Our kitchen reveal

When we bought this house, our kitchen looked like this.  

It's definitely not the worst kitchen ever; the previous owners had installed the backsplash and upgraded the counters, but I was not a fan of the builders-grade orange-y outdated cabinets.  I love white kitchens.  They look so clean and crisp, and white really is classic and easy to blend with the style of the rest of your house.  So one of the things on my house to-do list was to paint the cabinets white.  And I figured that now would be the best time to do it, while I'm not working, and before the baby comes.  

So I did a lot of research on the best way to do it, and read wonderful things about Benjamin Moore's Advance paint.  It's a latex paint that dries like an oil-based paint, and it doesn't need a top coat.  At $42 a gallon, it is a bit pricey, but I figured if we're going to do this, we'd better do it right.  So over the Fourth of July 4-day weekend, I bought a gallon in Super White (I ended up having to go back for another quart toward the end of the process), primer and painting supplies, and we borrowed an electric sander and got to work.

The first day being the fourth of July, we really only got all the hardware and doors removed and labeled, and the painting area prepped.  We set down drop cloths and 2x4s to set the doors on so they could dry.

The next day James got down to sanding the 42 cabinet doors and drawers outside (yes, we have a lot of cabinets, which is awesome! Until you have to paint them.) while I cleaned them off inside and used wood putty on the old hardware holes that we wanted to change.  I just used Lysol kitchen and bathroom wipes. They did a good job, but we went through about 2.5 tubs when all was said and done.  James also sanded the cabinet frames.  This step took two whole days of work, which I wasn't expecting.  It would have taken even longer but we had wonderful friends come help us.

Then we had to prime everything.  The lady at Benjamin Moore said that no primer was needed, but I wanted to get the most out of the expensive paint, so we primed.  We ran into a bit of a space issue - we didn't have quite enough room in our house to lay out all the cabinet doors and drawers at once, so we had to do as many as possible and let those dry, then stack them up to make room for the rest.  Then we turned them over and started all over again with the other side.  The primer was dry to the touch after 2 hours, so that wasn't too big of an issue, but the paint took 4 hours to dry to the touch, and 16 hours before a second coat could be applied.

The whole next week while James was at work I painted...and painted....and painted some more.  Everything needed two coats of paint and a 16 hour dry time inbetween, and I didn't want to rush to make sure I was applying the paint evenly.  I started with the back side of the doors and let those dry, and then flipped them over to do the front side so that if there were any smudges or blemishes from being set down on the 2x4s, it would be less noticeable on the backs of the doors.  I tried using a small fine-nap roller but it didn't go on smoothly and I didn't like the way it looked.  The Benjamin Moore site said not to use a foam roller either, so I did everything with a brush; 1" for the trim and 2" for the inside.  I was worried about brush strokes, but the paint really was awesome and self-leveled after a few minutes, making them almost invisible.  I still made sure to brush all the same direction though.

Finally, I finished painting on July 15.  I had originally estimated that it would take 5, maybe 6 days total, but it took me 11.  It would have taken a few less, but I still had things to do so a couple of those days I didn't get much painting done.  By the time I was done, I was so sick of painting, and so ready to have my house back!  Just looking at these pictures makes me cringe.  I really don't like clutter and chaos, it makes me anxious.  But we had one more step:  the paint can recommended letting it sit for 3-5 days to let the paint harden to prevent nicks and scratches.  So finally, 2 full weeks after we started the project, our wonderful friends came over again and we spent the evening hanging the doors back up and installing new hardware.  The hinges are hidden so we kept those, but we got new knobs and pulls.  We used most of the same holes, but some of the upper cabinets we re-drilled because I didn't like the placement of the old knobs.  

Here are the 'after' pictures of my new kitchen!

I absolutely love it!  It looks so much lighter and more modern and not so cave-like.  The paint has held up great so far.  I haven't seen any dings, and it wipes clean very easily.  You can still see some of the wood grain, which I like, but no brush strokes.

So was it worth it?  Two weeks removed from the process, I will say yes.  It makes a world of difference for relatively cheap.  And by that I mean that it was much cheaper than any major update like new counters or appliances (that dingy off-white oven will be the first to go when we're ready for new appliances!).  That being said, it took almost twice as long and almost twice as much money as I was expecting, and being so close to my due date, it caused me a lot of stress.  I kept having visions of the baby coming early and us bringing him home to a wrecked house full of sawdust and drop cloths.  Fortunately that did not happen!  So yes, it was worth it in the end, but if I were to do it over I would have started earlier in the pregnancy and been more realistic about how long it would take and how much it would cost.  

Bathroom update

Well I don't have the kitchen post yet because we are still waiting on the rest of the hardware we ordered to arrive.  It looks great though and I promise I will post pictures as soon as I can.  However, I realized that I never blogged about redoing our downstairs half bathroom.  When we moved in, the bathroom was a fairly bright blue, which actually was a pretty color, but it didn't jive with the rest of the house and I wanted something a little more calming for such a small, windowless space. 

So a month or so ago, I picked a color that I thought would look similar to the green in our living room, and painted it in a few hours.  Well, the color wasn't right.  Again, it was a pretty color, but it was brighter than I wanted and a little bit too "under the sea" for me.  So back to the store I went to get more color swatches.  After a lot of agonizing (I did NOT want to paint the room a third time), and almost quitting halfway through, I gritted my teeth and painted it again.  And this time, I love it!  It's a nice, calm green that doesn't overwhelm the small space.

I would love to update the pedestal sink and the toilet, but we don't have the budget for that, so I just switched out the builder basic mirror for a framed one, added a shelf and some decorations, and voila!  So much better.  Here are the after pictures.

Garden and nursery progress

This past weekend my sweet mom flew up for a couple of days to help me paint the nursery!  It was so nice to see her and get to spend time together!  Here is the before picture of the nursery:

And here is the after!

The crib :-)

We still have a lot of color to infuse through curtains and decorations, and we will be adding a rocking chair/glider.  But I love the soft gray and white, I think it is sweet and calming.

Paint makes such a difference in a room!  Remember this hideously green guest bathroom that we inherited? (I love green, just not such a bold color in such a small, windowless room...it's overpowering.)

A couple of weeks ago I decided to repaint it.  I used some tan paint that I already had lying around and now it looks like this!

Ahh, so much better.  Now the shower curtain can be the star instead of the Kermit the frog walls.

In addition to painting the nursery, my mom helped me revamp the flower beds lining the walkway in the front yard!  She and James did a lot of digging because we have clay here in Maryland which is not conducive to growing flowers, so we had to dig out the clay and replace with garden soil.  I definitely could not have done that by myself and I am so thankful for their help!  Here's the before and after shots.

This was taken before we moved in, and the flower pots up at the front did not stay with the house.

And here it is now.  

We removed the ugly bushes by the front door and planted knock-out roses instead.  They should look great when they grow bigger.  And don't you just love the cheery marigolds and begonias?

Speaking of plants, my veggie garden in the back has taken off! One of my strawberry plants has given me about 5 little strawberries so far, and I just found two little green tomatoes that are starting to grow.  So exciting! It's a lot of work to garden, but I love the payoff.  A lot of beauty and some homegrown veggies are worth it.  I'm loving having my own house so that I can do these projects that I couldn't do in an apartment.  So fun.

Tomatoes and basil right after planting

Tomatoes now.  The basil quickly got eclipsed by the tomatoes and never grew.

Painting Before and Afters

Last weekend my parents flew up here and helped us paint our entire lower floor.  Thank you so much to the best parents ever!!  Not only did we get it all done in two days, but we learned a whole lot about painting thanks to their expertise, and my Dad even painted the stairwell all by himself which is almost two stories tall. 

The house looks soooo much better now, no more Kermit the Frog green in the dining room!  Here are the before and after pictures for your enjoyment.

Living Room

Before

Before

After

After

Dining Room

Before

After

Kitchen/Office Area

Before

Before

After

After

My favorite room now is the dining room.  It's a million times better!

I don't like making decisions about paint

Picking paint colors for our house is stressing me out. 

First we had to decide what the general color scheme was going to be.  I know what colors I like, but I am worried about flow.  If I get too many colors going on one floor, it could look disjointed and weird.  If I use too much of the same color, it might look boring.  And I really don't want all neutral walls; I've had enough of that from apartments. I need color in my life.

Once we talked it over and vaguely agreed on colors, James and I happily brought home paint chips to tape up on the walls, only to discover that we both have very different opinions on what shades look good.  He likes dark, I like...less dark.  He prefers more primary colors, I prefer muted colors. 

Then, once we hash it out and finally decide on a couple of shades that we can both live with, I go to Lowe's and get those little sample jars of paint, just to see what it looks like on the wall.  I have done this three or four times now.  Every single time the paint color looks completely different than the swatch.  I even tried the same color paint in the kitchen and again in the living room and they look completely different from each other. 

I don't know if it is the lighting or the color that is already on the wall or what, but I don't understand how the same paint can look so greatly different in two different rooms.  So now I'm wondering if I need to prime the whole house first, even on the more neutral walls.  But then if I do, the paint that we have picked might look different and then it's not what I wanted.

Bah!  It's not supposed to be this hard.