Katie's Kitchen Nightmare (ok. not really.)

No, we haven't finished the trim for the dinning room yet. It's 10 freaking degrees outside. It's 50 degrees inside because our December heating bill was quite a shock. (We had lots of guests and kept the heat above 60 degrees more than usual.)

It's hard to remember what life was like 2 short weekends ago, before the permanent icicles took up residence in the rose bushes, but we actually had a bit of a heat wave. It was 60 degrees. Alex and I ate lunch out on the patio at a new restaurant. And, for the first time in a while, I made some house progress. I knew it'd be warm enough to leave windows open, so I started in on the kitchen project.

Yes, it's breaking my rule about finishing one room before starting another, but my desperation was reaching critical levels. I needed to see dramatic action. And I did!

First step was to clear off everything from the kitchen counters. That's a bigger job than it sounds like, since I don't have enough cabinet room to store dry goods, so they are all out in jars on the counter. At first, the pile of stuff in the dining room looked nice and home-y, like I cook a lot more than I actually do.

But once the appliances entered the picture, things got cluttered and ugly. I have to keep all appliances out on the counter too, since every single shelf in my cabinets is the same height, and there is less than 9 inches between shelves. It's madness. Sheer madness, I tell you!

So then it was down to business. I couldn't be bothered to remove the doors, since it seemed like a lot of work and I wanted the hinges to be white anyway. In hindsight, that was a mistake. The thick, glossy kitchen paint shows every brush stroke, so you have to get every line perfectly straight. On the side with the hinges, that becomes virtually impossible. Furthermore, paint just peels off hinges anyway, so a few weeks later, they are looking quite mangy. I'll have to strip the hardware later or, the more likely option, get over it.

I didn't get to all the cabinets, but I did sand and paint three coats on all the top cabinets, which are the most work anyway. No knobs yet, but I'm going for red.

The room already seems brighter and happier.

I also took the door off the dish cabinet so guests know where to get everything. Serve yourself, that's what I say. 

Next warm day I hope to do a bit more, but frankly, this semester is bananas at work. It took me two good weeks AFTER I took these pictures to post them. Drips still aren't scraped off the range. I'm a mess.