Kitchen Cabinets!

So here we go. Here is the story of how we refinished our kitchen cabinets. If you don't care just scroll down to the bottom and you can see the "after" pictures.

Here is the before: Lots of wood paneling and darkness going on.

We took everything out of the cupboards and I realized that I have creepy old-cabin cupboards.

So after sanding we got to work priming the interior. There are lots of surfaces in cupboards. There may have been some cursing at this point. I don't know, Shawn was talking under his breath.

Such a happy helper.

The cabinets are all done here. We let them cure for 3 days. We used oil based paint because it is more durable. I tell you I will never take latex paint for granted again. Oil paint is a bear to work with. Two weeks later and I still have paint on my arms. But I can clean my cabinets all they want and that paint is not coming off.

One coat of primer, 2 coats of paint, and 3 days to cure later. . . we put everything back in the cupboards. Hooray! No more making toast on a cutting board by the front door. It was the only plug I could find.


Here are all the cabinet fronts sitting out in the garage. Now here is a story just so you feel bad for me. Each cabinet door is a little different. The grooves on the front of the door line up with each other, so each door has to go back where it came off of. There are 32 cabinet doors. We had to make a map of what door went where. They were laid out in specific order. I was the only one that was allowed to move a door for any reason. Remarkably, we were able to keep them all in order.
After: Ahhhhh! I love it! We spray painted all the hardware (handles, hinges, even the screws) with a metallic brushed bronze spray paint. I antiqued the doors by sanding the edges and grooves then wiping them down with a glaze. I am really happy with the outcome.
Next we will replace the counter tops and get a new floor and paint the walls. By "next" I mean in the year ahead when we get the $$.

If anyone is interested, here are some great tutorials I read over and over to help me out.

Starter Home to Dream Home blog
Recaptured Charm-glazing
Nora's blog

Some advice:
Don't go into this thinking it will be a weekend job. This took me 2 1/2 weeks of intense work. I spent on average 6-8 hours a day on this. We did take weekends off to let the paint cure. My dad also helped out almost every day for hours, and Shawn helped out too (I have awesome liners in all my cupboards thanks to him. Thanks baby!)

Use oil-based paint. It was a pain but I am not afraid to abuse the cabinets a little. They get lots of abuse anyway. That paint is on there!

Pick one pair of clothes to ruin. I wasn't thinking the first day and was wearing my favorite running pants when I started. Now they are my favorite painting pants.

Find some suckers to help you. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU Shawn and Dad. I cannot thank you enough. I would still be sitting on my kitchen floor crying if is wasn't for all the help these two fantastic guys gave me.

Hope you like it! Now I am off to Mexico. Adios!

An update

I finally decided to download pictures from my computer. It has been a while. Here is what we have been up to:

We got a bike seat for Claire. She loves it! Now we can go on family bike rides.

I took a Indian cooking class where I learned how to make chicken curry and naan. Super yummy, and fun!



Shawn's family was all in town a couple of weeks ago and came to church with us. Then they all came back to our house for rolls. Again, super yummy and fun.


Bonnie and Kurt have moved to Seattle so Kurt can attend pharmacy school there. We miss them. We are already planning a visit for next summer.


Jon won the roll eating contest with 8 rolls. It was a truly proud moment.



Syd and Brynn headed back to school a couple of weeks ago. Syd is in 4th grade and Brynn is in 2nd grade. We get to go to a brand new school this year. It is very exciting. Hooray for the big yellow bus!


Thumbs up for school!


We have also been super busy painting our kitchen cabinets. You have to wait for pictures of that until I am ready to do the final reveal. It is going to be fantastic! We also were part of the support crew for my dad this past weekend as he rode the LOTOJA for the fourth year in a row. Pictures to come. I hope all is well with you!

Garden Thoughts

So I came to a realization this summer: Yard work is not my thing. I don't really enjoy the heat of summer, (OK, I hate being hot in a serious way) so going out into it to dig, prune,weed, etc. is not something I enjoy. So this realization begs the question: why the hell would I want to size up and own a bigger piece of land?! I fear I am going to have to face this question someday. I have always had dreams of owning a full acre and having chickens, goats, and a huge garden. I'm starting to think that this might be an unrealistic dream. My .3 acre is really about all I can handle.I am not great at the gardening thing. There are only two things that I can consistently grow with success. So here are a few pictures of them.


My mom used to plant marigolds all the time when we were growing up. I kind of hated them. I thought they stunk. I still think they stink, but the fact is, they are easy to grow. So they are the flower I go back to year after year. They always grow and thrive. And actually I have become quite fond of them.



I love fresh tomatoes still warm from the garden. Again this is something that I can grow with relatively consistent success. We have 4 tomato plants this year (my neighbor has 32!) and all are doing well, even after one had a fairly serious run-in with the tiller.
The cherry tomatoes are starting to turn red and I can't wait to eat them. I love how they pop in your mouth.BTW- I didn't even notice there was a grasshopper in this picture until after I took it. Sneaky little guy!
That's all. How are all of your garden's doing this summer?
PS- I canned 51 pints of beets today. That may have a little to do with my pessimism toward gardens tonight. :)

Happy Birthday to My Girls!

Syd and Brynn both had their birthdays this month. Syd turned 9 and Brynn turned 7. My big girls!

For Syd's b-day we took a friend with us to Build-A-Bear in Salt Lake. They all has a great time making and naming their new friends. Later on we had a little party for Syd. She got some new clothes,an Origami set,a bow and arrow, a subscription to Ranger Rick (thanks B & K) and HER OWN ROOM! We did some switching around downstairs and Syd now has a room all to herself. That meant that Claire moved downstairs and is bunking with Brynn now. Such grownup girls I have!Time to open presents!

Build a Bear Fun. I did think it was funny that not one of them chose to get a bear.

Bow and arrow from Grandma Julie

Outside of the Build-A-Bear Workshop at the Gateway.

For Brynn’s birthday we went to Toy Story 3. It was really good. Brynn said her favorite presents were her Zhu Zhu pet and a pool she got. The pool holds 150 gallons of water and has been put to very good use in the past week.

Pipsqueak the Zhu Zhu Pet.

Cute shirts from Aunt Robyn. Thank you!

Blowing out her candle. She really wanted a number "7" candle this year.

Hooray for a pool!

We had a fun month with all the birthday partying. Happy birthday, girls!

Dance and Tae Kwon Do Videos - See post below for details

A post of randomness

We had a fun weekend with lots of great events. So here is a post covering those things. Brynn had her big ballet recital on Friday night. She did a great job! Her class danced to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun." Very cute.


On Saturday Sydney tested for her green belt. She passed with flying colors. We are so proud of her and how far she has come in Tae Kwon Do in the past 8 months. Afterwards we had a lunch with all the members of her class and their families. It was fun to meet and see all of them. This is her teacher, Master Goonan.
These are the boys that are the same belt level as her. They have been advancing together since no-belts.
Saturday was also my mom's birthday. It was a big one. Can anyone guess how old she is? Mom and Dad came to our house for some cake and ice cream. They had been out of town Friday night so they asked Brynn to give them their own dance show. She was more than happy to oblige. After seeing the dance one time through, Grandma and Grandpa decided they wanted to join it. Seriously some times I don't know what happened to the strict, seemingly grouchy parents I thought I had. My kids will probably think the same thing some day.

In the past after the girls have had big events we have taken them out for dinner or dessert to celebrate. This time we tried something different. After Brynn's recital on Friday we put Claire to bed and left Syd home to babysit and went on a parent/daughter date with Brynn to Firehouse pizza. She ate 1/2 a pizza and dessert. It was hilarious to see her tuck in like that! On Saturday we switched. Brynn stayed home to babysit a sleeping Claire and we took Syd to Chili's. She wanted ribs. So we sat back and watched our girl pound a 1/2 rack of ribs. Awesome! It was so fun to spend some time with each girl one-on-one.

I finished sewing the girls' Easter dresses. Only 3 months late! They looked cute.


Oh and just as a side note: To all of you who doubted out ability to trash our house, here is what the girls' room looked like at the end of The Official Week of Doing Nothing:

The Offical Week of Doing Nothing

School is out! Hooray for summer! We have been so busy with book reports, soccer, ballet, TKD, homework, etc. that I decided that the first week of summer would be the Official Week of Doing Nothing. You say you want to sleep until 11:00? OK. Mom, can I watch TV? Sure! Don't want to make your bed? Don't do it! So far that is pretty much how thing have been going. Lots of sleep and TV. Maybe tomorrow we will get crazy and go somewhere. Or maybe not.


I'm pretty sure that I might be paying for this a little bit next week. The house is starting to look kind of scary and it's only Tuesday. But dang it, we earned of week off from being responsible.


So if you need a nap or want to watch a movie, come to our house this week. We may not have a clean floor, and the bedroom may be messy, but we are relaxed!