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