KITCHEN MAKEOVER PART 2

After my dear husband went back to work, I spent the next week locked down in the Man Cave painting 23 doors and 7 drawers!

I got to the final coat and needed more paint. Back to Sherwin Williams for a quart to finish up the final coat of paint and then we could hang up our beautiful doors. I opened Paint Can #3 and painted all 23 doors.

 I noticed the paint did not seem as smooth, but felt it would dry fine. WRONG! (Never use Sherwin Williams Paint!) There were bumps all in the finish. It looked as though sand was in the paint. I literally sat down and cried. Of course, a call to SW resulted in them convincing me that I had something in the brush – the expensive brush that I had bought from them! My sweet husband felt so sorry for me that he went to SW, bought two new paint brushes and another can of paint (Paint Can #4). He also bought a new air compressor so that he could blow the doors off as I had to sand them all again. We made sure there was not an ounce of dust on any of them.



We started our Easter holiday with Paint Can #3 and as we applied the paint, we could clearly the sand/grains. We opened the new can (#4) and had the same results. We spent that day and the next going to 3 SW stores and all had contaminated paint (Cans # 5, 6, & 7). SW’s brilliant solution – they would give us paint that sort of matched and we could use that. A call to Corporate Headquarters on Monday resulted in that solution going away and today I went to pick up a new gallon of paint (Can #8) that had been strained 4 times. Hello, who has to strain brand new paint? I came home and applied the paint to one of the doors. The straining helped. Instead of large grains in the paint, there are millions of small ones! Have I mentioned never to use Sherwin Williams Paint! Can # 8 will go back to Sherwin Williams tomorrow. 

Our house has been torn apart for 3 weeks now.  This is just a small portion of the mess!

I am afraid that I am going to have to sand everything down and start all over, including the finished cabinets in the house.  Oh did I mention that it will not be with Sherwin Williams paint if I have to do that!  Not only have we wasted tons of time and energy, we have went through $$$$ of paint supplies and gas.  Anyone have any advice?

Sorry, the picture has a yellow hue to it, but these cabinets are white and gorgeous.  I do not want to have to sand them and start all over.  HELP!!!!!!

On a positive note, we have managed to do some other projects in the kitchen. I will give you just a little peek!

It is going to be gorgeous, but at this rate, I will not be able to show you the finished kitchen until summer!

WHAT WE DID ON OUR SPRING BREAK, EASTER WEEKEND AND ALL OF OUR SPARE TIME FOR THREE WEEKS AND STILL COUNTING!

I decided to do some updating to my kitchen. She has served us well, but look at her!

Oh sure, her walls have been painted several colors throughout the years and the appliances replaced and upgraded each time. Several years back, a beautiful tile floor was added, but it just wasn’t enough to make her beautiful. The cabinets have been touched up and several coats of poly have been added throughout the years, but they were very worn and tired looking. Also, the awful, green countertops should have been replaced years ago. Still, there are a lot of memories. So many meals have been cooked there. I look at the place where the highchair for my three beautiful children sat for years and feel so nostalgic. However, nostalgia only carries one so far. Changes had to be made.

We were going to paint these cabinets white and then move on to the den to paint the paneling white.  They do one room in two days on Trading Spaces, so we doubled it and figured we could finish two rooms in eight days.  Oh how foolish we were!!!! So, we started on Friday before Spring Break and spent a day taping, putting down plastic, sanding, cleaning the surfaces, etc.

We sprang ahead with full confidence.  I have painted this whole house inside and out several times so how hard can painting wood be?  Now to our credit, there have been so many problems with the paint. You see, we upgraded to Sherwin Williams paint. Only the best for our kitchen cabinets! Mistake! DO NOT USE SHERWIN WILLIAMS PAINT! The primer went on fine, but the first can of Semi-Gloss White was like thick icing. You could put it on with a knife.  Forget about brushing it on.  We wasted a whole day getting conflicting advice from various Sherwin Williams employees. We were finally told to add a product, bought at Sherwin Williams, to thin the paint and to follow the instructions exactly as stated on the bottle. It turned the paint in to soup. Another trip back to SW and oh no, they didn’t realize that the instructions on the bottle were not correct. So, we had to get another gallon of paint. Let’s call it Gallon # 2. (Never use Sherwin Williams Paint!) Now two days have been wasted getting paint.  We then spent three long days putting on 3 coats of paint to the cabinets inside.

We had some conflicts along the way. You see, my sweet husband decided not to pull out the fridge to do the side of the cabinet or the trim. After all, the fridge would never be out of there. I could not handle that which slowly made him see that he was also not going to be able to handle it either!

So, we had to deal with this a week, but I feel so much better knowing that area is painted.

Next, we had to face these!

I got to work in the "Man Cave". I thought that was going to be really fun, but it quickly lost its charm! Now, these doors and drawers also required sanding, cleaning, priming and 3 coats of paint.  Sonny’s Spring Break was up by the time we got to the first coat of paint. I was left alone with 23 doors and 7 drawers! (Remember, never use Sherwin Williams paint!)

TO BE CONTINUED