Sneak Peek of Our Painted Cabinets

We have been BUSY! Matt has spent every free moment outside of his full time job working on this for the past 3 weeks. We are not completely done with this project. The island still needs to be painted and little things here and there like base trim and corner pieces, but I would say that we are 90% done!  The island is going to get trimmed out and painted SW Eider White.  We ended up going with SW Dovetail for the cabinets and I am so pleased with the color.  It has totally changed the feel of the kitchen.  I am happy that we went with a lighter color against our dark floors.

How to Fix a Scratch in Laminate Flooring

Back in July we installed laminate flooring throughout the downstairs.  We have yet to install the quarter round and that is why I haven't posted a full "reveal", but I did show you a little here and here.  Although durable and kid friendly life happens and things get dropped and we have had a few nicks and scratches.  The other day I was dust mopping in the living room and came across the deepest scratch yet.  A couple of months ago Matt came up with a solution that has worked and I am going to share our secret... a Crayola crayon!  In the past I have used markers on furniture, but the crayon works better because the wax fills in the gap rather than just coloring it.  

Step One:

Locate scratch and yell at every family member.

Step Two:

Find a matching crayon. I prefer Crayola.

Step Three:

Fill scratch in with crayon wax.

Step Four:

Buff with paper towel and you are done!

Kitchen Cabinets are Primed!

This past weekend Matt and I primed the cabinets.  I only did the boxes, which in my opionion was a lot easier than his job of spraying the doors.  Prior to spraying Matt constructed a spray booth in our garage.  This one is sturdy and was constructed using cull lumber and was less than $10.  The "booth" he made this summer was just plastic taped to the garage ceiling and that jerry-rigged contraption was not going to work this time.   Here is the new booth and my sweet hubby made sure that I could still park in the garage.

Our drying station is the dining room and living room. Using styrofoam cups were cheaper than purchasing painter's triangles.  Two inexpensive garment racks were purchased as drying racks and our extensive collection of coloring books are being used as weights.  

We are making progress and I am so happy! I feel a little more motivated than I did a week ago.  My posts are scaring my friend Mary out of painting her cabinets, but I am hoping that the end result will be worth it.

DIY Grump

Yesterday I had the lovely task of emptying all the kitchen cabinets and then the tedious task of sanding, vacuuming, and cleaning the cabinet boxes.  It took hours people.  I was the BIGGEST grump ever last night and went to bed at nine.  I knew that this was not going to be easy and I am trying to stay sane.  Right now all of the contents are in three different areas.  Making dinner last night was a joy.  Actually, my poor kids ate sandwiches and cereal in front of the television.  They should have a series called, "The Real Kids of DIY".  On a positive note, I am going to put all of my stuff back in clean cabinets and I am one step closer to my painted kitchen cabinets! Which, I changed the color... again.  More on that later, for now enjoy my stuff strewn all over the house.

Samantha Conner Designs

You know that I am boutique clothing lover!  I often sew for my daughter, but sometimes it is just easier to click the "add to cart" button!  My dear bloggy friend Samantha has ventured into boutique clothing and is having a special one week only Trunk Sale.  Check out these uber cute designs today!

Step One to Painted Kitchen Cabinets

We have officially started the painted kitchen cabinet project.  The doors and hardware have been removed and if I am a good girl and do my homework tonight the cabinets will get a good TSP scrubbing.  

We labeled the inside of each cabinet with a piece of painters tape and labeled baggies to hold the hardware.  Each hinge is labeled with a number just in case there is a slight difference when we reinstall.  Each cabinet is labeled with the assigned cabinet number too.  We are not taking any chances.  The number will not get painted over because we are using these hooks during the painting step.

I appreciated the comments last week concerning the paint color.  I decided to meet in the middle and go with a gray that is darker than the lighter gray, but lighter than the black.  You can see a sample on the end of the cabinets in the second picture.  The color is Valspar's Mark Twain Gray Brick which is darker than the computer representation.

Beautiful Family

Mary and I go waaaaaay back and yet I am not sure she knew what she was getting into when she asked me to take family pictures.  I will tell you one thing, her boys are a joy to take pictures and not at all difficult like my brood!  I am posting a few of my favorites.  I hope you do not mind Mary!

Halloween 2012

This was probably my kids' favorite Halloween by far!  Wyatt and McKinley's mission was to hit every house in the hood, which is around 140, but petered out when he filled his bucket two times.  My neighbors are very generous!  To my surprise the girls kept going while the boys sorted their loot.