Slow Love Life

That's the name of  Dominique Browning's blog -- and I love this recent post of hers:  http://www.slowlovelife.com/2010/09/polishing-table.html

As for me, I got the wall boards for my kitchen stained last night, along with all of the trim and quarter round.  Whoooeee my house was stinky!  Now I am ready for either polyeurathane (more stink to come, for sure) and/or installation -- whichever scheduling allows to come next. 

I am rapidly nearing the stage where I need to make a decision on shelving.  My dinner plates are 11 inches wide, so if my shelves are going to be flush up against the wall, they will need to be 12 inches wide.  If they are set out a little from the wall, then 11 inch shelves will work.  I also want shelving that is thicker than the usual 1/2 shelves.  I think they need to look more robust than that for the right look.  Home Depot, Lowe's and The Container Store have white melamine shelving, but I believe only 1/2 thick.  I think IKEA has 3/4" shelving, but it's hard to tell on their website; you have to plow through so many teeny tiny images to find what you want!  I may force myself to do a road trip up there this weekend.  (Waaay outside my 5 mile bubble...) 

I have out of town guests coming 9/22, so the pressure is on!  I'm best under a deadline though...

Kitchen Project Update

With Red's help two days this weekend (8 hours on Monday!) we made great progress on my kitchen cabinet project!  It's looking sort of cabin-y isn't it?   Having once thought I would build a log cabin, I like the look!

The walls are down the the lath:  behind the wood is hollow wall (uh huh -- you know where you might usually find oh, say, INSULATION) and then it's my exterior brick!  The wood look convinced me that I want the final look to be very similar to this.  The wood is a warmer look than a totally white wall, and it will tie in well with the woodwork on the other side of the room.

We decided to take down that awful white and lemon yellow tile that was the back splash.  And that that lead to continuing around the corner to the door.  We managed to remove all of the backsplash tile without breaking any of the countertop tile - yay us!  During tile demolition I found a penny -- I was very excited (of course I was) thinking that maybe during the 1929 construction, someone dropped it there intentionally for good luck. But no. It's from 1979. Borrring! LOL


We also noted that the ceiling had a cabinet plank attached there... and when that came down the ceiling in that area is without drywall and texture.  We've decided to wrap the new call covering up and onto the first foot of ceiling above the shelves.  I think that will look fine, and then we don't have to sheetrock and texture a 12 inch area for 8 feet over our heads.

The decision of what to have on the walls as a final product took me quite a bit of hemming and hawing.  I considered cork and bamboo -- both beautiful but about $150 and one (both?) of them were special order and a 7 day delay time.  Then I wanted OSB with the random woods splintered and pressed, but the oh-so-helpful factory now prints horizontal lines on them for ease of construction.  I considered trying to sand them off, but in the end was convinced it would be too much sanding.  I also considered, on a neighbor's suggestion, a sheet of faux brick.  I was tempted by that, but ultimately wanted a lighter color than that.  I was scared of dark red brick! 

My final decision is rough cut plywood, in the 3/4" thickness.  Using that thickness relieves us of having to put up a layer of sheetrock behind the final material.  the 3/4" is about the same thickness as the existing sheetrock that we need to match up with.  And, the plywood is roughly $21 a piece and I needed 3 pieces.  That's a pretty cheap makeover.

So where we are now is this:  All of the wall boards and the two ceiling pieces are cut and they are ready to install.  I have them propped up all over my kitchen because we are getting a lot of rain all week this week due to tropical storm Hermine in the gulf...  We selected a stain color (similar to what you see in the photo,) and I need to stain them, and polyeurathane them.  I chose a semi-gloss poly.

We also got a new piece of butcher block wood to put on the far left there on top of that open cabinet; before it was just a narrow piece on top of the lower cabinet because of the upper cabinet that stuck out; now I can have a full 24" x 24" piece there!  It's feeling all really nice and open -- I am pleased.

Also remaining is to paint the bottom cabinets white.  I think that will also make a huge visual difference.  I guess I will keep the existing hardware -- it isn't offensive and hardware is spendy.  I need to decide if i am going to cut out the center of the cabinet doors and put in a decorative center or not...

I need to make the final decision on where I am getting the shelving and shelving spacing -- once I do that the shelving will go up very fast.  I am really pleased that I will have new room to put up my magnetic knife strip -- I love that thing and there has been no room in this kitchen to install it!  And I may leave a space for my three-tier wire produce basket;I haven't totally decided on that yet.  I will have to measure some glasses and vases for height, to figure out shelf spacing.  I measured a dinner plate for width, and I think my shelves will be 12" wide.

It's coming along!  I am a little stiff today, though...

It's Happenin'! Demolition - YEAH!

I started my kitchen cabinet project yesterday afternoon!!  I spent 90 minutes on it -- and made great progress.

Good news:  Nothing creepy skittered out.  I didn't break any ceramic tiles.  I haven't done any unintentional  damage.  I didn't sustain any personal injuries.

Sort of neat:  I found an old pencil embedded in paint behind the cabinet...

What I learned:  My kitchen used to be painted brown, turquoise, and that awful chalky yellow color that was previously uncovered in the laundry closet.  Demolition is sort of fun.  I feel like it was made easier by the fact that I understood how it was put together.  (Yay, Habitat for Humanity!) And, as expected, the wall behind the cabinets will need some work to make it uniform. A variety of backing was used.

What's next:  I need to get help disconnecting the light over the sink.  That whole big piece up there is just waiting for one good pull and it will all come down.  But there are some things I don't do, and electrical things are one of them!

I have too many progress photos to post, but here's a "before" photo and then the current status; if you want to see the slide show, email me and I will send it to you.  (A new blogger editor is making my photos a little wonky; not sure they will all publish...hmmmm)

I am already loving the wide open feeling and the new look!