Welcome to 2011...time to get back to it!

Happy New Year!

Yeah, I know, a few weeks late. But it’s 2011 and I want to have this place ready in the next few months to put it on the market, so I better stop dilly-dallying around and get productive!

Over the last couple of weekends I have jumped back into things again turning my kitchen into a war zone. It was time to get back to my stripping and prepping the cabinets.

I finally picked out the white for the cabinets. I would post of pic but its…white. Just slightly on the warmer side. But not cream. It’s called Right White * edit - correction - its Minimalist White * by CIL and it looks like this:

Small cabinet door at the end of the kitchen where I keep the dishwashing detergent

This picture does not really portray the white as off white but it is. Once I get everything painted and back and do my final pics I think it will become more obvious. So there is your reason to stay tuned!

So I went back to the stink that is paint stripper and back to my oh-so-sexy stripping costume – namely my bagging jeans, old t-shirt, rubber gloves and face mask.

I got the rest of the cabinets and drawers done. To switch it up I moved onto trim painting during the week.

I am amazed at what a little primer and paint can do to make cheapo faux wood grain trim look more expensive and sleek.

just slapped some primer on the kick-plate area...I only put white trim paint on the bottom strip of trim

Throughout the week I managed to get the trim done and even moved on to getting the hinges painted silver. If you have hinges that are in decent condition and all you want is a colour change, break out the spray paint!

I put them all in a box

and spray painted them silver, at a cost savings of $2 a piece, times that by 16 doors and 2 hinges per door, you are looking at a close to $80 savings in the end. All that for a $4 can of spray paint.

As I got into this past weekend it was time to give the cabinets a little clean to get off any stripper residue.

TSP - great all-around cleaner and super inexpensive...get it at any reno store

I don’t have a laundry tub so I had to set up in the kitchen and an old towel on the floor.

After drying I use some wood filler to plug up the old holes

Good product...very sandable

And then some sanding to prep the surface even further. Definitely pick up a sanding block but raid the dollar store for sand paper.

10 pieces of different levels of grit for $2

It was definitely a multi-tasking kind of weekend as I even cleaned the kitchen horizontal blind – ew…I haven’t cleaned this blind since I moved in and it was grimy back then. Took me a couple of hours to get ti all clean, but I couldn’t have my pristine white trim being covered by a greasy looking blind.

This is not a lighting trick...the section on the far right is the part that was cleaned the rest on the left was in a grimy state of gray...eww

Today I finally broke out my Christmas present from my parents:

Ah, The Dremel! If you don’t own one of these little lovelies you must proceed to the nearest wall and smack your head in to it as you are a fool and must knock some sense into yourself. It is such an easy tool to use and requires so little effort. It’s not overly noisy and not that heavy either. If you are doing any kind of reno work, do yourself a favour and go buy one. Yes. Right now!

I got the largest section of the cabinets done today…well I got to the point of primer. Looks so different to have such a light colour. The cabinets that once stuck out seem to now disappear into the wall. But that will all change once the red paint is up.

So that’s as far as I have gotten up to this point. Still so much to do. I have to finish stripping the rest of the cabinets (lower and a small cabinet above the stove), prime everything, paint the cabinets and paint the walls. Then have the joy of putting all the cabinets back up. Woo. Hoo.

On a side note I finally solved the problem of art in the living room area.

Ta-da! It’s a metal piece of artwork with a leaf pattern for only $25 at Winners. I like it because although it is a large piece it doesn’t seem to takeover the wall.

I am really, really trying to get my kitchen done for the end of January. With all of the hallway and upper bedrooms to repaint, I need to get this large project out of the way if I have a prayer of putting this place up by the spring.

So stay tuned…it’s going to be a crazy few months!