Project 2016 -- Florida or Bust: Kitchen Makeover -- The Difference a Little Light Can Make

I got the backsplash done and the kitchen cleaned up. On one of my last trips to Lowe's, I found some battery operated puck lights in the clearance section. It was just the thing to give my kitchen the little extra oomph. Thanks for watching the trip!

Happy Makeover.



                                                                                                                            

Project 2016 -- Florida or Bust:Kitchen Makeover -- With a Little Help From My Family!

My brother-in-law is the greatest!

As some of you who follow my blog know, I am in the home stretch with my kitchen make over. Counter tops -- check! Cabinets painted -- check! Walls painted -- check! Down to the back splash for this weekend's project and I got a call from my sister who said she and her husband wanted to come over and see for herself what I had done so far. I jokingly said that I would welcome their visit as I could use my BIL's help with the recycled tile backsplash.

Right on schedule, my Sis and BIL showed up. He brought an old shirt with him to work in and as I set the big mesh pieces of tile, he started to cut the little pieces to fill in around the outlets. He turned an ALL DAY job into just a few hours. After almost 40 years as my BIL, he's turning out pretty useful!

I have to say that one of the best purchases I ever made was a small wet saw. I have done several small tile jobs (and the next job on my list is the guest bathroom tile around the tub) and a wet saw makes a HUGE difference on how fast you can get the job done. Renting one is possible, but when I bought it, the saw was on sale for under $150 and it would have cost me $75 to rent one for a day. Now 10 years later, 2 houses, and a few tile jobs later, buying it was a great decision.

One of the things that I wanted was to make sure that all of the outlets were brought out to the level of the tile and had plenty of support behind it. Cutting all the little pieces was tedious work, but will make all the difference in the long run.

Tomorrow, I will grout the tile and that will be it until the next project! I am so glad it is almost over. Now to plan a little get together for my friends and neighbors to break in this new kitchen. What's a new kitchen if you can't share and enjoy it!

Happy Grouting!

Project 2016 -- Florida or Bust:Kitchen Makeover -- In the Home Stretch

I am nearing the end of my kitchen project. Last weekend and this, I have been painting the walls. I went with three different intensities of the same color. About 40% of the kitchen will be covered with the lightest color and 30% with each of the two darker colors. The colors play well with the cabinet colors and will look great with the recycled glass tiles purchased for the back splash.

I went with a "soft-gloss" for the sheen and "scrubbability". It was an
option which is between a satin and a semi-gloss with Valspar's Ultra Kitchen & Bath paint. This paint is both a low odor and zero VOC (volatile organic compounds). I can vouch that the low odor is true as within 24 hours you couldn't smell new paint in the house.
The paint covered easily in two coats -- even the darkest color.

I put the darkest color on the walls around the refrigerator and the cabinets next to it. The lightest color went on the walls around the window. This made sense to me as the window is large and it would have looked odd to me to have a very dark wall with a big bright hole in the middle. The medium color is on the wall where the stove sits. I like the way the three colors work together in the room to provide some depth.

I am looking forward to being done with this project. I guess I always think that DIY projects will be easier than they reveal themselves to be.

Happy Painting!

Project 2016 -- Florida or Bust: Kitchen Makeover Day One

It's all about going South! Since my dear husband (DH) and I have decided that we are going to fix up the house and move back to Florida. With as many things as has to be fixed up, it will take us three to 4 years to get everything done and we plan to put the house up for sale in 2016. Kitchen first!

I blogged previously on my kitchen makeover and told you some of my plans. Last night, the DH and I went shopping at one of my favorite stores, Lowes! We picked up both the Cabinet Transformations® and Countertop Transformations® kits that we are using as well as paint brushes, rollers, drop clothes, roller pans and more. The gentleman who helped us suggested that we do the counter tops first and the cabinets second. I think that I will follow his advise. While I don't think that it matters which I do first, I do think that doing the counter tops first is better as I can work on painting the cabinet doors while the counter top cures. However, since the counter tops take a week to "cure", it will mean some difficulty in having to be very careful around the counter tops when working on the cabinets.

I underestimated the amount of work that needed to be done in advance! I have a lot of cabinets filled with a lot of stuff. So that has given me a good opportunity to purge. I have already made one trip to Goodwill and have a new pile started. But regardless of whether I am giving it to Goodwill or keeping it, it all has to come out of the cabinets!

In order to keep track of the cabinet doors, when I was removing them, I took paper and mapped out my cabinets. I then lettered and numbered each door on the paper and transferred that letter/number combination to 2 pieces of painter's tape. One I attached to the door and the other to a plastic sandwich bag which contained the hardware for that door. This was something that was recommended on the Rust-Oleum website.

I also have to remove the built-in microwave oven/range-hood combination. I could leave the microwave where it is and paint the cabinets around it, however, then if it ever has to be replaced, the replacement may not cover the unpainted portion of the cabinets. And since that may happen before we sell the house, I don't want to worry about it later. Better to take the time to remove it and paint properly. Thankfully, I have the original installation instructions. So by reading it backwards, the DH and I should be able to safely remove it and replace it later after painting. By the way, this should be something that everyone does when installing anything in the home or putting any item together that has more than 2 or 3 parts. Keep a file folder or drawer that contains the original installation and/or assembly instructions. You may end up throwing them away 3 years after you get rid of the item, but they may come in handy at just the right time!

The DH is facing at least a week of cold meals. Ouch.

Got to get back to work. Happy remodeling!