As you know about me, when the husband is gone, I normally have a special, secret house project planned. I think I get it from my Grandma. After all, that fireball of a woman bought a house without talking to my Grandpa about it! [I promise not to buy a house without you, Jaybird!]
Hmmmmm. What to do. What to do.
It has been in my mind forever to paint my kitchen cabinets. Jay and I had talked about it but have never done it. This week I tackled it. So long, dark oak. Hello, crisp, clean white!
I used a Rustoleum kit from Home Depot ($79.00) and I love how it turned out. I worked my butt off each and every day he was gone, managing to get school work done too. We were up early every morning and stayed up VERY late every night to get this done quickly.
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| The kit we used from Home Depot. So far, I recommend this kit. We'll see how the finished product holds up over time. |
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| The BEFORE shot from the day we moved in. Gosh, I'd love to get rid of the black appliances too! |
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| STEP 1 - DAY 1 (MORNING) Cleaning surfaces, removing drawers, doors, adding a little wood filler & general prepping. |
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| STEP TWO - DAY 1 (AFTERNOON) Deglossing Did the cabinet bases, back of cabinet doors and drawers Did the front of the cabinet doors in the evening |
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| STEP THREE - DAY 1 (EVENING) Bond Coat No turning back now! Loving the look of the white already! |
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| STEP FOUR - DAYS 2 & 3 (MORNING) Bond Coat - coat #2 Ah, this is it! Looking amazing, but will it need a 3rd coat? |
Note: I didn't deglaze my cabinets, which would be the next step in the process. I wanted them bright white, so I skipped this step in the kit. Did seem silly to buy a kit and not use a portion of it, so there may be another product out there that's not as wasteful.
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| STEP SIX - DAYS 3 & 4 Protective Top Coat Cabinet bases & drawers & back of doors on day 3 Front side of doors on day 5 |
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| AFTER SHOT! - DAY 6 |
Very happy with the results.
My biggest challenge was the dog hair - keeping it out of the paint!
I did do that extra, 3rd coat of paint. I just felt it needed to look more "solid" white like the rest of our trim work around the house. And after reassembly, I did notice 3 tiny touch ups that needed to be made. Not a big deal, but it does make me wonder how this will hold up in the months to come. I will report back.
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| Here's a good before-after shot so you can see the difference close up. I cannot possibly tell you how much I love this. What a difference a little paint makes! Kitchen is definitely brighter and feels bigger. |
All in all, this is just 1 step of many in hopes of getting this house ready to sell. No, we are not moving soon. Yes, we like this house very much! But Jay's commute is 25 miles 1 way and we'd like to be closer to his office within the next couple of years. We haven't made 1 change to this house since we moved in. We've socked away as much money as we can and we continue to live on a small budget while Jay builds his business. Now it's time to make some improvements to this place with hopes of getting a little more money out of it when it does come time to sell. Further projects include (in random order):
** Flooring (getting rid of carpet and putting in laminate or rubber flooring)
** Deck & Fence (just necessary repairs but also changing the stain color)
** Deck Covering (this one is probably way, way too expensive, but we'd love a covering over the upper portion of our deck, complete with lighting and ceiling fans)
I would be remiss if I didn't mention that this kitchen updating happened over our 13 year wedding anniversary. We debated whether he should go on this business trip over our anniversary, but flights were cheaper. We enjoyed a fun date night at a Wounded Warrior Project fundraiser before his trip and Jay also picked out a couple of suits for work (hard to believe he only had 1 suit as a financial advisor). He was due for a couple new ones. We'll go out to dinner when he gets back.
So, surprise, Jaybird! Happy Anniversary!
