It's been so long since I've posted on here, I've nearly forgotten how! But, after this last week, I couldn't NOT post. All my hours of watching DIY shows and extreme Pinterest obsession have paid off. I couldn't wait to share the results!
Let me get you up to speed first. I love my full-time job- the last blog post was when I was switching. I couldn't be happier with my new training position. I am on the road A LOT, though. That's taken some time away from crafting, cooking, and other hobbies. On top of that, I started teaching part-time at Kentucky State University. Love that too, but I've not had time for anything else!
On top of that, we've moved! I really miss my friends & my boys' friends (that had become family), but I really love my new house. And, I love that it puts me closer to my Mom & Dad and the rest of my family.
That brings me to this past week. My parents own a house about a 1/2 an hour from my house. My sister lives in it now, but they're planning to put it up for sale soon. Mom & Dad, even though retired, are far busier than I could even pretend to be. After 30+ years of fostering children in Ohio, they still have a full-house (I have a brother at home, a niece they're helping care for, and they have 4 foster kids), in addition to coordinating/directing the food pantry for the community. They've not had any time to work on their "Grayson Estates."
For the past couple of months, I've tried to go help "fix-up" rooms on weekends. That usually entails some cleaning and painting with Dad and Shane, sometimes Katherine & Will when they're not at work, and my boys (on rare occasions)- and Mom when she's not chasing kiddos. Last weekend, we cleaned and painted another bedroom when Dad talked about how he didn't know what to do about that kitchen. "The counter tops are just so ugly... what can we do that won't break the bank?"
Now, originally, I thought my parents life-story should be sent to one of those "fixer-upper" reality shows, but I get too much of that "I'll do it myself" attitude from my daddy. Instead, I talked them into letting me experiment. My argument was that perhaps I could re-do the counters for cheap. And, if I messed it up, they weren't out anything because they were thinking of replacing them anyway!
So, I burned up some of that flex time from traveling for work- called in a couple of days for a "remodeling vacation" and crashed their house for a kitchen renovation. Luckily, my little sister was all on-aboard with my plan and worked her butt off along with me. Here's what we did:
This was the first day when I arrived. My very first "before" picture of the kitchen.
Yes...it looks cluttered. We all had been there working over the weekend, and while Katherine had cleaned all the dishes and swept her floor, having that many people in your house leaves it a tad bit cluttered :) While she was at work, I de-cluttered and covered everything in plastic and paper that I didn't want ruined, (i.e., tiled backsplash Dad put in, sink, oven, and hardwood floors).
See what Dad was talking about? Ugly, yellow, dated and gross! (And, about to be gone!!!) After I had everything taped off and cleaned, I sanded. And, sanded, and sanded. And, then I sanded some more. I was pretty sure my arms would fall off before Katherine got home from work. She would walk in and find me laying there in her (clean) kitchen floor with my arms laying somewhere along the sanded ugly counter. Instead, I was able to use them to put on two coats of primer.
This is the one and only picture I sent Mom. She didn't know I was there and had no idea what it was... I mean, she is blind and it was a little picture on her phone. When Dad got home and she showed it to him, he knew immediately and I started getting texts to send pictures to her iPad so she could see. I declined. I wanted it to be a surprise. (My mistake... not sending pictures brought Dad to the house the next day.) But, I digress... I think the kitchen was already looking better with just primer! I was thrilled with just this much! And, since I had to wait 2 hours between primer coats, I found the laundry room in desperate need of TLC. Dad & Shane had started tearing down wallpaper, but left before they finished. So, I headed in there to work in between primer applications.
Nice, right? This is when my sister came home. We worked HOURS ripping down wallpaper. This is her. She's thrilled to come home from work to work even harder:
Together, we did some damage to that poor little laundry room. Then, she bought us pizza and I headed home, only to return in the morning. My final coat of primer needed to set over night before I added the "stone" paint. And, had to wait a couple of hours in between each application of paint. Also, I underestimated so Katherine had to make a run to Lowe's for me on her way home to grab more. Again, I could not be more pleased with the "stone" spray paint effect. So long ugly yellow!
In addition to stripping the wallpaper in the laundry room, we pulled down wallpaper in the kitchen, too. And, I picked up some paint for the walls for added activities while waiting between spray paint applications. (Just so Katherine wouldn't be bored. LOL) After about 3 applications of "stone" spray paint, the polyurethane applications began. It was pretty stinky in there!
When Dad showed up, he was in shock! He could not believe the difference. We gave him a few minutes to take it all in, and then put him to work building a little cabinet over the water heater. (We like to call it the water heater garage, but Katherine doesn't.)
After painting everything, fresh white gloss paint on the cabinets, new paint on the walls in both kitchen & laundry room, new paint on the little wooden shelf I picked up at Goodwill, heck... I even painted the refrigerator and painted the pantry door with chalkboard paint- the whole place looked and smelled new.
Refrigerator After- w/ Pantry Chalkboard Door
Mom kept texting and asking for pictures, but we told her she couldn't see until we were finished. Here are the grand finale pics we did send:
And, lastly, a collage of the NEW KITCHEN
So, now Katherine and I are going to start our own home renovations hit show. That is... after we get a month or so to recoup-orate from our first attempt!
It started with a balloon and string. I wrapped the string all over in all directions, coated with glue, and hung them up to dry. A day later, I popped the balloon and pulled it out using tweezers.
Refrigerator Before
