Ok, so one of my personal issues seems to be the inability to come up with funny/punny blog post titles. I'm not even sure why I think this is an important thing, but there it is.
In case you might not have guessed, the kitchen has been PAINTED.
I can't even explain how excited I am by most kitchen related stuff. This project has been LOOOOONG and somewhat painful/inconvenient so now that we're starting to do stuff that's part of the final product (like paint, tile, etc), I feel like we're finally seeing the light at the end of this tunnel. It's so awesome.
Painting falls into my realm of responsibility and that's totally fine by me. Jason handled bedtime with the kids for a few nights while I got it done.
For the ceiling, we went with "Whisper White" from Home Depot (this is our standard white here for ceilings & trim) and on the walls I used "Gentle Rain" from Home Depot. It's a warm-ish gray color. I had considered a lot of options for paint colors including blues (which I loved) and various shades of gray. The gray won out in the long run because of 2 things - I am in love with a colored back splash tile and because I was worried that I'd be "over" a bold wall color really fast. So I went with a neutral and am very happy with the result.
So here's the "before"
And here's the "after"
I really like the color. I was a bit nervous that the color would be too dark (since we don't get a TON of natural light), but it's really just right.
Check out the floor! We've got cement backer board down to get ready for the next step in this project - FLOORING!!! Yeah, I'm excited!
So we're back! After some time at the beach (and away from the house) we were ready to roll and really make some progress when we came back. As always, even small tasks seem overwhelming when you just don't want to do them.
Case in point - sanding drywall. It's a simple thing. Put sanding sponge in hand and rub on wall until smooth. But as simple as it is, it is also unpleasant. The person doing it gets incredibly dirty. It's exhausting work. And it's a pain to clean up. Jason was the sole sander this time (we've done it together on other projects) and it's finally DONE (can't tell you how glad we are that it's behind us!).
After sanding the drywall comes priming. Priming fresh drywall can be pretty time consuming. The walls seem to really soak up the primer, so it really seems like you're only getting about 2 square feet of coverage with each load of the roller. It's a lot of up & down the ladder (especially when doing the ceiling), but it's a super important step that you really shouldn't skip. I've seen places where I've accidentally missed the primer and the paint doesn't even stick. BIG mess!
After priming, I spent a day or so in different lights looking for places I missed or that have a drip. Sometimes that can be tough to see when it's all white-on-white. So after a little work with a brush, the priming was DONE and we were ready for PAINT!!
Here's a quick before & after:
OK, I know it's not that exciting, but it is a step in the right direction. I like this phase of the project because the work becomes a little more visible. We're finally getting to parts of the project that we'll see when we're done!
I'm not quite sure how we got to the 12th of August before I realized, but wow it's been over a month since the last post! Typical for this time of year, things at our house have been busy with the pool and a trip to the beach. All in all I was there for about 2 weeks with the kids. Here are some highlights!
We are big fans of south Jersey and the beaches there. In addition to days on the beach we made it to mini-golf, the zoo, out for ice cream and the boardwalk to ride some rides.
The best part of any vacation is coming back home feeling refreshed and, for us, refocused. We're recharged and ready to rock and roll on the kitchen. Look for updates soon!
