Blog Archives
Kitchen progress, looking good so far!
Even though I only have one coat of White Dove on the cabinets (but not all of the trim) it’s looking much closer to a finished project… however don’t even ask about the door fronts as they have technically been ready for painting for weeks I’ve just been neglectful and reluctant to paint in 90% humidity…
We also got the tile grouted this weekend as well. Have I ever told you that I have tiling anxiety? No, I’ve never been formally diagnosed, but I’m pretty sure it’s a real thing. You see tiling itself is not difficult at all, but you have to move pretty quick in order for the mastic and grout to not dry out and cause problems… SO I get anxious and pretty crazy about moving quick, quick, quick (like at a DEFCON 10) and my Super Awesome Hubby just wasn’t born equipped with anything over say DEFCON 7, so if you can imagine he’s moving at like a 4 and I’m at a full on 10! I’m so lucky he puts up with my crap sometimes I swear… but anyway on to the progress shots!
My favorite cabinet so far is the one over the refrigerator / oven area. At first I was not really thrilled about having to stage that area, but I have a plan and I’m super excited to get it finished!
And I don’t regret for one minute adding the tile over the window here, I think it really finishes off the area nicely.
I still have to caulk the crown molding and fix some areas that aren’t quite perfect before I can paint them. Also, the blue tape is marking areas I noticed after I painted that needed some additional repair so they have been fixed and re-primed and I will paint spot paint those areas when I paint the trim.
Also, a follow up on the cooktop I broke… we haven’t replaced it yet, but I did get “lucky” and was able to buy a replacement glass top for it instead of having to replace the whole cooktop. I would have much rather replaced it, but finding one that fit the exact cutout dimensions proved nearly impossible.
The rest of the to-do list consist of painting the ceiling, installing the range hood, reinstalling the under cabinet lighting, a few more coats of paint and painting the doors… so I think we’re on the downhill slope, right?!
Until next time…
What a Day…
Well today was the day that I was going to get shit done on the kitchen remodel! I had one last cabinet to prime, a few repairs and then sanding of all of the primed cabinets… it was going to be a big day! And truly all was going well (albeit messy and dirty and overall not fun) and I was moving along at a good clip and on track to finish what I had planned to finish until this happened… 
(insert lots of bad, bad words here…)
I dropped my mouse sander on the glass cooktop and the top shattered big time! I was lucky that the glass didn’t fly off of it, but I was extremely pissed to say the least. Now granted I hated this cooktop, it is 13 or so years old and it was hard to see the numbers beside the dial but it worked just fine and I wasn’t yet ready to replace it. I mean it takes me a lot of time and research to find just what I want and also what will fit the cutout in the granite that already exists. So my search begins today and I need to find a replacement quick because I cannot use my cooktop in this condition, I guess I will be using the crockpot for a while…
On the plus side we really are at a good point with the kitchen cabinet updates.
All of the new cabinets are installed and everything is primed and ready for the first coat of paint! I’m so excited about the cabinet over the oven and refrigerator that I have already been mentally planning on how to stage that area.
As you can see we got the tile installed (but not yet grouted) over the stovetop, but we had a little scope creep and decided to tile over the window over the sink as well… it just looked awkward without tile there.
So I’m off to find the perfect/inexpensive/right size/quick ship stovetop, wish me luck… I have a feeling I’m going to need it!
Until next time…
Updating, raising and painting kitchen cabinets
I know that there are a bunch of cabinet painting posts out there where it only took a couple of days to paint the cabinets… well that is clearly not how fast my project is going. Now I will say that I knew going in to this project that it would take a lot of time, be messy, tedious and pretty much a pain in the ass, but if I wanted painted cabinets I was going to have to suck it up, put on my big girl panties and get started!
So you know I finished the butler’s pantry a couple of month’s ago… which I am so happy with!
Then I took a little beginning summer break and me and my hubby started working on raising the kitchen cabinets and adding open lower cabinets. So our kitchen currently looks like this, nope I didn’t even straighten it up for you, no glamour shots here… but I can see how much I’m going to love the finished product already!
I removed all of the dishes from the cabinets and all of our everyday dishes are temporarily housed in the butler’s pantry, everything else is laid out on the dining room table… it looks like I’m getting ready to have a rummage sale in there and I’ll have to wash everything that’s there when I’m done due to all of the dust I’m creating…
The cabinet below was a H-U-G-E pain in the arse for my hubby to build, but I think he did a fabulous job and I love the fact that it is one large cabinet rather than 3 individual pieces, it will give us so much flexibility for the space. He also added an electrical outlet in it in case we want to put a microwave or something else in the cabinet.
As much as I know my hubby would love to be done with the cabinet making part of this project he still has a rather simple one to add to the top of the stove and refrigerator space. We also added a wire from the under cabinet lights to this area so that it can be lit at the same time. This will be the only area in the kitchen cabinets where I will have decorative items, all of the other open cabinetry is for everyday dishes, glasses etc.
We also changed our mind on the range hood and decided to install this hood instead of a custom wood surround.
I think that the black of the hood in combination with our black island cabinets will be a very nice contrast to all of the white cabinets. So we had to remove some drywall, install a 2×4 support and shift the electrical over so that it will be hidden by the hood as well. When we were done we just patched the area with 1/2” plywood and I will patch and prime the entire area in preparation for the tile. Yet another scope creep item, we will be installing the tile backsplash all of the way up to the ceiling behind the hood… did we need to do this, no, but will it look better if we do… yes, I think it will look stunning!
So I’m slowly working on adding trim to the sides of the cabinets, caulking, filling and priming, in general I’m having no fun, but it’s better than being outside in the hot muggy hotness that has decided to reside over the Louisville area for weeks!!!
I will (eventually) be painting the interiors of the open cabinets the same color as cabinets themselves, but I’m pretty sure I will be using paper or fabric as a removable colorful backdrop in them.
Just so you can see a comparison to where we were before we started this project and today, it’s getting there slowly but surely!
What you can’t feel is the sense of height that raising the cabinets to the ceiling gives you when you walk into the kitchen, it just seems so much more grand for some reason, I love it! Obviously getting to the top shelves will require a step stool, but I am planning on storing all of my china and rarely used dishes and cookware on the highest shelves so that I will rarely have to get anything down from there. Well I guess I have stalled long enough from working on the kitchen… better get back to work and get this project done!
Until next time!
