention that this project deserves more of a schedule like the home makeover shows, but that was too much for me this time around. Although I have this ridiculous urge to put on a TV voice and say "It's day 18 of the project, and it isn't even close to being on schedule or budget..." But since there was no schedule, I really don't have any good calendar disasters to report. Maybe I'll work on that.

P.P.P.S. THANK YOU to all my helpers so far - Maryn, Fiona, Hannah, Andrea, and Karen - you definitely make it so much more fun!!

Kitchen progress

Final coat of white on the already painted cabinets and a few touch ups. Plus sanding and painting the window trim (3 coats of primer, 1 topcoat, with one more to go), paint drawer cabinet and drawers (one top coat to go). Trim under counter and around all painted cabinets. A little sanding and one topcoat on each of these and that who part of the kitchen will be ready (minus the doors that I haven't even started painting yet). Oh yeah, and the new shelf paper. Gotta do that too. Well, it doesn't look like much, but it is progress and finally I had most of a Saturday to devote to it! Hurray!!

It seems like so little, but because the cabinets are so dark, they take a lot of coats of primer / paint to cover them. Plus the little touch ups and sanding between coats... this is definitely a complicated process. But seeing the final look on even a part of the kitchen makes it all seem worthwhile since the kitchen already feels so much brighter. Ahh, love it!!

The other funny part is trying to barricade the kitchen off from the dogs when there is wet paint within tail's reach. The kitchen is the center of the house and they walk through it constantly coming from their beds in the dining room to go outside or hang out in the living room. So it's been a constant rotation of placing the stools and step ladder in front of whatever area is wet so they can't reach it. So far so good though. The only painting mess on the dogs is Maggie's ear that has a yellow tip from walking too close to a wet wall last week. Oh well.

Resealable packaging

Totally random... I bought new socks the other day, ripped open the package to access said new socks, and then on second glance noticed this...

Look closer:

Resealable bag? Really? A new package of socks merits a reasealable bag why? Don't get me wrong, I love that more items are coming in resealable bags, it makes it so much more convenient, like cheese, snack foods, lunch meat, etc. Great, you use some of it and then reseal it.

But socks? Does anyone out there seal and reseal a bag of new socks? I keep trying to come up with a scenario why this makes sense, and just simply can't come up with one. In the meantime, it really amuses me for no particular reason.

The week

The week so far...

- Party at my grandparents house, good to see the extended fam, creeped out by the dummy my aunt made of Uncle Tim

Can you find the real Uncle Tim?

- Cleaned up yet another dead wabbit (this one thankfully hadn't been chewed much - and yes, I know it's sad when I actually appreciate a dead rabbit ;)

- Started new temp job at Neverland in a new department, with new people... more on that in a later post

- Visiting puppy went home Monday, leaving a beautiful, quiet, peaceful stillness in her wake

- Had dinner with my friends from college (we get together about once or twice a year)

- Surprise visit from a couple friends later that night who suspected I might have dropped off the planet

- Hung out with another good friend and my former cat Killian, who lives quite happily as queen of the apartment

- Took a beautiful fall bike ride with the BOC, where we passed a lot of dogs and managed to survive without major drama, not to mention appreciating that one day of 70 degree weather and sunshine!

- Found out friend got a job at Neverland and will be moving in with me - so excited

- One short evening of sanding / painting cabinets ... it's been a busy week! Ahhh. Must dedicate more time to work on this kitchen project or it will never be done!!!

- Totally exhausted and ready for the weekend...

I do love fall...

more kitchen

Friday night, a good friend came over to hang out and help paint! Thanks MFM! You rock!! Between painting last night and today, here's the progress...

- The insides of prepped cabinets are done - a lovely blue.

- One coat of the white on prepped cabinets (second one may go on Sunday afternoon...)

- One coat of yellow on most walls in the kitchen (excluding the one where I need to move the stove and fridge)

I am hosting a friend's puppy for the weekend, so that definitely slows progress some. Piglet is a cutie, though she does have that puppy boundless energy... which is adorable and makes me appreciate the "maturity" of my pups at the same time. She's managed to piss of Maggie (not hard to do) and Suzie (much harder) with her enthusiasm (and attempting to steal Suze's bone). Today I spent a bunch of time with the pups in the yard in an attempt to wear them down, which worked and all three dogs are contained (separately) and have been napping all afternoon while I painted, which has been lovely. Maybe we'll try round two of the exhaustion before going forward with the next coat of paint.

My goal: By the end of the weekend put the shelves back inside the painted cabinets and start unloading other kitchen cabinets for painting... we shall see how that goes...

Kitchen...

Tonight I primed the inside and outside (two coats) of the cabinets along the long counter (the ones taken apart and ready). Hooray! Even the primer looks awesome and white and makes me excited to paint everything... well, at least to have it all painted. Tomorrow evening, I'll get the paint for the inside of the cabinets, new shelf paper, and paint the two coats inside the cabinets. Then Saturday I should be able to paint the white outside coats and then put those cabinets back together (minus the doors) so I can begin emptying another area of cabinets. It feels slow, but any progress is good right now.

And this is the cute dog who nests in a blanket waiting for me to finish painting so I can come snuggle...