5/11/2008

Kitchen

5/11/2008 – 11:03 pm
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We got an assload of work done in the kitchen today. We put another coat of yellow on the walls because there were some spots where even 2 coats of primer didn’t stop the wallpaper motif from showing through. We did the cabinet frames and the drawers all white. I filled some screw holes in the cabinet doors, sanded them down, then painted everything all white. We removed 2 pairs of sliding cabinet doors because it would have been impossible to paint them without resulting in the doors getting stuck shut, and it looks a lot better without them.

So the plans for next weekend are as follows:

  • paint the hinges for the cabinet doors
  • finish trim in kitchen
  • put the doors back up
  • paint the walls in the bedroom, providing that we can move things out of there
  • paint the living room if we can’t get things out of the bedroom

Over the sink

By Crystal | Posted in life, rebuilding | Comments (0)

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5/10/2008

I’ve got paint all over me.

5/10/2008 – 11:29 pm
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This afternoon we went to 3 different craft stores trying to find something very specific (I’ll post pics of it after tomorrow). We wandered around these stores trying to find this very small, inexpensive bit, hunting through every section and asking for help, and do you think anyone had one of these things? Hell no. Naturally, we’re walking all through these places and Eddie is saying “This is just your way of getting to go into craft places, amiright?”

And naturally, my response was “HELL YEAH I WANNA STICK AROUND HERE IN THE SCRAPBOOK AISLE WITH THE SOCCER MOMS AND OLD LADIES NOW GO FIND ME 10 POUNDS OF BABY BLUE STOCKING WEIGHT YARN MOFO”. Then I bitchslapped him and called him a filthy whore.

We started the major painting in the new place this afternoon, with Eddie putting a coat of yellow on the kitchen walls and me putting blue in the bedroom. I pulled down cabinet doors and took off hinges while Eddie primed the cabinet areas and the drawers, then I took all the doors out to the driveway and primed them because not only were they all a dirty off-white color but they were filthy as all hell with stuff that just would not have come off (just really worn looking discoloration) and would not have looked good with just white paint on them. Tomorrow Eddie’s going to put a 2nd coat of yellow on the walls and prime a few spots that really need it while I put a 2nd coat of blue up and do the windowed wall blue as well. Then I’ll bring all the kitchen doors back out to the driveway and paint them white while Eddie does some trim and things inside.

I was pulling down the cabinet and drawer fixtures and wondering whether or not they’ll look good once everything is painted. At one point they were chrome, but now they’re that old chrome/slightly rusted out style - think old car bumper - and while you didn’t notice it too much with the grungy cabinet doors, I’m wondering if it will become glaringly obvious that we’re using nasty fixtures on pretty cabinets. Getting new wooden knobs rather than full door handles is no problem, that will just mean getting some wood putty and closing up the 2nd holes on the cabinet face, but new hinges will add up. There’s easily 15 doors in that kitchen, and 8 drawers, so you can imagine what the cost is going to be. The whole place will be much easier to work on once the zillion and two Rubbermaid storage containers are moved out of the way.

In much cooler news, my cousin Effie Ethel got engaged last night, so congrats to her. The ring looks gorgeous, and Dave fits in with the family so well it’s scary.

By Crystal | Posted in crafty girl, life, rebuilding | Comments (0)

5/6/2008

I still hate wallpaper.

5/6/2008 – 11:40 pm
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We’ve spent the past couple of days at Mom’s house working on the basement apartment. Eddie pointed out that we’re not going to be living in the basement, but rather “we’ll be on the 1st floor and have a seriously cool attic.” We took some pictures yesterday both before and after cleaning, but they’re already out of date since we made messes in there today while painting.

We got some of the kitchen done this afternoon. What seemed to be some fairly stuck-on wallpaper turned into near-mush when we slapped some primer on it, so we ended up scraping off some of the bubbly areas. There was some really hideous wallpaper in there - we pulled off a top layer of this rough, yellow paper (think huge wallpaper-sized pieces of yellow duct tape) to find a stereotypical horrid kitchen-themed pattern that involved fruit, veggies, and sugar bowls, and in some areas we were even able to reveal a 3rd layer underneath the fruity one, this time featuring the Liberty Bell and other assorted motifs that I’ve shoved out of my head already. While I was scraping mushy paper off the walls and priming what I could, Eddie was doing the white trim in the rest of the basement. Brian painted some of the downstairs when they first moved in and doesn’t believe in contrasting trim, since everything - walls, molding, plate rail, everything - was all the same color.

Mom and I hit up Walmart for the painting supplies, where I snagged 2 gallons of paint for the place for about $14 because they were tinted wrong. So while I’d initially planned on doing the bedroom with a smoky blue, it’s now going to be bright blue, and the buttery yellow for the kitchen will now be a bit brighter as well. Eddie also painted the stairway leading down to the basement with some bright white, which really brightened it up in there.

Both of us are a bit on the sleepy side, so we’re going to watch some Leno, snuggle the cat, and then sleep. I don’t think we’re going over to Mom’s tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to taking an entire day to sit around in my jammies.

By Crystal | Posted in life, rebuilding | Comments (0)