Home Improvements

Jason just had his last break of the year so I kept him busy. Mainly it was all about the home improvements. But, as seen in the previous post we also had Kyle's first birthday. Since I forgot to take before pictures of our kitchen, you'll have to put up with a couple more party pictures so that I can show you my Oh So Be-A-Utiful walls. (YUK!)

You saw this one before, BUT did you notice the walls?

We had one wall that must have once supported cabinets or been where another wall ended because it was all wonky and patched up. We ended up giving up on it and just knocked it down. Then Jason put up new drywall, that's why you can see a raw drywall wall in the background with the patch from the screws and seams. Not so pretty.

On the opposite wall was this mess...
(not the party people- the wall. love you guys!)

Thankfully this was was somewhat salvageable but it was also patched up and the seams from the drywall were pretty visible as well as what may have once been a chair rail. We patched up the spots and then did a light layer of patch, sanded it and WA LA! An ugly, but smooth wall.

So, that was the before. THIS was the during.... (Yes, I was going in-SANE!)
But finally, I have a new shiny paint job in my kitchen and I kinda just want to sit in there staring at it all day. I LOVE the crown molding that Jason put up himself (Superman!) note:we haven't painted the ceiling yet so please ignore that part.
And the baseboards, ahhhhhh so pretty.
We used a slightly darker paint for the walls so that the molding would stick out a bit but still kept it really neutral. I'm a bit non-committal about decor and we may not be here forever so we wanted to keep it neutral.
It's so BRIGHT!
I have to say, it's definitely making me keep the kitchen clean. I just can not allow myself to leave anything out of place. Though, I'm sure in a little while I'll get sick of the "clean" feeling and start seeing it as "Plain" instead so I'd love some decorating advice.

p.s. there's a reason you don't see the cabinets in these pics. We haven't done anything with them yet. We don't have the budget to replace them but they are definitely NOT attractive. I just have to decide to paint or stain or... Something! That's for sure. I'll keep you posted. But for now... I just love it!

Another update on the state of my Kitchen

What do you think? Should we keep it this way?
If your wondering what in the heck we are thinking with this awful paint job, don't worry. It's not paint.

It's actually patch. Our walls were terribly textured. I'm not sure I can even describe it. There was texture in some spots and not others. There were holes that had been roughly filled. There were big bumps along every seam in the drywall. We knew that when we painted over the poopy green with a nice soft color these bumps would stick out terribly so we decided to smooth it all out. In the case of the far wall, we actually ended up tearing it down completely and re-drywalling it. The rest of the walls we are just going to coat in patch and sand down to make them nice and smooth. It might look terrible now but I'm actually starting to get excited. I can already tell how much brighter the whole area is with the green covered up. It is slow going though and until we can get it all done I'm afraid I'm going to have to deal with a constant coating of dust throughout the house. Yuck! Hopefully this goes quickly.