A spring mantel

It's gonna be a short post today, just mostly pics!
The weather here has been great! Ahhh, the sweetness of spring is coming. I thought I would get a jump start on it all and do the mantel.

Done!.....well almost....

Hey everybody!

I've been out for a bit, doctor's appt's and such. Well, I finally got my cabinet doors painted! Yippee! Of course, the hubby couldn't wait to hang them back up so after drying for 24 hours, he hung them. I didn't want to, I wanted to wait until they cured a bit more. The hub's couldn't stand it. It was like a Lowe's gift card was burning a hole in his pocket. He was possessed with rehanging those doors. So here we go.

Please ignore the messy countertops. This is a work is progress you know. A "hot mess", but a work anyway. It is sooo much brighter in here. I'm still not done by any stretch of the imagination. I still have to do touch up work, recaulking, paint the kickplates. The cabinet doors that have glass fronts are still sitting out in the garage. I have to paint them by hand, as well as the shelving for those glass front cabinets. Still it is so much better now that I can actually see in the kitchen. Do ya'll remember the before?

Yeah, that's what I said too, Ewww ga lee! Except for that cutie on the right hand side.

I'm hoping to get the backsplash done soon and maybe put in some wood floors. I do have to get over the fact that I have to remove marble floors first. Like, seriously, who does that? Am I crazy? I do think that a nice wood floor would really make those cabinets pop! Snap, crackle, pop! Anybody else suddenly hungry for rice krispies?

Since I'm new on the blog thing, next time I will take more pictures for your enjoyment!



                                                                                                                                                                                                        

A kitchen redo

We bought this house in September 2010. Its our dream house, bought more for the kids than for us. We can see ourselves growing old in it though with the kids coming to visit, playing with our future grandchildren, retiring here and playing golf outside the front door. We love this house. What we don't love is the kitchen.

Seriously don't love that kitchen. Can you say blaghh. This is the part where you stick out your tongue in disgust. Shiny brass knobs, grainy oak, ugh. I know some of you may like grainy oak and that's ok, it is just not our taste. I'm sure some of you like brass, again, not our taste. That black granite can stay though. Its too expensive to replace granite and I said before that I have to be frugal. So off I went to HD and Lowe's and finally to True Value to look at paint chips. I settled on Winter White from Benjamin Moore in semi-gloss.

Next came the hubby's excitement and got carried away and took all the cabinet doors off before I could put the kids to bed. The can of primer sat on the counter and he says, "when you gonna sand'em?". Uh, could he be any more eager for ME to get this project started? I think not.

Had to clean the cabinets, sand the cabinets, wipem down again. You can't paint with sand grit on the cabinets. Then the priming. For the cabinets that stay in the house I can to paint them by hand. The doors are the only thing I could take outside to paint with a sprayer. I probably should have painted the inside one with the sprayer but I'm too lazy and didn't want to tape everything off.

Here's how it looks with a coat of primer on it.

That's feeling so much brighter and lighter in here. I can see where it is starting to go. It will get better I promise. Keep watching.

I did pick up some satin nickel hardware to replace the ugly brass.

The temperatures are supposed to cooperate this week so I'm hoping to get outside to paint those doors so I can gettem re-hung. Keep your fingers crossed!

Half bath redo

This half bath was the ugliest thing you could image. So ugly that I forgot to take a before picture because I was in such a hurry to "fix" it. Imagine if you will....brass fixtures, grainy oak cabinets, a mirror that had mirror framing around it. Really? Seriously? It was screaming for someone to make it pretty again, it had potential after all.

DIY skelton keys on burlap

Enter a can of paint and new fixtures and a few decor items. SW "Creamy" paint to be exact. New satin nickel door knobs. A picture from HomeGoods, a couple of bucks at Lowe's to frame out the mirror. We are done! Now, let's take a collective ahhh....