Painting & New hardware Kitchen Cabinets

When we bought this house I didn't like the look of the kitchen from the start.  I was not sure how I wanted it so I started looking in books and online for ideas.  Finally I found an inspiration picture off Pintrest.  Here it is-

Now you can see in the picture it has white cabinets and dark wood floors and a wood counter top.  Well that is the look I am going for.  I found other pictures that are like it but I look back to this one.  I mean my kitchen looks nothing like this but I see mine in my  head. 
So next we took and researched over the Internet the best way to paint over stained cabinets. We found a great way was to use the stuff called liquid sand paper.   It works great. 

I bought it at Home Depot and it was not expensive.  It goes a long way, I bought two bottles but returned one.  I didn't need it.  We  used gloves to apply it and an old rag and you just wipe it on and it takes off any residue and gloss your cabinets have.  Please do yourself a favor and don't skip this step.
Next we took all the doors off and all the hardware off.  That was easy, we threw everything away. We were replacing  all with new chrome ones. That alone makes the remodel look like a million bucks never mind the paint.

Next you need to buy stain kill paint.  I bought a better quality stain kilz paint I dint want to have to do this again, it is a lot of work.  So do this right the first time.  So after every door is off, each one gets two coats of stain kill paint front and back.  It takes days.  You will need room to keep them, a basement maybe.  I used an empty spare room. 

You will need to do the same to the base cabinets on the wall also.  I left everything in them.  Just cover the counter top with a cloth.  You will need to let each coat dry overnight. 

As you can see in this picture it is a lot of prep work and taking things apart but I am telling you totally worth it. Wait till you see the ending result.

 

you might see in this picture above I numbered the doors as I took them off.  The paint went over the numbers as I went so don't bother to do that you will see that only certain doors fit in certain places. So I don't think you need to number them.

So a recap for you:

1. Wipe all cabinets down with the liquid sandpaper

2. Take all doors and hardware off

3. Paint two coats of stain kilz on all surface front and back of all doors, allow 24 between coats.  You might want to light sand between coats if you find any drips.

Now you are read for paint.  Now I used a semi gloss white.  I use semi gloss on just about anything I do.  It is easy to wipe clean.  And I think has just the right shine.  I mean you can use what ever color you like, go crazy.  Its paint and if you dint like it you can always change it.  Paint is cheap.  Now I have a lot of cabinets so I dint want to do this again for a long time. I am spending more money on a good paint so it last.  I used a latex paint.  It came out great. 

We did the tops first, then the bottoms but the over all change in the kitchen was amazing.  If we had to pay someone to do this or to get new cabinets it would have cost us a fortune.  This was One gallon of paint and really the biggest expense was the hardware.  But again totally worth it I am sure I will be happy for years to come.

In the picture above I have one more door left under the sink but mostly complete.  Even the floor.  Our next big job will be the counter tops.  But it kinda looks like the picture at the start of the blog, my inspiration picture.  I say close enough on my budget I am happy.

 

Farmers Market

Maine is a beautiful place to live.  Whenever you take a ride the scenery is just so pretty.  I mean we have always lived coastal and we just love the ocean but the living with the mountains and trees and rivers all around you is just amazing.  The wildlife, to see a deer run across the street in front of your house just brings you a breath of fresh air.  My family drives so slow down our street just in hope to see that again. 
We live about ten minutes from town, such a cute, quaint town it is.  They seem to have a farmers market a few weekends a month.  One weekend when we went into town we came upon it.  It was cold and I really cant take the cold for to long, but I thought I did not want to miss this so we stopped to check it out. 
Maine has residents like no other.  The people are so kind and welcoming.  They will just talk to you like you are their old friend.  Give advise or wisdom of the surroundings.  You just cant walk into a store and not have some stranger just spark up a conversation with you.  They make you feel like  you have known them your whole life.  Makes you feel like you are home.  Or part of a home town for sure.  Well the farmers market was the same way.  The smells, the look, the taste yes the taste.  They had samples of their goods my daughter just loved that.  And must I say we had the most delicious cookie.  I just dint know what was in it, but it was to die for.  We bought some home made cheese, after trying a sample of course.  I mean we just had to get out of there before we went broke.  But for sure we will go back in warmer weather.  The whole way home my daughter talked how she cant wait till we become farmers so we can sell some of our goods at a market.  I love the way she thinks. 
Again the ride home as pretty as the ride there.  It just seems as if you would never tire of this picture perfect surroundings.  Makes me want to become an artist, if I only had the skill.

driving the mower

hey guys, it's Melanie again from meet Melanie.On Easter I got to drive the lawn mower, with a trailer on the back!

  Today in school we did a play called We Are The Planets! We finished writing our space reports, I studied MERCURY!
Here is a little poem

CLOSE TO THE SUN
IS MERCURY
IT TRAVELS FAST
AND IT'S HARD TO SEE
repeat 2 more times

Did you like it?

New wood floors

We just love our new home in Maine.  We fell in love with it from the first time we seen it on the Internet.  It is not your normal home.  It is made of two dwellings joined together by a breezeway.  One half of the home is a round house and the other half you would call a Gabriel style home.  I think that is how it is spelled.  The round side is our living room and kitchen and a loft with a fireplace in the center.  The other side of the home is the bedrooms and baths. 
I new the first project would be the floors.  I do not like carpets, and with two puppies I wanted them pulled up as soon as possible.  So it took Russell, and the kids of course a weekend to pull them out.  It was funny there was another rug under it.  We were lucky we didn't find the floor to be bad under it.  But to make the floor even with the kitchen side we did decide to put down a sub floor of 1/2 plywood.  That made Russell a little stress in his life but he got through it.  With the room being half round the cuts were tough.  I mean he is not a carpenter.  He really hates doing this kind of stuff but we cant afford to hire someone.  Well he did it.  And it came out great.  The kids, even my daughter hammered in the nails. 

before and after

 

this is what the lovely carpet looked like before we took it out.  Also you will see the old hearth that we took out.  It was all broken tiles I did a blog on the new hearth we have now.  So I new that old orange carpet had to go.  I just didn't want the dogs to have accidents on it and I didn't know how many other dogs had already had an accident on it.  I just wanted it gone. 

 

So Russell and Melanie went to it and here is a picture of the nice shag rug under it.  So that had to go to.

Now we had to level the floor up with plywood.

After it was done we painted it because we didn't know how long before we would be able to afford the floors we wanted.  We also wanted to do some work in the kitchen before we finished the floors. 

But next we did the Hearth. Then the kitchen cabinets. Which I will post in another blog.

OK so I will continue with the floors.  I wanted them to look like a reclaimed barn board floor.  But we could not afford that so after doing some research we found some high grade plywood in 4x8 sheets.  Russell cut them in 8'' x 8' strips.  Then he bought a blade for his table saw that would make tongue and grove on each piece.  So each 8'' x 8' board he made a tongue and groove on with my son.  That alone took a couple of days.  But they came out great.

 

Now they didn't go down that easy.  Russell would get frustrated at times.  The floor is not perfectly even and the tongue and groves were not always matching up.  When that would happen he would put a nail on the top which I liked anyway because if you look at an old wood floor you see nails anyway.  He just wanted you not to see nails. 

You can see it looks real nice along the new hearth we put down.  I say we but it was Russell, lol.  I must say Russell did not use any fancy nail guns we are doing everything on a budget.  He used a hammer and nails and a nail tap that was my grandfathers.  Most of the time was getting the right piece to fit.  And with it being cold outside he would have to go up and down the stairs to the basement to do all the cutting of the wood.  We are living in our home during our renovations. 

When Russell would get frustrated I just kept telling him I was in love with the floor.  He worked so hard on it but I know for years to come he will be so proud of himself for doing it. 

He finished the living room and went into the kitchen.  Then we had to stain it.

We wanted a dark stain to go with the white cabinets. We let the stain dry for a couple of days before we started the poly stage.  We did this at night after dinner.  We put the dogs out and in the crate.  Then started the floor. Then we let it set overnight it was set by morning and we could all walk on it during the day.  We did the same for the next three nights.

you would never know this is just plywood!

I think this is amazing I just love my new floors!

it was simple to apply the poly

 

I can't wait till I can put my furniture back.  Please, if you have any question feel free to ask I will answer back!

Here is an update I put the furniture back and we just love it!

 

hearth remodel

Well I did say our new home was in some disrepair.  Well my husband has been hard at work every minute of the day.  When he is not at work at his day job he is at work on the house.  He has my son right at his side.  Also my daughter helps, she is the greatest helper.  One job that was a lot easier than we thought it was going to be was doing the tile around the hearth.  We had to pull all the rug up in the living room and decided to lay down a new sub floor.  That was not easy because part of our home is a round house so the cutting was hard but Russell got through it.  He only threw the tools a few times. 

this is the ending result it came out great!

 

We started with a clean floor, we picked out tiles that matched the stone fireplace

Then he put some tile cement down with the tile scrapper in a thin layer just one square at a time and put spacers in between them to make sure they were the same space apart.  We picked out a small square trim, we did it this way so we did not have to make any cutting.  We wanted it as simple as possible.  Before we used the cement we dry placed everything so we new what our pattern would be and how many tiles we wanted to use.  We were not sure if we wanted to go out two or three tiles and decided to go out only two tiles.

So just keep doing this one square at a time then you have to let it sit overnight

then you take the grout with a sponge and just work it in and wipe it off with water till its clean.  Then you let it sit overnight again.  We wiped it down again in the morning.
We love it and think it came out great.  Russell said it was easy and we bought all the stuff at Home depot and the guy there was real helpful.  It took us the longest time to pick out our pattern.  We did buy to much cement but we took back the extra container and they gave us our money back.  Love +Home Depot.

Life is Short

OK after being a mom I could say I am a jack of many trades.  I'd like to say I have always been up for an adventure or wanted to try something new or needed to work for myself in someway or form.  I have always tried to be independent.  I should make more than a man not less.  I have always worked my way up, not with education, school was hard for me.  I was a hands on type of person.  I did go to college, but not till my late 30's.  I quit high school in my senior year of high school but did get my GED when my daughter graduated from high school.  That was a big deal for me.  In my life so far I have been- a babysitter, cook, waitress, cashier, Certified Nurses Aide, Home Health Aide, Manager, Bartender, Daycare Provider, Biller, Service Advisor, Cellular Phone Manager, Customer Relations Manager, Owner of my own Retail business, Finance Manager and a Lead Paramedic. Most of my jobs I started at the bottom and worked my way up to the top.  I still hold my Paramedic license but do not work anymore due to medical reasons.  My last job as a medic is where I learned life is short and you must treasure what and who you have in your life.  You never know when it is your time and even the best medical care is not going to help you.  Some things are beond your control.  So live your life for you and the ones closest to you.  That is what truly counts at the end of the day.  And that is really what brought us to Maine.  We want our family to know what it is like to be a family. 

Our daughter Jennifer and her husband Zach and their two wonderful children.  It is so amazing that my daughter has children of her own, what a blessing.  Something so beautiful as my daughter has made two more beautiful babies and this tree grows.  Life is an amazing thing and to be a part of it makes me the proudest mom ever.

A little history

Its funny since I started this blog all I can think of is writing in it.  I feel as if I need to give some history about myself and my family.  Not sure how much you want to know or need to know but here I go. 
As I have stated before I am a mother of five wonderful children and I will always say that is my best part of my life if nothing else had ever happened to me ever those five life's have made me who I am.  You always think you will have children and teach them but really they teach you who you will become in life for sure.  If that makes sense.  I started parenthood at the young age of just 18 and believe it or not he was very much wanted not a mistake at all.  I was young and crazy in love, yes very crazy.  I had some very close friends even try to talk me out of it but there was no way of doing that.  My son soon became the love of my life and well then a year and a half later his sister became my second love in my life.  They were my world.  My life was not the best with my husband at the time so the children and I lived in our own little world most of the time.  They will never remember that but it was how it was. 
That marriage did not last and soon I did find husband number two.  I was not meant to be alone, so I thought.  And soon I had child number three.  My wonderful Jessie Bear is what we called her.  She was only one maybe two when her father and I divorced and we became a single family household.  We lived fine like that.  I worked hard and we survived. They had me and that is all my children needed.  I had my parents help and a sister that I was close with.  But my children went to daycare and we had a small apartment and we survived.  It was the way it had to be. 
It went on that way for years.  We had fun and I had fun.  Being single was nice but there came a time when I thought I should find a man at some time for me and my children.  I should settle down.
Then all of a sudden it happened, when you least expect it.  I was switching jobs and they had a party for me and we all went out to say goodbye.  Well one of they guys I worked with for the past year asked me to dance and well its history from there.
I mean it.  A year from that date we were married.  Not really sure how it all came to play but he called and kept calling.  I thought he was crazy at first.  He was 4 years younger than me, no children. A stable guy, no baggage, came from a good family, that didn't care I had children.  It just worked.  We just worked. 
The kids love him and he loves the kids.  Not to say that it was all easy.  There was adjustments I mean the kids were used to just me for years.  I was a push over.  I was used to doing things my way and having someone else have a say in things is hard.  We still have problems with that.  But Russell has gone on to adopt the older children about 6 months after we were married and we all became one happy family for the most part.  I mean every family has problems and we do have problems.  We are not perfect.  I will not claim to have a perfect family.  We fight. The kids fight.  We fight with the kids.  But we always try to work it out.  And in the end We all Love each other more than life itself and would do anything for each other.  That is what family is all about. 
Well we wanted to expand our family for sure so two years after we married we had our first child together and then five years after him we had our daughter together.  Wow that is five children.  I would of had 10 children but Russell said no.  He said we have been blessed with five happy (most of the time) healthy children lets not press our luck.  I do agree.  I still wish I had more.  But we are so lucky that our daughter Jen (my second child) has two children of her own, my loving grandchildren.
Oh man I wanted to tell about me but it seems my children are one of my biggest joy's and I need to put the dogs out so I will have to come back and blog about other parts of me.........

This was taken a few years ago now my younger son is taller than his older brother

 

My honey and I, when my son Little Russell was small we asked him what he thought mommy's name was and he said "Honey"

One of my favorite pictures again was taken a few years ago it is hard to get us all together now.  Chris my oldest live in California, Jennifer lives in North Carolina, and Jessica lives in Hawaii.  We never get them all home at the same time.  We miss them like crazy but with skype we get to see them almost everyday or at least weekly.