painting your kitchen cabinets

we started and finished this project so long ago.  let me say that painting your kitchen cabinets is not for the faint at heart.  you can certainly  hire someone to do this for you, but to save money my husband and i decided to do this ourselves.  my husband did most of the work and i love him dearly for the end result.  going black was a huge decision and a little risky but the end result is absolutely awesome and i couldn't be happier.  here is a break down of how we did it.

take all the cabinet doors off

sand down the doors and the shells.  this is a very important step.  you do not want to leave any finish on because the paint will not stick well.  in a kitchen you need a good base because of all the water and touching that goes on with cabinets.

then we applied two coats of primer if you are going dark tint the primer so you don't have to apply several coats of paint to cover a light shade of primer.  we also chose to spray on the paint to avoid the brush strokes look.  you can either get a sprayer attachment for your compressor which is what we did or you can buy and individual sprayer.

 

then we painted two coats of black paint.

to do the shells we taped off the whole kitchen and sprayed those as well.  it made a huge mess with over spray but the over spray did wipe off with a little elbow grease and soap.  you can take your shells off we just didn't want to mess with hanging them again.

we also applied wanes coating to the exposed exterior of the cabinets around the island and also on the upper cabinets.  this gave it a custom look as well as solved the problem of the outside of the cabinets not being paintable as they were not real wood.

once all was painted my husband applied three coats of polyurethane to the shells with a paint brush using long strokes, this did not leave any brush stroke marks and has given the cabinets a good protective layer from chipping.

once the shells were dry he hung all the doors back on and then applied three coats of polyurethane to them as well.

after all was dry we added our hardware and did the tile black splash.

the end result is a completely updated kitchen at the fraction of the cost one would have paid to have all new cabinets put in!

we got another pet or two....

logan made a pet rock at school today.  i am unable to even post a picture of it here because he is currently napping with his new little friend.  as we drove home this afternoon i hear logan say, "mommy brady is not being my friend."  i respond, "brady why aren't you logan's friend?"  i hear a quiet quivering voice in the back seat respond, "because logan did not bring me a pet rock."  sniff, sniff, sniff.........

i then suggest as any mother would, "brady can we find the perfect rock when we get home and make you a pet rock just like logan's?"  he responds, " that would be nice mommy."

once home we find the perfect rock, some sharpies in our drawer, a piece of felt for blankie and an old small gift bag for our pet carrier.

i wish all of life's problems were solved this easily.  for now i have two new pet's in my house and thank goodness they don't require water or food because we already have our fair share of those.  more importantly i have two little boys with smiles on their faces.  sometimes the simplest of things in life are just enough.

hoist the sails!

grandma and grandpa treated us to a pirate dinner show in anaheim.  it was quite the event.  the boys to my surprise sat through the whole thing and watched with amazement. while they were serving dinner they came around and handed out paper pirate hats to a select few little pirates.  brady got one and logan did not.  i didn't even think twice about it at the time.

as the show progressed they asked those with the paper hats to come up on stage.  we were team purple and our team purple pirate that we had been rooting for the whole show came by and snagged brady to go on stage.  they sang a song and took a pirate oath.  i was so proud of brady for going up on the stage with out a parent and with a lot of strangers.  he is so brave as a little pirate should be. then they dismissed all the little pirates off stage except for one.

my sweet little brady was asked to stay.  he was asked by the captain of the ship you see.  they asked him if he would go back to his parents and take all of their jewelry and return to the ship and give it to the captain.  in his sweet little voice i heard, "yes."

say hello to pirate brady!

take a moment

yesterday i took a moment and escaped from the heaviness that seems to be looming over our house.  i couldn't help but watch what was unfolding on our leaf and sun soaked front yard.  these boys have the most contagious laugh i know.  they diligently raked pile after pile of leaves together for the sole purpose of jumping and wrestling around in them.  life is short and when feeling overwhelmed or stressed about it, take the time to realize all that you have around you.  for in this moment i took yesterday i realized that family and these boys are the most important thing.  everything else will fall into place with just a little faith.

the happiest place on earth

a day spent at disneyland.

at the end of the day in the words of logey j, "this is the best day ever."

amen little man!

the girl with the mask

i have been reading a new book Grace For The Good Girl at a perfect time.  i can honestly tell you my life has not been that of a "good girl", but i follow emily's blog, chatting at the sky.  her messages are inspiring and her words captivating, so i picked up her book.  changes are happening in our household.  i am having a hard time wrapping my mind around them and wondering what our outcome will be.  i am the type of person that immediately wants to adjust everything "just in case" the worse happens.

growing up i did not have the childhood of most children.  a single mother who worked two jobs to make ends meet and a father who was no where to be found, nor did he want anything to do with me.  while reading the book i read a story of a friend of emily's.  one who had some rough times in her life early on.  as a result she wore a mask.  this mask enabled her to hide her fears and appear to be so put together on the outside.  she worked extra hard to prove to those around her she could achieve at a high level and conquer anything she put her mind to.  she trusted no one but herself to determine her life success.  i could not have read all of this at a better time.  i have been that girl most of my life.  mask up and working hard to prove to everyone around me that i could do it despite my early challenges in life and i did.

my past comes back to haunt me at challenging times in my life.  i lack the ability to trust anyone but myself, when i know i can trust others around me.  most of all i can trust my husband but it is so hard for me to sit back and let things unfold.  i want to run ahead and put a y in the road and then check both ways to see which will be the best to go down. do we stay on the current path or veer off to see what the other road holds?  i fear change, i fear the unknown, i fear risk.  change is not always bad, it can lead to great new opportunities. 

time for this girl to take the mask down, face her fears, open her heart and mind and believe that God has a plan for my family.  we just need to listen.....