Sunday, May 9, 2010

Saturday, May 8, 2010

10 THINGS I LEARNED DURING MY KITCHEN MAKEOVER

1. Allow for extra gas costs in your budget. You will go to Home Depot/Lowes/Wal-Mart/Ace Hardware at least 6 times per day.

2. When you return from one of these trips, remember to take your favorite black purse immediately to the back portion of your house. If you set it near the paint zone, white paint will suddenly appear on it. )<:

3. Never allow your sweet husband to carry any of the kitchen drawers. Enough said!

4. Do not be alarmed when you look in the mirror after a long week of sanding/painting. You have not turned into a “construction guy”! Quickly take a hot shower, wash your hair, put on makeup and throw away the painting outfit that you have worn continuously for a week. You will turn back into the woman that you once were.

5. You can do without water and your stove for up to 5 days. However, you will get cranky after that.

6. Remember to stay calm when a family member says, “You are still painting? I don’t think you will ever get finished. Maybe sometime in the summer, Ha, Ha, Ha!” They don’t understand and violence never helps a thing.

7. Strolling around your house looking for cooking utensils/serving dishes, etc. can be made into a fun event if you pretend that you are shopping. You can also get reacquainted with the items that were stored in the top of your cabinets.

8. Men do not understand that cabinet hardware is considered jewelry for your cabinets.

9. Man caves are not a fun to place to paint in and you can forget using the power tools. You have to wait until he gets home.

10. Always be thankful for a sweet husband who comes home and says, “Wow, this looks great! I think that you could do this professionally!” (Forget it sweet husband, I will not flip a house!)

KITCHEN MAKEOVER PART 3

So, Can #8 was taken back to Sherwin Williams and another call to the District Manager resulted in him picking up paint from 3 different stores around the Houston area. Back to our local SW store I went with a cabinet door in tow. I had learned not to let them paint a small piece of cardboard as a test piece. Sure enough, Paint cans #9, 10 & 11 all left a sandy substance in the finish. Ahhhhhh!!


Did I learn from my mistakes? No, I actually let them talk me into taking their new paint product that was replacing the oil paint that I had been using. In my defense, they did give me 3 free gallons (#12, 13, & 14) and reassured me that although I would have to start.. all.. over… again.., I would be very pleased with the new paint. Several days earlier, I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to re do everything, so I took the news calmly and walked out with the new paint. So, everything had to be stripped/sanded down. Ugh! What a tedious mess. It took me over a week to do all of that (I’m by myself here with the sweet husband back at work) and then the painting began. I only painted the cabinets, no doors or drawers. There was no sandy substance, but lots of streaking. I thought it would even out with 3 coats, but after a week of painting, I now know that the new paint will have to go back to the drawing board. It is impossible to work with. When you paint one small section, it looks good. However, when you move your brush to a new section, if you touch the “just painted section” at all, the result is a streak. This process is tedious and impossible. I have had so many friends tell me that they only use SW paint for their walls. I did paint the walls around my window and yes, it went on beautifully. However, painting on wood is an entirely different matter. Of course, the EPA is partly to blame for this. They are regulating the paint industry and all paint manufactures are struggling to roll out replacement paint that satisfies the new green laws.

So, I threw down my brush and did what I should have done in the beginning. I went to the mall and purchased this:


I am happy to report that my old faithful and favorite paint came through for me. Due to prior commitments, life events and getting discouraged with all of the paint problems, I found myself having less and less painting time. I was able to get some of my other commitments completed and I devoted all of last week to hours of painting. Oh, it feels so good to finally accomplish something. My inside cabinets have had 8 coats of paint on them. That is so ridiculous and it is no wonder that I have been so frustrated! However, I am definitely on a roll now.

I will say this for Sherwin Williams. While they definitely have paint problems with their oil paint and now the replacement paint for cabinets, they are great on customer service. Although they did not get the problem solved, they definitely tried. I know that Lowe’s and Home Depot have never been very helpful with problems.

I am hoping that this will soon be gone!