I know…2 blog entries in 2 days.  What is the world coming to???  Actually, with company on the way, progress on the mountain house is happening in large chunks, so there is so much to show and tell…

Exactly two weeks ago, on a soggy Monday, Dad was bored and wanted a new challenge, so he decided to start working on the kitchen cabinets.  In an early blog, I mentioned that the cabinets in this house were very white and very pastic-looking.  When we realized that the plastic shells on the cabinets were easily removed, we raced to pull them off, before taking a picture of the “Phase 1” look.  Then I realized that the realtor pics of the house were probably still on the internet.  I struck gold on one site, and pulled down all of the shots that were available, including this one, that sort of says it all:

Underneath the plastic “overcoats” were MDF doors on white melamine frames.  We lived with that look (known as Phase 2), for a while, but it was not very uplifting.

So when we decided to refinish them, the good news was that MDF paints beautifully.  The bad news, however, was that the residual glue that adhered the plastic shells, had to be removed by hand-scraping  before they could be painted.  That was a really tedious and strenuous task, and Dad bravely put his back into it.   I tackled the painting: 2 coats, and a stainless steel rubdown on each piece.  We wondered if we could finish the project by the holidays. In total, we had 54 doors and drawer fronts to redo.  It turned out to be such a hideous project.   To relieve our misery, we completed all of the work in 2 weeks…right before a holiday (Halloween!)

For months, Dad kept asking me what color I had chosen for the cabinets. To his dismay, the answer never changed:  BLACK!   Frankly, it wasn’t my first choice, but I couldn’t figure out what else to do.  With green walls, black and stainless
cabinets, red (chipped) laminate countertops, wood floors and ceiling, and white cabinet frames, introducing a new color was not an option.  So I decided to just take a leap of faith.  We decided to work on the hutch wall first.  If the black seemed too overpowering, we could try to do a different finish on the remaining cabinets.  To our (Dad’s & Greg’s) amazement, we really liked the results:

Here is a shot of the new stove surrounded by the new paint job.  Now, to be perfectly honest, the cabinets are still crappy, and now that they are black, when the doors don’t line up, or a drawer is “woppy-jawed” (which is usually the case!), it is much more noticeable.  But at least they are clean and the look is “new” to us.  The next phase will include an island in the middle of the floor, and hopefully, new countertops and backsplashes!

Before I sign off, I need to share 2 pictures of my favorite scarecrows from the Ellijay “Scarecrow Invasion”.  Dad said downtown will be a sad place once they are all removed on Oct. 31 .  I told him the Christmas decorations would probably immediately take their place, and he felt better about that.

This lady reminds me of me:  a middle-aged, overweight gardener, and a fashionista at that!  If you magnify the picture, you will see that she wears bright pink patent leather heels to work in!

This pair reminds us that the Christmas Cookie Walk  happens in mid-December.  Aren’t they just a hoot?   They give me a case of the FA-LA-Las!

‘Til next time….