Cabinets

So, Chris and I (actually, just me) decided that we should paint our kitchen cabinets and re-paint the walls. We did tons of research and just about everything we read said this would take a long time and basically if you have the money, just pay someone else to do it. Well, we don't have money to just spend on stuff like that, but I was really tired of how crappy our kitchen looked. There were missing trim pieces, 20 years of grease build up on the cabinet doors, and several holes in the wall. (One being from the dog that we had for a few months. Why would she chew straight through drywall in a random spot in the middle of the wall?)

Since Martha was going to TN with my mom last weekend, we took advantage of our unlimited time. Earlier in the week we'd taken all the doors off and tried to prep with cleaning them as much as we could. It took forever. Then as soon as I got off work on Friday at 4:00 we started with everything else.

With painting several coats, you're at the mercy of the paint. You paint and then you find something else to do for 2 hours, then you paint again.

We were still mid-project when Martha and my mom got back Sunday afternoon. Luckily, Martha still goes to bed fairly early (7:00-7:30) so all this week we've been doing last minute caulking, final coats, and touch ups after she goes to bed and still being able to get ourselves into bed at a decent time.

As of right now, we have just a few more touch ups left to do, then installing the faux tin tile backsplash, and re-attaching the cabinet doors after the paint has set in enough to not stick when we shut the doors.

There are a few smaller things I need to do....dye the curtains and paint the table top of this little side dresser thingy. But other than that, we're good to go. And at least at this point we're able to cook in the kitchen again.

So what did I learn from this experience?

We should have just paid someone else to do it.