Painting the Kitchen Cabinets Saga

It's been a very long process, but I'm about to see the finish line as I continue painting the kitchen cabinets.  Here are the stages I've gone through:

1.  Wash cabinets

2.  Sand lightly

3.  Fill holes

4.  Drill new holes for new hardware

5.  Wash again to make sure no saw dust remains

6.  Cover knot holes with knot hole sealer

7.  Caulk

8.  Apply one coat of sealer

9.  Apply two coats of paint

Rick picked up a second gallon of paint for me the other day and told the salesman that I would do a commerical for their Benjamin Moore Advance Satin paint because I love it that much.  Brush strokes level out and you are left with a very smooth finish.

I'm seriously in love with this paint! 

This cubby is for my new white microwave but is temporarily housing items from across the room.

Here the bottom cabinets were finished and I was about to tackle the top cabinets.  My husband loved the knotty pine cabinets and I liked them too, but they were in pretty bad shape.   He does admit that they look much better now.  See all those pesky knot holes I had to seal.  If you don't apply knot hole sealer they will bleed through the paint.  I know this from experience.

Everything from the top is now stored below. 

That black dishwasher is headed out as soon as I sell another large painting. 

I'm loving this new cottage look with the white paint.

The only thing left is to finish up painting the doors.

I'm lining drawers and shelves with the red and white check liner.

Only one more coat of paint on my doors tomorrow and then three days to dry before putting them back up.  With a 16 hour dry time between coats of paint,  it becomes a very long process.  Hopefully next week I can put everthing back and share the completed project with you. 

I hope to be back to painting on canvas again next week!

Catherine Holman

Garden Whimsy and Plain Hard Work

Recently I noticed the seat on my bicycle that sits in my garden was looking more than a little shabby.  With all the colorful yarn that I keep stashed in a basket, I decided to crochet a slip cover.  It blends in so nicely that it's hard to tell the flowers from the seat cover.

The basket on my bike is full to overflowing with blooms!  I used the "bloom" tool on Picmonkey to edit these two photos.



As for the hard work mentioned in the title, I'm painting my kitchen cabinets.  In this photo I have primed and today I got one coat of paint on this section including all the doors and drawers.  I can't put the second coat on until tomorrow because it needs to dry for 16 hrs. before a second coat.  This is the most amazing paint, unless something happens between now and the next coat.  I'm using Benjamin Moore Advance Waterborne Alkyd.  It's hard like an oil, but cleans with soap and water.  It also smooths out beautifully with very few brush marks.  There is almost no smell too!

Don't you just love the harsh lighting from the bare bulbs!  Remember the light fixture episode from an earlier post.  We are still looking for a new glass shade replacement.  I also plan to spray paint those brass fixtures if I don't have to replace them. 

What's for supper honey?

Catherine Holman



Hey Sweetie, You Are The Frosting On My Cupcake

I did this painting a while back and never finished it.  The print is now available in my Etsy and Ebay stores.

Today was the perfect timing for this print because, my blog readers are the best!  You sweeties, are the frosting on my cupcake.  Your comments on my last post made me feel better about myself and the fact that I hadn't burned the house down even though my memory is failing me horribly. Thinking of all ten of my blog readers when the phone is ringing constantly day in and day out with recorded campaign messages that keep getting left on my machine and that tiny little beep from downstairs letting me know there is another in a long line of campaign messages waiting for me to make the long treck down the stairs once again to delete it; yes, you my blog readers make me smile and remind me that God is good and I have a lot to be thankful for.

My name is Catherine Holman and I appreciate your support and I approve this long run on message.

Burning Down The House or How to Get Your Kitchen Thoroughly Cleaned in One Day

Do you multi-task? I used to be able to do several things at the same time running here and there, picking up this, dusting that, baking a cake, and on and on…..

Well yesterday I had been outside early moving the sprinkler from spot to spot making sure everything was getting watered thoroughly due to this infernal heat wave and I came back inside to make some toast. I slathered my bread with butter, placed it on some foil, and put it in the oven under the broiler. I prefer this method over a toaster. Then out of the blue I get this hair brained idea that I need to quickly run outside and turn off the sprinkler. I then proceed to weed some of the flower beds, water the potted plants and then clean up my new hosta bed removing all the dead leaves that this weather has fried. Feeling pretty proud of myself over the amount of work I had just accomplished, reality of the situation set in. In plain English this means my husband was yelling out the back door, “Are you trying to burn the house down”, as he choked on the smoke billowing out into the morning air. It still took me a minute or two for it to register that I had toast in the oven under the broiler. Luckily we have a privacy fence or the neighbors would have been enlightened to this situation as well. We threw open the windows, enlightening all the neighbors as the smoke rolls out turned off the stove, and then turned around to see all the ash and soot that had settled on everything in the kitchen. I slowly opened the stove door and there was my soot filled oven and charcoal briquette toast. My husband was trying to explain to me that he could have been burned to death while taking a shower. Now, I ask you, “Is that even possible?” Anyway to make a long story short and a day of dusting and cleaning really long, I spent the day cleaning my oven the old fashioned way, by hand. Have you ever tried to set a gas oven to self cleaning when the temperature outside is triple digits?  Not wanting to add that to my list of developing problems for the day, I then dropped my favorite Anthropology small, green bowl that holds my scrubby into the cast iron sink and broke it. Then not to be out done by that last little drama, one of the glass shades from my ceiling light fixtures slipped through my hands while putting it back up. That couldn’t have happened to it before I went to the trouble of washing the blackened grime from it.   

I now have one very clean kitchen and one ceiling light fixture with bare bulbs and no shade. Just don’t look up when you come over for coffee.  I'll be sitting today with my leg elevated with an ice pack from the muscle I pulled.

P.S. I really would like to thank everyone for their kind response to the previous post on our dog, Annie. She drew her last breath on July 26^th and will be sadly missed by her loving family. 

Catherine Holman