Poly-POO!

Today I FINALLY got the polyurethane on the laundry room cabinets.  I used Minwax water based wipe on poly...and let me tell you...I was not impressed.  Usually water based poly is crystal clear (which is what I wanted since I painted the cabinets super white) and low and behold...now the cabinets have a yellow hue.  UGH!  SOOOO frustrating!!  Had I known that was going to happen I would have just used the regular wipe on poly which I love!  I swear...we are not meant to have a nice looking laundry (clutter) room!!  Kade still hasn't gotten the crown moulding up on the top of the cabinets, so I just poly'd up to my top piece of trim, and will paint & poly the crown and the "add on" as soon as they are up.  I've gotta just keep moving forward and try to get SOMETHING done!

Here's a good shot of what I left unfinished.

You can see the yellowish hue in this pic.  I think I may have to put something in the back of the cabinet with open shelves so it's not quite so yellow looking.  Hmm...something else to think about :)

I can't wait to see how it all looks with the crown.  I think that's really going to pull it all together!

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt to spray the cabinet doors again with my new Harbor Fright HVLP sprayer.  I'm seriously thinking no matter how they turn out this time, it's just how they're going to have to be.  I've wasted entirely too much time on these doors!

 

A Rude Awakening!

That's right..I said RUDE!!  March 24th and we wake up to snow, snow and more snow!  It just kept coming down!  I'm so ready for spring this year!!

Look at it this morning!  The snow was just giant flakes coming down at top speed.

Of course we decided that we needed to run to the grocery store, lol!  Good thing it's only 5 minutes away.  Look how awful the road was.  Totally snow packed.

That car didn't make it!  These are the days that I am SOOOO glad that I drive a big 'ol truck with 4 wheel drive!

I will admit that it was KIND OF pretty :)  Love those cardinals out on the clothesline at my parents house.  There were probably 15 of them out there at lunch time!

 

Of course, I'm always a sucker for my brother.  He came home Friday and has been doing nothing but fishing since he got here.  How did I let him talk me into going out in this to take some pics of him???  I am SOOOO out of shape and I think I put on entirely too many clothes, lol.  It wasn't really that cold, just snowy, you should have heard my breathing by the time we got to the lake, lol.  Note to self...do more cardio and learn to breathe properly!

Here's a little time lapse of the snow today.  I think all in all we probably got 14".

10:45 AM

3:30 PM

7:00 PM

Now I'm ready for this to all melt so we can get back to the house to work!

One good thing did come of today though...I worked on my taxes.

Apparently it takes getting snowed in for me to get them done :)

A Little of this and a Little of that!

Today we're all working on different projects!  Kade and I are doing misc. stuff that needs to get done and Jeremy is back and installing crown moulding!

Dad came over for a visit and had to see just how Jeremy does crown moulding....

I'm pretty sure he was impressed. :)

There's Jeremy installing some crown.

 

Can I just say what a blessing air tools are!!  I can't imagine doing this with a hammer and nails! (but don't get me wrong...a hammer and nails still hold a strong place in the construction world!)

 

While I was walking around I noticed something...we are forever looking for pencils around here.  No matter how many I have...they never seem to be where we need them, and we always have to go on a hunt to find one.  See Kade's jacket hanging there on the rack?

See what's in it's pocket??  lol!  Nobody steals pencils like Kade does :)

I'm really hoping I've broken him of carrying them point down in the back pocket on his jeans though!

Kade and I finally switched out the two kitchen cabinets that had some issues in the finish (see below)

and we got the last little piece of countertop installed to the right of the stove.

Peeling paint...not good!

and doesn't that look like bristles under the finish?

Regardless....it's done...and they look great now!

Jeremy flew through the crown moulding today...he got at least half of it done.  Here's the master.

Master bath...where my clawfoot tub will be!! (can't wait)

Front bedroom...we've gotta get the casing on those windows FAST, lol! 

Middle bedroom.  I just LOVE that flooring.

Here's what we had to miss today  :(  The Harmans playing at

The Great Northern Bluegrass Festival in Schaumburg, IL.

We really wanted to go...but once again...the house had to take precedence!

One of these days we'll get to actually live again :)

Trim Painting

For months now all I've been thinking is HOW IN THE WORLD AM I GOING TO PAINT ALMOST 100 16' PIECES OF TRIM??  The task just seamed so daunting!  I had to get a few pieces done for the laundry room and it seriously took me like 3 hours to do 4 pieces...and to me they looked AWFUL!!!  Soooo...Jeremy to the rescue!  I was there to help...but of course, he's use to working alone...so he didn't need me at all! 

He used his airless sprayer again...

check out how much paint comes out at once...awesome!

I seriously need to find something that I can practice using our sprayer on...it looks so fun, lol!

At the end of the day...all, that's right, I said ALL of the trim (base, crown and casing) is painted and ready to be cut and installed!  So awesome!  Talk about a huge weight lifted off of my shoulders!

I'm thinking now we're going to have Jeremy come back and install the crown moulding.  Maybe he can just finish the rest of the house, lol.  JUST KIDDING!

Door Day!

So Kade is off at a conference in Vegas and I am determined to keep the progress moving while he's gone.  He left on Tuesday and will be back home around 10 o'clock tomorrow night.  Sooooo...I've enlisted the help of an old friend to come out and paint all of the interior doors and trim so we can get this show on the road.  We've been impatiently waiting for decent weather so that we can take the trim out and paint it...however Jan & Feb are NOT the prime months in Illinois to do that, lol!

Last night I worked in the basement to get it "cleaned" up so we can paint the interior doors down there.  Just for the upstairs alone we have 17 doors that need to be painted, yikes!

  So my old friend Jeremy came today, and brought his airless paint sprayer (did I tell you that I bought one, but am afraid to use it on a job that needs to be done so nicely?  I'm going to need practice before I start doing "fine" detail work) anyway...he took down all of the interior doors and carried them to the basement.  I actually felt kind of bad because they're all SOLID doors, and heavy as a mug!

He got two coats done on each side AND the touch up done today.  That sprayer is amazing.  Now I'm kind of looking forward to getting mine out and trying it sometime!  Maybe I'll spray the doors for the basement!

Look at them!  The color is actually just a bright white base from Sherwin Williams.  I just can't get in to the gray whites that they have everywhere!  They look so drab.

So now all of the doors are painted and Jeremy will be back tomorrow to paint all of the trim (and there is a TON of it).  The weather was actually pretty nice today...and tomorrow it's suppose to be even nicer.

I have to admit, while Kade and I haven't been good at letting ANYONE help us...it was really nice to watch Jeremy work and to know that something was getting done and Kade and I weren't having to do any of it, lol.  Is that wrong??

Cabinet Door Crazy!

Well the last few weeks have been trying that's for sure.  I just can't seem to get a good coat of paint on these cabinet doors for the clutter room.

Can you see those little bubbles?

They are on every single cabinet door.  SO IRRITATING!!

So finally Wednesday I had just had it....

I sat on the floor in the basement and sanded smooth every.single.cabinet.door that I had spent so much of my time on over the last few weeks.

Most of them look comparable to this now  :(

So tonight I spot primed all of the backs of them..

tomorrow I'll do the front side and sand them smooth again.

I still can't believe that it has come to this!

I've got them SUPER SMOOTH now.  I'm not even going to attempt to use that Wagner Control Max sprayer again...at least for this project.  Gerrrr! 

So I have researched all types of paint sprayers...and I've ordered the Graco X5 and a different type of HVLP sprayer.  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to get a finish that I'm happy with.

I would have never thought I'd have so much trouble with this step.

I can tell you one thing for sure...I am TIRED of priming, painting and sanding these cabinet doors!!

Here's to a brighter tomorrow!