Table done! Mirror done!

Finally done, this table took way longer than expected. I find staining and clear coats always take so much longer than expected as I ended up putting on a coat, going away to let it dry and then not making it back till the next day. Even though a coat is about 20 minutes, trying to fit it in between the kitchen, baking, etc is never easy.

Here is the final product; sanded, 3 coats of stain, 2 coats of rub on poly and a left over drawer pull from the kitchen.

The new mirror frame is also complete. Same finish; 3 coats of stain and 2 of poly. To attach the wood frame to the mirror, I wanted to use PL construction adhesive cause it worked so well attaching the bathroom sink to the vanity and cause I had some left over. Well, it hardens really well, even in the unopened tube, so that was out. One emergency trip out later, I found a small tube of similar stuff and it worked great, expanding into a hard foam substance.

So here is the mirror, hung in our front entry.

And now we know: Finishing takes so long cause I take 5 days to do it and not consecutive days. Oil based products do work better; I will definitely stick with them.

The Kitchen: Putting It Back Together

The kitchen is done! ...or at least this part is until we replace the flooring. I put a final couple of coats of paint on the bottom doors, installed the new hardware and got them re-hung. I love how it turned out, very bright and airy.

Here is the before:

And the afters:

And now we know: paint and hardware are great, but the real change is getting rid of those curtains

The Kitchen: Painting Every Surface Possible

Tom is out of town for the weekend so I am forging ahead in the kitchen. Before he returns on Wednesday, I have to complete most of the work and have the kitchen back in working order. Friday before he left I did the final prep, which caused dust which caused him stress and grumpiness.

Here is the breakdown of events:

Friday night: after work I came home and started to sand. This was the messiest it would get; all the upper cabinets, the wall patching and the ceiling patching needed sanding. The kitchen was a cloud of white dust and although it was contained with drop cloths, my husband was still not pleased. After a thorough cleanup, Lauren came over to help, so we primed the uppers, patched the lowers and put a final layer of mud on the ceiling. I was getting a little stressed at this point that I wouldn’t be able to finish all the painting in the next 2 days.

Saturday: After seeing Tom off I gave a light sand to the ceiling patching and sanded the base cabinets. My mum came over to help me and we worked all day painting. After priming the upper doors, drywall patching and lower cabinets, we put 1^st coats on the ceiling, uppers, lowers, walls and upper doors. Lauren came over for a bit to help, but the greatest help was kittteh, who jumped onto a primed cabinet door and then ran off to hide leaving a trail of paw prints. She also spent a lot of time supervising from within the door less lower cabinets. By the end of the day we had reached our goal and were optimistic about finishing on time.

Sunday: Again my mum came to help and we got second coats on the uppers, lowers, walls and upper doors. Before she arrived I sanded and patched the lower doors and gave them a coat of primer. Kitteh seems to have an affinity for primer as I came back into the room to find another trail of little white paw prints. Her paws are now completed white!

Lauren was over again for a while to help out and put a couple of coats of dark grey on the doors. Upon my mum’s urging, I got out the melamine and we gave the trim a coat of paint. I hate painting trim and by this point the paint fumes and exhaustion were getting to us. This damn melamine paint got everywhere; we were dripping it on the floor, putting our hands in it and generally making a mess. We got most of it done and then abandoned for a shower before dinner.

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The kitchen, although not completely done, is finished enough to be useable. Still to do: a couple of coats on the front of the lower doors, install hardware throughout and hang all the doors. Not too bad, hopefully my husband will agree!

As long as it is clean upon his return, I think he will be grudgingly happy.

And know we know: you may think your cabinets are white, but they are really a disgusting yellowish white and it is really worth the effort painting over them. Cats love primer.