Memorial Day Weekend

Since the last time I've posted Joey has put a couple more coats of joint compound on the ceiling and the wall. The initial area of the wall he started on is now ready to be primed! It is finally nice and smooth and looks like a normal wall. I'll post a picture after it's been primed, but here he is finishing it up:

The ceiling still needs a coat or two, but it is getting close.

We did find another spot on the ceiling and one on the wall that also need fixed, so he put the first coat on those spots today. Here is what he did on the wall...

Step 1: Have a patch of wall that is damaged. Like so.

Step 2: Cover with fiber glass mesh tape.

Step 3: Apply joint compound. Repeat until smooth, allowing for 24 hours between coats.

Step 4, as I learned today, is to NOT stick your figure in the middle of the joint compound that your husband just finished smoothing out. Oops.

 I said the other day that Megan pulled a bunch of cabinets and drawers out and removed all the hardware. I really meant she pulled a ton off... seriously....

That is 6 drawers and around 8 or so doors. Megan is a rockstar.

One of the backs of the drawers was originally made out of a tomato carton. I think that this is awesome.

All of the drawers had liner in them. So, I pulled it out of all of them (to be replaced or painted later, or both until I make up my mind). I went ahead and primed the drawers today because Joey had time to sand most of the doors and drawers! I also primed the edges of all of the doors that were sanded today. Yay teamwork!

I also had time to get a bit more priming done on the walls in the kitchen. I started priming the trim as well. I left this board untouched for now, because Joey's height was marked on here when he was 7, 8, 9, and 10 years old. It's too cute to cover up until I've at least transferred it to paper. But, all of the other trim around this door is now primed and ready for paint!

I'll make a post soon about some of the treasures I found while going to garage sales and antique stores this weekend. I found some great stuff that will go great in the kitchen when it's finished! 

I hope everyone had a great holiday weekend!

Assorted Doings

Today was a fairly random workday. Not many pictures to show, but here's what was done!

1. Joey did another layer of joint compound on the ceiling and wall.
2. Megan pulled the rest of the cabinets off and removed the hinges and handles. She also took most of the drawers out and removed the hardware on them too.
3. I did a couple more coats of Vermont Cream on all of the cabinet doors that I've been working on. 
4. I filled a few old nail holes.
5. I removed the baby gate hardware off of two door frames.

Now for a couple of pictures! This is the reason why I want to paint the ceiling in the kitchen so badly! Just a coat of white paint will brighten up that room so much!

So, without further ado, the "before" pictures of the ceiling!

The "after" pictures will be up in a few days. Each layer of the joint compound takes 24 hours to dry before the next layer. It still needs at least two more layers to fix the damage, so it'll be at least three days before I can begin painting the ceiling.

Real Paint and Beginning the Ceiling

I haven't updated in awhile, but I have been working! Not much of it has been interesting enough to take pictures of though! I don't want to put pictures up of the real paint that I'm putting on until all the coats are finished. I don't want to bore anyone with multiple pictures of basically the same thing.

This is the closest match that I could find to the white I'm using. It's called Vermont Cream and it's perfect! It's hard to see on here, but it's the best I can do for now!

And these are the other two colors we're using in the house:

For the bedroom, living room, and bathroom.

This is called Spring Hill.

For the kitchen, study, and hallway.

And this one is Yacht Harbor.

Here's a list of what has been done that does not yet have pictorial proof:

1. Coats of paint on all the cabinet doors that have been sanded. (Some cabinet doors are still unsanded and some are still attached with the hinges.)
2. Coats of paint on the corner cabinet shelf.

 And here is what has been going on in pictures!

My sweet peas are popping up! No sign of my wildflowers yet, but I'm pretty excited about the sweet peas.

The strawberries died a tragic death in a mowing related accident, but we did get some sugar baby melons and zucchinis planted today.

I forgot to take a "before" picture of the ceiling, but here is a during picture! The ceiling was not flat and we needed to redo the joint on the dry wall. Here is the mess Joey made while doing the first coat of joint compound!

And here is Joey (finally doing some work!) As you can see, the ceiling is a delightful (not) shade of gray. We have to fix this joint problem before we can paint it, but I've purchased the paint and I should be able to paint it this week after the joint compound dries and the other layers have been applied and dried!

The first coat of joint compound is up and working on drying! We'll do the next coat tomorrow!

 Here is the before picture of this wall. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of it after I primed it, but use your imagination! You can't see all the damage on this wall from this picture, but Joey is working on patching all that up too!

This is right next to the stove. The same thing was happening here... the joint in the drywall was separating. I haven't primed behind the stove yet, but to the left of the stove to the door is all primed!

Right next to the light switch there was a hole in the wall. Joey patched this up too! The first coat is on, but it still needs several coats and some sanding.

This is the long awaited picture of the kitchen without the dated scalloped hanging above the sink! Yay modernization! It looks so much better in here without the scallops!

This doesn't technically have anything to do with the house, but I will be hanging it up in the house when we move in! It's a rose I made out of book pages. I'm making a wreath out of a couple hundred of these. It's going to be beautiful!












Some people have asked me if I'm really doing all of this work... the answer is yes, pretty much! I have time during the day while Joey is at work so until today I've been doing almost everything myself. My brother helped take cabinet doors down and remove some hardware and Megan helped me prime the cabinet doors, the corner cabinet, and a wall. Other than that though, it's all been me! Luckily Joey is done with school for the summer now and can help me in the evenings and on weekends again!
Thanks to everyone who has helped so far! It's been greatly appreciated!