last weekend my parents were here helping with paint prep in the kitchen. (left) my dad masked off the cabinets with plastic and tape. (right) my mom vacuumed trim, walls and floor.
(left) here i’m caulking the gaps in this cabinet. (right) on that corner just below my knee in the previous photo, mathew added this little bit of chair rail. he felt like the wall/corner just needed something. only a perfectionist would do something like this!
(left) after prepping the room we sealed off all the openings so the paint spray and fumes would be contained in the kitchen. here mathew is painting primer on the walls.
before they left, my parents helped me move some of my office furniture from my temporary office (my grandmother’s future living room) into my office. after my grandmother moves in we’ll be working on my office next. it will be a challenge since we won’t have any more spare rooms to store furniture in while we work. we’ll probably have to move everything into the center of the room and cover it like we did with the refrigerator in the kitchen.
(right) later that night i painted the remaining unpainted wall in the temporary office/living room. because the kitchen was sealed off getting to the garage became a challenge, we couldn’t just walk down stairs from the kitchen we had to go through the back yard or front yard first, luckily there are multiple ways of getting into the garage. but things like getting a paint brush, a ladder or the mail became difficult, but that only lasted a few days.
on sunday my dad worked on the door that goes on that tall cabinet in the kitchen that i was caulking the day before. (left) the family that used to own this house had 5 kids and the boys seemed to enjoy working on old cars, especially chevys. we know this because the inside of the cabinet door had labeled hooks. we like all these old clues about the previous life of this house but it will probably look better to remove this one. (right) my dad sanding the door after all the hooks were removed.
while my dad worked on the door my mom and i sanded and scraped the door that connects the kitchen and the laundry room. it’s the last door we’ll be refinishing. we’re pros at this now.
mathew attaching this medallion to the kitchen ceiling. mathew has gone medallion crazy, he loves them and wants them everywhere. this one was actually a gift from our friends jennifer and doug. they had it left over from their remodel and gave it to us when we had brunch with them the weekend before. they were happy it was going to a good home and we were happy because we got a medallion for the kitchen!
i wanted to paint the kitchen an off white beige, similar to what had already been there. mathew wanted a warmish yellow similar to what we have in the entry and hall. what did we do? mathew took a couple gallons of leftover white and yellow paint from previous rooms, added 20 drops of red acrylic art store paint and this is what we got, sort of a lighter version of what’s in the hall. not exactly what either of us wanted but cheerful and close enough. and the price was right. (right) we’re still not sure what to do about this crazy orange lamp. i suggested painting it a different color or getting a new one. we’ll see… this house is full of color!
