T-Minus Six Days.......

 OK, here's the rub. I cannot get any of my Iphone pics to go thru when I try to email them to myself. I can email them to everyone else, but I have tried all three of my email accounts and they will not go through. I have looked in the spam and trash and they are not there. Rrrrrrr. So I will try to tell you this story without those pics. I will get the phones off my phone tomorrow by emailing them to my daughters, then I'll be able to tell you more of the background on this crazy story. For tonight, we'll start with the above picture. This is how our kitchen looked when we moved in two years ago. That is all the cabinets there were. They were horrible. Really. There was not a single appliance and only the very very shallow sink.  

 I took the doors off of one set of the cabinets and kept them seasonally decorated, hoping that people would look at that little set of cabinets and not anything else. Then about two or three weeks ago, I found a half-used can of chalkboard paint. (You'll get a pic of this tomorrow.) I took the can and began spraying the ugly backsplash in my kitchen. It's not like I could ruin it, so I wasn't too worried. 

 In the picture above you can see where I spray painted the backsplash. I am not kidding you when I say that simple act made things look better. So, I told the Hubs I was going to paint the top of our (10 ft.) walls and asked him if he would put beadboard on the bottom party. Surprisingly he agreed without a lot of coaxing. So I bought a can of gray paint  and painted the top of the walls. 

 Just so you know, all the pictures you are looking at were taken today except for the first two pics. OK, back to the story. The beige/taupe/khaki paint that had been in the ugly kitchen was fine. It's not like it was a horrible color. But they did use the same paint to paint the three or four cabinets too. That was a big ugh. So anyway, I painted the walls with the new paint and we began putting beadboard up. Then the Hubs decided to install the new kitchen door that we had had just propped in the kitchen for over a year. (It is the black door in the pic a few up). If you scroll back to the top, you will notice that there had been a window there previously. So we had to tear out part of the wall to make it a door. Plus the windows at our house are huge, so we (the Hubs did it, but I offered "kind" advice), had to fill in above the door. Then I decided to paint the door black. Good grief. I didn't know it would take 4 or 5 coats. 

 See that old kitchen door above? Tomorrow it will be no longer. It is getting taken out and walled in. We will have the new kitchen door that is on a totally different wall. Now we will be able to either put more cabinets where the old door was, or move that fridge over there. Yes, that is correctly. I am not sure yet which we will do. 

 Well there is even more to this story. Out in our garage, we had been hoarding some new (to us) kitchen cabinets we had bought on Craigslist. Ummmmm, let's see. They were only sitting out there for almost two years. Yes, we get in a hurry here! Also in that garage was a brand new paint gun that we had bought two (or more) years ago. So two weeks ago, (just a day or two after I spray-painted the backsplash) we took the cabinets out to the carport, took the spray gun out and used the paint we had bought (yes, you know what's coming) almost two years ago. Miracle of all miracles, it was a beautiful day in Oklahoma, and there was not a speck of wind. We (again, the Hubs with my kind advice) painted all afternoon and got them all done. I do want to say here, that I (kindly) suggested he paint the sides as well since he was painting the inside and outside and he (ohsokindly) assured me the sides wouldn't matter. Wrongo!! See the lower cabinet with the black knobs? We had also bought that in a previous Craigslist purchase, and I actually did paint that two years ago and we had moved it inside and were using it. You can see the old upper cabinets still in place. We placed the new ones on top, so that no one would kick or knock them over and ruin the new paint job. And that is how my kitchen looked at about 4 this afternoon (Saturday). 

 Then suddenly, after our beloved Sooners lost to texas, the Hubs needed to work off some stress (from the game). What I failed to mention was a couple of nights ago at 8 in the evening, for no reason the Hubs took up one of the tiles on the kitchen floor. He found a wood floor under it. So he took up another. More wood. Then before I knew it we had ripped up the whole floor to discover fairly decent wood. So today at 4ish, the Hubs rented a belt sander and began sanding the floors. The pic above is our crazy dining room now because we had to empty all the lower cabinets so that we could sand the entire floor. I am not sure (still) why we needed to sand and stain under the cabinets, but the Hubs said we had to. (You'll notice a couple of black cabinets in the pic above). Those were also from the big set we bought two years ago and I actually had done them a couple of summers ago and we have used them around the stove. 

 Were you wondering what all that plastic was about everywhere? It was because we were covering as much as we could to keep the dust to a minimum. But really, when things are this much of a disaster, what's a little more dust? ha!

 Here is the floor after the first pass-through. Not bad. 

 Here is the floor after we had (spontaneously) taken the tiles up the other night. We have wood floors throughout the rest of the house, so this will be better. When they're done. 

 Then about 6ish, our son Luke had a cabinet dropped on his foot. That was inside a shoe. And it hurt. I mean it really hurt. He was brave though. 

 He did not want to go and have it looked at. But really, there is not much you can do to a broken toe. With no toe nail. That keeps bleeding. But to add insult to injury (literally) the only bandaids I had were OU bandaids. OUch. I kid, I kid. We still love our Sooners, despite their (poor) game. 

 So this is what my house looks like tonight. D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R!!!  New(to us) and freshly painted cabinets everywhere and the contents of the old cabinets everywhere. Oh my word. (The clothes actually go to the clothing-for-the-needy-dropbox tomorrow.) 

 Notice there are no lower cabinets in the pic above? Including that huge piece you saw earlier that I had painted a couple of years ago. I'm telling you, the Hubs insisted on getting every inch of that floor stripped. Then he decided to take down the old upper cabinets and install the new (to us) cabinets in place of the old ones. (Notice above the door where he patched in from the old window. I still need to paint that. Since we decided to do that AFTER I had painted the walls. Are you digging the color of the old walls? Hey, look at that chalkboard backsplash...It's still looking good!  It had better, since it set off this whole entire domino affect. 

 Dishes are everywhere. I rolled up the rug so we would quick tracking floor and sheetrock dust all over it. That was about the only sane thing I did. This is our office/study that is filled with dishes and cabinets. 

 This is the dining room filled with dishes, cabinets and appliances. 

 I forgot to mention all the extra help we had. Or maybe he was just trying to hide since his name is Boomer Sooner. Again, I jest. Those are the old cabinets he is in by the way. 

 Look!  At 10ish, we had totally bare walls and totally bare floors. Who would have ever guessed that when we woke up this morning? 

 Did I mention there are cabinet doors, dishes and tools in our den, as well? 

 Apparently I can't show you this view enough. Scary, huh? 

 So by 11ish, the big base cabinet that I had painted two years ago was back in place. Two of the new(to us) uppers were in place. The sink by this time had even been dismantled. And again, look at that chalkboard painted backsplash. Gotta love what one little can of spray paint can do....or cause! 

Those are the old cabinets on the left. Part of the new on the right. I need to paint behind where the icebox had previously been. I promise the old cabinets are not half as good as they look. I had given the uppers a coat of white paint and that helped them, but they still need work. And this is how the kitchen looks as I type this after midnight. It has a long way to go. Not to mention cleaning up everything and putting it back in the new (to us) cabinets. And I did not even mention that we did something in the living room today. And that I totally emptied the laundry room (hence the goodwill clothes), and are doing something in there too. More pics to come (probably at midnight or later) over the next five days.

And why five days you ask? Well were you wondering about the title of this post, "T-minus 6 Days?"  Because in 6 days I am hosting a shower for my nephew and his soon-to-be-bride. Not. Even. Kidding. Did you fall out of your chair? Well, you read it correctly. I am hosting a shower at my house next Saturday.

ohmyword. 

I agree.

Let's say it again.

ohmyword.

So you can follow along for the next six days to see how I get this done. This should be interesting!

I've got a few jobs to do, then I need to get some shut-eye for another big day tomorrow.

Come back and see what else we do!