So, have you wondered where I have disappeared to? Or did you just not notice my absence?
I've been gallivanting.....sort of....if you call driving back and forth across the state at a frequent rate gallivanting. I've been home for precisely 2 days in the last 12.
My days have involved working on my in-laws house to make it more attractive to a potential buyer. Marty's parents moved to an assisted living home the first week of January, and as I'm sure many of you are quite familiar, the homestead must be sold. It's not an easy process for those who grew up in the home, because nearly every nook and cranny hold some sort of special memory.
But, I'm the in-law, and although I am sensitive to the emotions behind cleaning out the house, and I have carefully packed up many of the special items for the family to go through sometime in the future, I have agreed to tackle the renovations required by the realtor who came through and critiqued what was needed to add some allure to this special home.
First on the list: redo the kitchen. Here's what I walked into just about 2 weeks ago:
Actually, I remembered to take a photo after I started taking down the wallpaper above the cabinets, in case you were wondering.
The realtor suggested removing the wallpaper and the paneling and painting the walls and cabinets.
Ok, I could see her point. The kitchen looked dark, and the cabinets were definitely worn. After all, this was 50 years of everyday use, so that certainly could be expected.
I was up for the challenge. I got the wallpaper down in a day and a half. Not too shabby, right?
But, my glee would be short lived after I realized that liquid nails were used to install the paneling. After several hours attempting to get it off of the wall, I decided to put that project on hold and hand it over to Marty to take care of when he arrived for the weekend. (Smart thinking on my part, don't you think?)
It's not like there weren't plenty of other things to keep me busy. Those counter tops didn't clean off themselves, and those cabinets were still packed to the hilt with items that I needed to get out of them.
After packing up boxes and boxes of stuff, I transferred my energies to stripping the paper off the front hallway as well as the very LONG hall.
I'm not even going to begin to describe the effort that went into that paper removal. Let's just say that it took several days, even with my daughter helping me, and no one was happier than I when that was finished. Luckily, my brother-in-law was willing to do the final clean up and he even offered to paint the hall! No complaints from me on that, believe me!
Now, back to the kitchen.
Marty used a heat gun and a scraper to get off most of the hardened residue on the walls. He applied spackle and sanded. When I returned the following Wednesday, I applied another coat of spackle, and sanded again, resulting in a not-too-shabby looking wall.
A coat of ceiling paint, as well as a coat on the walls, and those ugly stripes were a distant memory!
On Saturday, my two children, Jim and Amy, showed up bright and early to help out with the renovations. How lucky are we? They had also showed up last month to help with a lot of repairs, shelf removal, packing, and the infamous removal of the piano, which was not as easy as one might presume. But half an hour later, it was out of the living room and sitting in the garage, thanks to the combined efforts of those two.
But, I digress once more. Oh, and both times, Amy showed up with Coffee, donuts, and lunch. Once again....could I ask for a better kid? I think not!
With the walls finished, Amy and I got right to work on the cabinets while Jim was installing the new ceiling fans.
Amy and I had decided to apply chalk paint to the cabinets after my good friend, Paulette, the decorating czar, had suggested it.
I purchased an additive that was mixed right into the paint instead of buying the pricier product.
Doors were down, and Amy and I were ready to tackle this part of the product. And just what WOULD Pope Francis do?
Pray and Paint....that's what I think!
In the meantime, let me mention, that when I removed the toaster oven that had been on the cookie sheet that was over a very large glass cutting board, I discovered this: cleverly hidden beneath all. You can well imagine my disappointment. What could we possibly do with that?
Discussing this dilemma over dinner, at 9:00 at night, Marty came up with a brilliant idea! Why don't we install a butcher block in that space? Now, I ask, how clever was that?
Jim took care of that as well.
We got a lot done on Saturday, but were nowhere near finished, so Marty and I decided to spend yesterday working as well, and I'm glad that I did!
The kitchen isn't quite yet finished, but only minor details remain.
And, here is a sneak peak at the nearly complete make-over:
How's that for bright and inviting?
While Marty was working on installing the new hardware, and painting the heating panels, I decided to tackle the adjacent room, all paneling, which, again, the realtor had told us needed painting.
After:
By this time, we really needed to call it a day as it was after 8:30 and we needed to get dinner.
That's when I realized something that never crossed my mind in the past. Restaurants close early on Super Bowl Sunday. Did you know that?
Well....at least in this place they did. And so, dinner was McDonalds. Not exactly my idea of a culinary treat, but, being my only option, I bit the bullet and ordered a chicken sandwich.
And a hot fudge sundae for dessert. Perhaps that wasn't such a bad deal after all!
