A Long Time Coming

In about a month from now, we will have lived in our current home for 19 years, and for many of those years, I've not been super happy with my kitchen cabinets. Functional--yes, my kitchen layout works beautifully, however, knotty pine has seen it's glory days, and they were long, long ago--as in the 50's, and early 60's. So, just when you thought I'd painted just about everything in this house during 2014, we are at it again.

I'm taking today off from the market because I can't bear to be away from our project! Then too, we've had some monumental rain of late, and with everything in disarray around here, having a rainout at the market would mean even more. We missed a lot of the rain on Thursday because we were in Home Depot shopping for supplies; I was super surprised when I saw how much rain was in our gauge!

I know you can hardly see it, but it is filled to 4 inches.  Coming home that same day, the sunset was lovely, causing a "pull-over" moment.

Originally, I'd asked Bruce to put some trim on the outside of the cabinet doors, however, that will not work, but what will work, is NEW HINGES, and handles! For years and years, we looked exhaustively for new hardware to no avail, not because we did not like the new ones, but they would not fit our current holes. Well, that is no longer going to be the case as B is reconfiguring the back of each door (27!!!) to make way for sleeker hinges.

So, here's how things looked a day ago...

Can you see all those strap hinges on the bottom cabinets? The large upright cabinet on your left was added at some later point, and those are not so bad, in fact, that's what we'll be having. We looked into buying all new door fronts, in order to copy the current trend of using European hinges that don't show, but at $80/door, we decided against that plan.

Another obstacle facing this project was color--how do we incorporate what we have as far as our granite, appliances, back splash, and floor? I know everyone is painting their cabinets white, and I do like that look, however, I did not think it would be our best color choice. Well, I finally found inspiration in a Valspar pamphlet I had in a drawer; don't know where I picked it up, but while showing it to Bruce, I said I'm in love with this kitchen, and much to my surprise, he bought into it!

So where do we start? With this cabinet:

I emptied it, washed it, inside and out, followed by some hand sanding, which I absolutely hate! On the other hand, I was dying to try it, so I squelched my dislike! Because it is such a bold move, I bought a sample sized can to give it a try. Furthermore, I'm painting the inside of every cabinet with a neutral called, I believe, Mushroom Cap, to make it all feel clean and fresh.

In the meantime, Bruce took down the old-fashioned wood piece that spanned the kitchen sink, replacing it with a plain piece of wood.

It is quite a joy watching him use his carpentry skills, I can tell you that much. Bill came over yesterday afternoon to see how things were coming, and to just plain watch Bruce work, which sounds crazy but it is highly interesting watching a skilled craftsman at work. In this case, he was--tada!!--cutting out openings in the doors for glass insets! Just the two with the dishes, but won't that be exciting?? In more carpentry news, he made some molding to go on the bottom of the cabinets, picture below.

This was after a laborious time using the orbital sander on the cabinets while I was holding our small vacuum to catch most of the dust. One thing he discovered after cutting the hole in the door is how different the plywood is from what you can buy today. Much, much better quality back then. Which we knew instinctively, however, knowing and witnessing it, are two very different things. Bruce will also be making new drawers (!) with guides using new plywood. That vacuum trick did a good job, however, in spite of that, there is a thin layer of sawdust on everything.

So, how does it look? See for yourself....

While at Lowe's I leafed through a book on kitchens and baths by one of our favorite TV designers, Candace Olson.  Am I ever glad I did! Originally, I was thinking of using only pulls, like we had before, however, I noticed she used both knobs, and pulls, in every kitchen, to, I assume, give the look a little contrast. Thank you Candace! Knobs and pulls purchased. :)

Because I jumped into the blue without any other colors receiving attention, I began to get cold feet. Maybe I should try a greenish/gray color. So, instead of buying the gallon that I'd gone to the store to get, I picked up another sample which turned out to not be green at all. It did look great with the Tropical Bay, so I used it for painting the inside of the upper cabinets, two of which will have glass.

Bill went back to the store to pick up the gallon for me, insisting on paying for it, claiming he owes us. As well, last Sunday he bought Bruce a new more powerful drill set that includes cool LED lights around the bit. Christmas in September!! We did all that work for him out of love, however, that drill IS really cool. Actually there are two of them.

We worked last night until we couldn't see, or stand up, for that matter!

Bruce is giving Baxter a little love after a very stress-filled day for our little doggie! Not only did he not like the sound of the sander/vacuum duo, but the air compressor sends him to the back bedroom to hide under our bed. Combine all that with a massive thunderstorm in the afternoon, and you can imagine how he needed some loving!

Am I nervous about all this blue?--yes, I am, but that has never stopped me before, so onward we'll press today. In fact, it is finally just about light enough to get with it--wish us luck!