my mother's day

I think I may have just had the most productive three weeks of my entire life. Almost every minute of every day was spent being busy, not that I necessarily enjoy that. I have this dumb vinyl lettering WORD up in my kitchen, and I'm fairly certain it will be coming down as soon as I get to it. SIMPLIFY. Who ever thought that was a likely option?! Why on earth did I put that on my wall?

When we first moved into our house 4 years ago I was so thrilled to have a non-carpeted kitchen, a pantry, room for a dining table AND a breakfast nook, and a built-in microwave. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I didn't mind the 70s tile backsplash or the 80s appliances. Well, as time went on, and as I got really into home decorating and design, I started to get irritated with my kitchen. I think that when this custom kitchen was installed 26 (?) years ago it was probably really nice. I knew it was time to make a change but since I'm frugal to a fault sometimes and since I clearly forgot about my recently discovered preference for "hiring out," I came up with the crazy idea to remodel it ourselves. So off we went.

I starting faithfully saving money after Christmas for the remodel. And my poor husband...I know he loves me because he took time off work (shocker #1) during the kids' spring break to help me. So he took work off...to work. And he sincerely only complained a few times.

Let me just say that there were a few things that saved us:
*A nice commercial paint sprayer that a dear friend offered to let us use. We returned the not-as-nice one we had bought.
*A lifesaver of a neighbor who was up in our attic re-wiring for hours, and then hooking things up inside the house as well.
*Amazing paint (it better have been amazing for what it cost!)
*Sanding blocks
*Stainless steel appliance film. Wonderful, that stuff.
*Understanding that everything in life is negotiable (granite included).
*And of course, HGTV.

What we would do differently:
*Come up with a better way to drill holes for handles so that it doesn't take 8 hours and a LOT of frustration (and a couple slightly un-straight handles).
*NOT use the paint sprayer inside the house at all.
*Not attempt this with a needy baby around.
*Hire a painter. (I say that...but we really did all this for not a whole lot of money so I don't know if I mean it. Ask me in a few weeks.)

So, here is what it looked like before... (as Mark was taking that annoying in-the-way cabinet out, and as Spencer was in the attic loosening the bolt that was holding it in.)

This once-popular wallpaper made an appearance. Hmmm...hello 60s! I truly love that I got to see that.

And although the angle is different, here is what it looks like now. Clean, bright, and white.

We aren't entirely done; we still need to do the glass tile backsplash and add the beadboard and crown molding, but it is functional, beautiful, didn't cost a whole lot, and Spencer and I still love each other.  Complete success! And Happy Mother's Day to me. Probably the best one ever.
("Simplify" - what a joke. I'm off to pull that down.)