Kitchen before

And in case you were wondering...here is the only before kitchen shot.....


At least I think that is the only one, and unfortunately it does not include the ugly track lighting, or the over the sink lighting. Also, we got rid of the 80's under the cabinet lighting. They were flourscent lights and when I bought the house I thought they were paper towel holders.

New light fixtures and more kitchen progress!

My mom, brother and sister came to visit me this weekend and my brother was able to do a lot of work to the house. He took down the old, ugly, track lighting in the kitchen and put up my ikea light. And I bought a pendant light and kit from Lowes for $30 to replace the light over the sink. He also took down the ceiling fans in the dining room and bedroom but something funky is going on with the electrical in there so now I have to call an electrician to put up the two other ikea lights in those rooms.

He also put up a coat rack in the den, fixed the leg on the couch in the den, fixed my broken door (by putting a new lock and handle on it- it probably took him 3 hours to do!), fixed the cabinet doors that were hanging crooked and probably some other things I can't think of right now. All in all it was a very productive weekend.

Here are some pictures. Also, I've decided that I'm going to lay glass mosaic tile down on my laminate counter tops. All different shades of pretty blues. I got a 1x1 sample from ebay. It's $1.60 a square foot, so I should probably be able to knock the whole thing out for $75. Awesome! And it's so me- more so than granite or the plain, white laminate that is there currently. You can see the glass tile laying on the countertop in some of the pics.










Oh and A. and I are getting a puppy on Feb 4th! Half German Wirehaired Pointer (like my parents had) and half Lab. Yay!

Kitchen cabinet unveiling

Well today is the day I finish painting the cabinets I started painting around Thanksgiving. It wouldn't have taken this long had I not put it off because I thought I'd have to paint the whole thing with a paint brush. I originally started using a roller but it seemed to leave a spongy texture on the cabinets, even after sanding and priming. So I moved to the paintbrush and pretty much did all the upper frames and two of the doors with the brush. Then I put it off for more than a month and started again in the New Year. I picked up the roller again and did a second coat on some of the doors I already had one coat on and lo and behold when it dried they looked great! I had never given the rollered doors time to dry before. So now all it is taking is about two coats with the roller so things are speeding along. I'll finish in less than an hour and then I just have to put all the hardware back on (I haven't bought any new hardware yet, but I have spray painted the old hardware a metallic silver so it looks good for now). Of course there are about 4 more cabinets that haven't been sanded, primed or painted that surround the fridge. The wall over there hasn't been painted yet either.... I'm going to wait to start those til after my family leaves. They come on Jan 23rd and will leave early Monday morning.

Pics of the kitchen cabinets still to come!

I spent the last 5 days visiting the fam in Texas. I received some nice gifts. My sister gave me a bunch of owl themed items- kitchen towels, wash cloths, soap dispenser, night light, pot holder etc. I also got to pick out a lot of bedding- a quilt, 2 blankets, pillow cases, 2 sets of sheets (big sales at belks!). I couldn't fit everything in my suitcase so when my mom and brother come to visit in a few weeks everything will be here including my new ikea ceiling lights! We don't have an Ikea in KC so my mom and I went on Saturday and it was insanely crowded. It was worth the trip because I scored three of these lights:
They were only $5 a piece- marked down from $25. Sweet! They're going to replace each of my three ceiling fans (bedroom, craft room, dining room). I might try and spray paint them too. I also got a picture frame and a pretty throw that was $10, down from $20.

I'm going to start painting my cabinets again so Queen T, per your request, I'll do a more detailed explanation of the cabinet painting process, and yes I'm doing everything myself so it's taking an extra long time!

Vote for me!

Hello blog visitors. Since you are here you might as well stop by 1912 bungalow and vote for my living room in the Christmas Decorating Contest. Just click here.
Mine is of course the room with the yellow walls and white tree. My chances of winning are very small since I only entered last night and I think it's been running for the last couple of weeks. You can vote once a day until Christmas Eve.

Thanks!

Christmas Decorations

Well, I've done just about all I can as far as Christmas decorating goes. Christmas is a mere 4 days away so this will have to do. I just put up 4 strings of lights outside today, the very first, and only of our outside decorating.

The kitchen redo

Well...things are progressing in the kitchen much slower than I would like. I've just been lazy, is all...and I feel like I have no room to spread out so that I can paint the cabinet doors. I've basically only done the open shelving...sanded, primed and painted. I haven't done the sealant coat. And I'm not totally finished painting the right side open shelving. I've painted the cabinets over the stove and adjacent to it, but not the doors. Well, one or two doors have been painted. And I can't put the doors on until I decide about hardware. I don't know if I should spray paint all the hinges with a pewter finish or what. Anybody want to weigh in on this? Should I just try to buy new hinges? Would that be a big hassle? Can I get by with spray paint? And I haven't ordered any knobs or handles...money is a little tight now...My mom and brother want to come visit me at the beginning of January so I'd like to have it finished then.

Oh! And of course I've done most of the painting of the walls in the kitchen. I love the color. It's so pretty. But I haven't painted the wall behind the fridge.

Here is a picture of the kitchen I took the very first time I saw the house.
And here is a picture showing the wall color and the finished open cabinet (I'm leaving the doors off)
The wall color is a bit washed out there...it's actually more similar to the bowl on the middle shelf (on the left).

Any opinions for the color of knobs/pulls I should put on the finished cabinets? All of the cabinets will be painted white.