Kitchen Progress – Nearly Done

So, life happened again. It seems to do that to me on a fairly regular basis. When the last I left you, I was in the midst of a painting hell known to few people. A LOT has happened since then. Here’s some of the things that have happened.

• My  kitchen got painted, as did the dining room, hallway, stairs and trim work. Although, everything but the kitchen needs a second or third coat of paint.
• My downstairs bathroom got ripped to shreds and rebuilt (sort of) and the upstairs bathroom got partially rearranged and put back together. Partially is the key word here.
• Ryley, my daughter, came home from her 18-month mission for our church. She and I got to play with my sister, Nancy (left), a few days after Ryley got home.

• Sam (my youngest) was in the play, Cinderella. He was the King.
• Noah, had his Eagle court of honor and graduated from high school.

• I unpacked all the boxes still in our house, sorted through them, pitched half the stuff and repacked them for our move to Utah.
• We packed up all the stuff we could fit into the moving van.
• I drove across the country with Ryley and Sam, two hours after Noah’s graduation, in a marathon 2-and-a-half-day sprint. Three hours from our new home, the engine conked out on our car which led to a late-night rescue by my brother-in-law, followed by another trip to retrieve the car a few days later using a borrowed truck from one neighbor and a borrowed car hauler from our new landlord.

• We finally got all of our stuff to our new house, but we are far from moved in. We have what I like to call, Box City residing in our garage.
• I’m leaving in a week to go back to Ohio to finish up all the remaining projects and get our house on the market.
• I head to Haven blog conference in one month. I’ve got a lot to get done by then.

With all that was going on, things were usually too chaotic to take any beauty shots but I have a few to share with you.

I got the ceiling painted, although the final color was just a touch or two lighter than I wanted, I was fine with it. Mostly the light during the day is too bright in the kitchen to see that it’s a shade of the blue, but at night it’s more noticeable.

I finished painting all the cupboards. The lower cupboards were painted four times; once with primer and three coats with paint.

The color is Iron Ore by Sherwin Williams. I love the dark color, but it does show dirt rather quickly, especially in a home where remodeling sawdust and dirt is flying fast and furious.

The upper cabinets only needed three coats of paint. The difference was using a tinted primer, so if you plan to paint your cupboards in any color other than white, go for a tinted primer. #ThankMeLater

Sorry for the grainy pictures. These are just the snaps I could find from my phone. I really didn’t break out my nice camera for them.

I finished my built in garbage can/microwave stand/dog feeding station.

Turns out, my dog is a complete slob when he eats, so it didn’t remain a dog feeding station for long. The garbage can works like a dream, after I tweaked it several times, and the microwave is staying with the house since we have one in our new home so that part is still functional. It ended up being a pain to build, but I’m glad I pushed through. I think it fit in well with the rest of the kitchen. For less than $50 in parts, it was a good addition to the kitchen.

That’s all the pictures I have. I will take some shots in a week or two when I get back to Ohio. I’ve got a LOT of work ahead of me, including finishing both bathrooms, installing flooring in the living room and a LOT of painting to do, not to mention the yard work that needs to be tackled. On the plus side, I can do the work without stopping to take care of people and that will help the work move right along.

However, I suspect that after three weeks on my own, I may be overly chatty with the other Haven attendees. You have been warned.