We Live in the Funny House

The past few weeks have been somewhat crazy.  We’ve been working tirelessly on the cabinets.  Or, at least when we have time to! 

The last I left you, Andy was installing the lights in our kitchen.  Here is the finished product!

Seven halogen can lights line the lower part of the ceiling, and in the middle is this awesome light fixture.  If it looks familiar, it’s because you may have seen it somewhere else in the house.  There were two of these giants hanging above the sinks in the master bathroom.  Now there is only one.  It still hangs a bit too low for the kitchen, but we’re going to try to pull it up higher.

Then it was on to sanding and painting the cabinets.  For the inside’s Andy mixed a white paint with Kilz, in order to prevent mildew and make the surface easier to clean.

For the outside we picked the neatest shade of green.  I know green is not the typical color of your kitchen cabinets, but I absolutely LOVE them!

Andy also distressed them by sanding and another process that he wants to keep secret. :)

We’ve been working on them outside in the sweltering heat.  The cabinet above was thanks to sweat dripping all over me last Saturday.  It was worth the effort though! 

Yesterday Andy worked on putting a few of the upper cabinets in.

Can you believe it’s the same kitchen?

We hit a little snag halfway through when we realized that the cabinets did not match up right.  Turns out the walls are not exactly level.  I know, crazy huh?  So, Andy’s going to fix that later…no pictures yet. 

I told Andy that the weird angles were making me feel like I was in Grandfather’s Mansion at Silver Dollar City.

He said that we bought Grandfather’s Mansion.

Maybe we did.  But I like it!

Back to Business

This past week Andy and I have been taking a break from the home reno.  Our church had Vacation Bible School every night this week, and we've been there from 5-9, leaving us very little time to do any work.  Right now we're trying to find some good quality laminate flooring that won't break the bank.  I do have some neat pictures to share with you of our painted cabinets. Whoot!  So stay tuned!

Work, work, work

I know, I know…it’s been a week and I haven’t updated you on our progress.  What can I say?  We’re busy with the house!  We’ve been making a lot of progress though!
Last week we were able to finish framing the raised ceiling in the kitchen, 

put in the wiring for the new can lights,

put in new insulation,

and put up sheetrock in the raised ceiling (thanks to help from our friends, Taylor and Jamie!).

 

Then, after a quick weekend trip up to Missouri to visit Andy’s brother and sister-in-law, we got right back to work, putting dry wall mud in the cracks and over the popcorn ceiling and finishing cleaning and sanding the old cabinets.

 

Look at all those cabinets…phew!

Then Andy sprayed texture on the walls and ceiling.  Thankfully, while up in Missouri the guys had visited Harbour Freight, and Andy found a great dry wall texture gun for about $20.  He had to cover up the door to spray, hehe!

And this is the result:

And here’s the finished box ceiling!

Today I spent all day painting the ceiling and walls in the kitchen.  For the ceiling, we just did a plain old “Antique White”.  For the walls we wanted a real pale yellow…almost a cream.  We picked a tint called “Early Morning Sun”.  It looked good in the can and on one spot, but once I painted the whole wall I realized it was just a tad too bright.  This is what it looked like:

So then Andy mixed our yellow with the “Antique White” color we used on the ceiling, and it came out just right.

I love, love, LOVE the new color.  You can’t really tell in the pictures, but it’s such a warm and cheery color.  It will make our kitchen seem so bright and airy, even in the grey of winter.
As I speak, Andy is putting in our recessed lights in the kitchen.  We also ordered a flooring sample of a laminate wood floor that we’re thinking about ordering.  Then it’s on to refinishing and painting the cabinets and installing them!
We’re so ready to get this kitchen done.  Camping is fun, but I can’t find anything when it’s in boxes stacked in a corner.  We’re making memories, though. :)