Monday, July 18, 2011

Cabinets are Done!

Well, they are 99% done anyway. The door pulls came in the mail, just about the time Tyler's graduation party started yesterday. I will get them on this week, but I'm taking a breather first. Here's a teaser of how the cabinets turned out. I will show more later, when I get the knobs on.


The cabinets took at least twice as long as I thought they would...I always underestimate...you'd think I'd learn! Now that the graduation is over, I still have much to do, but at a more sane pace. The next improvement will be removing the border in the living room, and painting the kitchen, living room, and back hall. Then on to painting the counters, but I need a bit of rest first.

I have two jewelry parties this week, and with the heat, that is going to be enough.  I may head to the cool basement and start sorting for a yard sale in August.  I can drag boxes over, plop my butt in the recliner down there and sort away.  There's even a TV.  Maybe I can catch a little HGTV, or maybe I'll enjoy the quiet.  I hate most of the shows on there anymore.  They used to be good...not so much anymore.

Tyler's graduation was a success! It was very hot Saturday, but it cooled off later, with a nice breeze. I was so busy keeping food stocked and visiting, that I had no time to take pictures. My daughter snapped a couple of the cake and picture board though.



Here's a couple or thirteen pictures of my handsome dude.












 DONE!



Saturday, July 9, 2011

Kitchen Countdown: Days 8 - 10 and an upcoming giveaway

I'm working my hiney off, but progress is painstakingly slow. Everything takes two coats of primer, and two coats of paint. Each strip needs the edges sanded before and after priming. I am painting trim in my sleep.

The upper cabinets are all painted, including doors and all the trim pieces. I still have to attach the trim to the doors and then glaze them. Here is a dry run (trim is not attached yet, just laid on the cabinet).


The hinges and window latches are painted to match my drawer pulls



I've also applied the beadboard wallpaper to  the lower cabinets.


All this and I also had two lia sophia parties.  I am a lia sophia advisor.  I get to meet fantastic women, show off and try on jewelry, be goofy and have a lot of fun.  It's work, but I love it.

Which leads me to my giveaway.  I am approaching 100 followers, so I think it's about time I gave something back to all my wonderful readers.  So...I am going to give one lucky reader a lia sophia "Trish" reversible necklace.  It is 17" long, is gold on one side and silver on the other.  You can wear it plain, or use our versatile slides to change your look.  The gold side is shown here:


It retails for $118.  You can see it and the slides at http://www.liasophia.com/deborahsmith. During the month of July, I am holding a catalog party.  If you are interested in any pieces, July is the month to get them.  There is a discontinuing list, available only through July.  Also you can order from both the outgoing and new catalogs.  But the best part is the sale in July is buy 1/ get 2 half price, and your most expensive items are half price!  I'm not pushing sales.  As you know, I've never mentioned my business before, but since I'm having a give-away, and the sale is so good, I wanted to let you know about it and what I do...when I'm not covered in paint and teetering on ladders!

To order, go to the above website, click on "browse our jewelry."  It will ask for you hostess name.  You will put in my name: Deborah Smith.  You can then browse by category or catalog. You won't be able to order from the new fall catalog until Monday the 11th.  Then you can order from both.

I'll be out of town tomorrow, and gone most of the day Sunday.  I will post a giveaway page in a couple of days as soon as I get 5 minutes.  I've never done a giveaway before, so I need to figure that out.  If you have any great tips, send them my way.  Have a wonderful weekend all you beautiful people!


Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Kichen Countdown: Days 5-7

The holidays slowed progress on the kitchen a bit. But I still got a lot done in the past 3 days. The soffit and window trim in the kitchen are done. Windows are a pain!

Yesterday I cut out all the trim pieces for the upper cabinets. That was a little tedious because each door, or set of doors, are different. These cabinets were built right onto the wall. They had to have been built a long time ago, although they are plywood, so they may not be original. Our farmhouse was built over 100 years ago. Plywood wasn't introduced until 1928, so I imagine these were made later.

Although they are built really well, I hated them. When we first moved here they were blond wood...no stain, just varnish. It made painting them really easy. But I am so over the green. I also disliked the plain, flat doors. So hubby cut some strips of 1/4" MDF at work from materials that would have just been thrown away.

Yesterday he and I worked at running them through the table saw to put a 45 degree beveled edge on them. Then I measured each door and cut, and beveled the short edges on the compound miter saw. It took me a little more than an hour to cut out the strips for just the upper cabinets. Hopefully tomorrow I will get the lower ones done.



Today I cut and pasted the beadboard wallpaper panels for the upper cabinets, and primed the strips. I'll paint the fronts and the strips seperately, then glue and nail the strips onto the doors. That will eliminate trying to cut the wallpaper to fit into each panel. When I get them all done, and after the graduation party, I'll put up a tutorial on how I did them.



I also used deck wash on both front and back decks in preparation for staining them later this week. Gahh! So much work yet to be done.

I was so excited when Jamie walked in with a package that came in the mail. My drawer pulls arrived! They are so gorgeous. I can't wait to install them, but I have to finish painting first. All the more reason to get it done!

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Kitchen Countdown: Day 4

There's not much to show for today. I had a wedding shower to attend in the middle of the day and grocery shopping to do, which pretty much shot the day until about 3:00. I did get a coat of paint on the wood soffit and went over the cabinets with a razor, taking off any little bumps that will show up when I paint.

I was scrounging in the barn a couple of days ago, and noticed an old galvanized funnel way up on the top shelf over hubby's workbench. My mind started grinding away, and I wondered how it would look as a light over my sink. I have a galvanized light picked out that I love, but it would cost me around $100 with tax and shipping. Here's a picture of it. It's just not in my budget right now. Sigh...


I love the curvy lines, the galvanized finish.  Sigh, again...  Maybe later I will get it, but in the meantime I need to know, honestly, what you think about my funnel.  I love the farmhouse, industrial feel of it.  On the other hand I don't want it to look like Sanford & Son.

I just tied it onto the existing bare bulb light to get a feel for it.  Obviously the old light is coming out, but you can pretty much tell how it will look.  So what do you think?



Keep in mind that the cupboard doors will look a lot like those at Recaptured Charm, except they will have beadboard wallpaper in the panels: 


There will be beadboard on the kitchen walls (bottom 1/3 or so), but probably not the backsplash, because water will make the beadboard my husband can get from work swell.  The counters are going to be painted with Giani countertop paint in black granite, and I will do some kind of tile on the backsplash I think.  The stainless steel appliances will stay.  The stainless steel sink will have to stay for now too.  Someday I want a farmhouse apron sink. 

I really, really love the drawer pulls I bought on ebay:


So, considering all that, does the funnel look cool, or just plain redneck?


Kitchen Countdown: Day 3

It's Day 3 of the kitchen countdown here at Green Willow Pond. I am going to bore you to tears with these daily updates. I just hope the final result will be worth it.

My day started with picking up a couple dozen chicks at the post office for my neighbor. I put them in the chick pen she had all set up, dipped their beaks in water so they would know where to find it, and left them in their new home. They were cute little things. I didn't get any pictures, but they looked a lot like this:


Then I took my daughter to work and ran errands.  I got 4 gallons of paint, 2 gallons of zinsser 1-2-3 primer and a 6' step ladder to replace my old rickety one that was threatening to dump me on the floor if I stepped on it one more time!

Heads up if you need paint, primer or ladders.  Ace Hardware has them all on sale through July 4th plus they have great rebates.  Their line of Royal paint has a rebate of $10 per can and you can get up to 4 rebates!  The ladder I got was regularly priced at 59.99, on sale for 39.99, plus an additional $10 rebate.  The primer is on sale for 14.99 and has a $5 rebate each, on up to 4 cans.  Great time to get that paint you need.  I love Ace paint, and no, I don't get any kickbacks for saying that.  But if any Ace reps see this, I wouldn't mind another gallon or two :)

After I got back home, I primed the base cabinets and doors.  I don't think my knees will ever forgive me.  But it's looking better already, and that's just with primer.  When I walked in tonight after going to dinner and a play with Jamie, I did a double take.  Even with the doors off, and all my kitchenly goods hanging out, it looked so much brighter!

Without further ado, here's the progress:


Everything will not be bright white.  I've picked 2 tones of white for the soffit, beadboard (yes there will be beadboard), and cabinets.  I plan to glaze the cabinets too.  The walls will be kind of a soft cocoa color, but very light.

This came in the mail today too:

 Giani granite countertop paint.  I am sooooo excited to cover these ugly counters.  You can see them there under the giani box.  I had to apologize to the box for even setting it on them.  In case you can't see it very well, here's a close-up.  WARNING: shockingly ugly picture coming up. 


Yeah...that's what I've been living with.  Can I get me some sympathy?  Having seen the before of my kitchen, is it any wonder I hate to cook?  It has very few cabinets.   Of the 5 drawer fronts you see, only two are really drawers.  And counter space is precious real estate here. 

To be fair, I love my stainless steel appliances.  Except the dishwasher.  It's white.  I will not complain.  I waited years for a dishwasher, but I really would love a stainless one.  When I was buying the giani paint, they also featured this stuff:


They made it sound great.  I didn't notice when purchasing it (online) that it was an "As seen on TV" product.  Sometimes those are great products, and sometimes not.  Has anyone ever used this?  I'm a little afraid now.  It was pretty pricey at $24.95, although it does come with a can of base coat and one of topcoat.  If it works it will be a very inexpensive way to get a stainless dishwasher.  If not, I will hear echos of Billy Mays every time I open the door.


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