Kitchen Progress. On A Roll.

Or should that be "on vapors"? 

I am tired.  But I'm definitely on a roll.

The weekend was a flurry of activity.  Here's a big long recap:

Nice look

I sanded.  And sanded.  And sanded. 

At least the mild weather worked in my favor.  Those are gardening gloves to keep my hands covered and relatively warm while I worked outside.  The rest of the outfit is just high style.

I found another few objects to reinforce my need to do the heavy duty sanding.  

Now you see the blob

Now you don't

Eliminating those are worth all the effort.  It's so great to have a smooooooth surface.

Just before the Superbowl, I sanded my last cabinet door.  Boy, did that feel good.  While I love the outcome...I really don't need to sand anything else anytime soon.  Sanding fatigue has set in.

LAST DOOR

After the sanding outside, came more sanding inside.  No rest for the weary.

Getting the skeleton nice and smooth was key.  I enjoyed it less because the mess was crazy.  But it felt less strenuous because although it was all sanding block, I could move around and get at it from different angles.  Less monotonous than those doors....

Then came the clean up.  I had big help.

Can't live without him

And we ended up with this.

Are we done yet?

Look closer...

What's missing?

I decided to take the bad moulding off.  No, it wasn't part of the immediate kitchen "to do" list...but I was planning on replacing it this summer.  So instead of ripping it out later and damaging my paint job, I thought I would just remove it now and replace it when I can. 

So for now, it will remain unfinished at the top.  But at least it will make me get it done sooner rather than later. 


Then we primed.  Yes.  We. 

Thank you, mom.

Upper left side

Full view

Here's where we kinda did a step back and went...hey...what if....

White on top, grey on the bottom?  But, no.  Can't change midstream.  Gotta press on and keep with that grey inspiration.  Full steam ahead. 

But something to think about when -and if we ever really- gut the kitchen.

After these pics, mom primed the other upper skeleton and I put the second coat of grey on both lower skeletons.  Finally, a second and final coat on something.  That felt great.

This morning, I woke up to this:

World of doors

Back at the painting.  So here you can see the 4 groups of doors. 

1)  Leaning on the back wall - DONE!  Lowers under the sink side.  Soon to be hung.
2)  Middle four grey on the floor - second coat on today - curing and DONE!  Hung tomorrow.
3)  Front eight on the floor - first coat of color coming today. 
4)  Back six on the floor - first coat of primer coming today. 

As hard as we've been working, those last six doors won't be ready to hang before mom leaves.  But that's ok.  Either I'll recruit Steve or wait 2 weeks when my mom comes back for Jake & George's birthday party to finish them up.  She and I are a good team.

So those doors that are done...wanna see them now?

I think I can

I think I can

I did it!!!

Oh my god.  It's perfect.  Just perfect.  I'm so freakin excited. 

The grey you see here isn't the same as what's in my kitchen.  It's a deep, rich, dark grey.  And it's gorgeous.  I have to keep taking pictures in different light and will post when I get it right.

Here's more.

They fit!

Yes, I know, they should fit.  I just screwed them right back into the same holes.  But it was dicey.

And yes, there's a drawer front missing.  He was the one who was having so much trouble, being in two pieces.  Well, here he is. 

Feeling better

He's finally in one piece and right now is drying after a coat of primer.  With any luck he'll be on before mom goes home on Thursday morning. 

Back to the hanging.

These doors were hard

Hallelujah

My first pair of doors.  YIKES was it hard.  We propped them up on magazines.  Then mom held them tight to the skeleton.  I marked where the screw should go and then held my breath and drilled. 

Amazingly enough, even with the crazy bowed wood and not-really-square doors, the seam down the middle is bang on.  No more wonky gap.  I'm over the moon.

Here's the end pair.

Looking good, too

I need to finesse my technique.  But the magazines, the pressing and the holding my breath worked again.  I can't believe it.  They look terrific.

So here's where my kitchen stands.  Right.  Now.

Come in!  But look only below eye level.

I'm really happy with how it's turning out.  Seeing this section come together is giving me more energy to move on. 

And move on I must...there's a world of doors in my basement...