Kitchen Update

For a while now I have wanted to redo all or parts of my kitchen.  My house was build in 1954 and this was the original Jamestown metal kitchen.  The cabinets had been painted a couple of time by the original owners, I'm only the third owner.  But my house was so small I knew it wouldn't really be a matter of making it larger or adding more cabinets.  Just updating.  All the appliances stayed in the same spots, I just decided to give up a cabinet and add a dishwasher.

I also always had a problem with painting the kitchen because one wall in the kitchen continues down the hallway.  So there is no good break off point for stopping one paint color and starting another.  I got an idea from another gals blog that showed an easy way to do a faux paneling.  I could paint one color on the bottom part of the wall and then the upper color could continue down the hall.

Now after this tease I will put some photos up now the the big reveal is still coming.

This was the old kitchen, please excuse the new fridge which was too tall to fit under the old over the fridge cabinet.  All in all it was a serviceable kitchen.

This was the small eat in area between the back door and the living room doorway or hallway.

And my lovely yellow faux leather formica counter top.  In '54 I'm sure this was a styling kitchen.

This shot is the north wall to the left is the back door or the stairway to the basement.

Little did I know when I started in May that I probably should have started in March.  Never realized so many decisions were needed.  Do I get the farmhouse sink I had wanted? or at $1,200 do I settle for an undermounted sign for half the price and get the countertops I really wanted.  Flooring, faucets, appliances, cabinets,cabinet hardware, stain colors, paint colors, lighting fixtures, wheew, what did I get myself into?

Once the new cabinets came,10 weeks because of my guy at MPC going on vacation and not placing the order and then a week of shut down at the cabinet factory, it only took about 4 hours to rip out the old cabinets.  Can you kind of tell they were smokers?  Despite problems with the cabinet vendor I was very pleased with my general contractor, Greg McKay and with the subs, electrician and plumber that he brought in.   I guess I can show the panel detail on one wall to give you an idea of what we came up with.

 Still haven't gotten my glamour shots, will have to do that this week.

She lives......

No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth.  Just has been a really, really busy couple of months.  Fabric dying, a quilting retreat, a whole kitchen remodel and now possibly rheumatoid arthritis. Boy, since 40 it has seemed to be patch, patch, patch.  Oh well I guess any time you wake up on the top side of the grass is a good one.

Thought I would begin by finishing pictures of the dying session the Variable Star group did this summer.  Previous post shows the colors samples we had to choose from.  I tried a few new colors and this time got smart and marked on the selvage of the fabric the number and color.  Here are the colors I did this time.

My china reds turned out pink but otherwise the colors were ok.  I like the mottled look and am always happy with what ever color comes out because I don't pay as close attention to timing as I should.

This year I decided to try to "tray" dye some fabric.  Problem #1, finding trays without spending money.  Solution: I took a couple of old window screens and wrapped them with saran wrap so they would hold the dye.  This is what it looked like wet.

Two things I wish I had done was but the fabric the exact size of the screen and stretched it out instead of leaving the air folds in it.  Where the fabric and dye were in direct contact it took very good, but of the 2 I did both turned out pretty interesting.  On one I threw some kosher salt on it while it was still wet which gave it an interesting effect.  Here are the pieces when dry.

Detail of salted area.

Melanie, Claudia and Wendy.

Roxie on right and her sister

Carole, Beckie and Pam waiting to get started.

This year we dyed on a Saturday so we had all day to work which was nicer than when we have done it on an evening when we didn't get started until 6 or 6:30 pm.  We always agree it was great fun and we'll do it again as long as our dying guru, Wendy will agree.

Tomorrow, photos of kitchen remodel.  I got rid of my cable tv which has been out of order for 3 weeks, and now I'm amazed how long the evenings are.

Promise not to be AWOBL (absent with out blog leave) again.