The Kitchen Redo - Where Did All of This Stuff Come From?

We are making progress...

We are making progress...

We are making progress...

     I just keep repeating those words to myself over and over...and over again.

We are making progress...

Because of the fact that we are staining our cabinets and, therefore, everything has to pretty much be removed from the cabinets when Aaron is sanding them down to prep for the staining, I decided to do a clean out of my kitchen.

     Where did all of this stuff come from?

You know the kind... you find a lot of expired things that have been living in the back of your cabinets that you didn't even know were in there. Things that expired two and even three years ago.

     Oh - that doesn't happen to you? Yeah - me either...

Something else that doesn't happen to me - finding things that were given to us when we married that have never been used. Yeah - that doesn't happen to me.

 

Cool stuff I found as I was cleaning and perfect for fall!

 

Aaron has been a sanding and staining fool. He has now completely sanded all four doors from the laundry room, plus the base from the laundry room. He has also stained the cabinet doors and base.

 

Aaron busy staining some of the cabinet doors.

 

All that is left to do is put the polyurethane on them, "rough them up again" (his words - not mine, but apparently you have to lightly sand between coats), and apply one more layer of polyurethane.

Well, that is all that is left to do to finish the staining part. We've still got to paint the trim, paint the walls and ceiling, and figure out what we are going to put on the wall opposite the washer and dryer.

     ...and we haven't even really started in the kitchen!

 

The base cabinets in the laundry room.

 

A close up of the stain color.

 

We will be painting the trim black!

 

Two of the cabinets.

 

The other two cabinets .

(I promise...I didn't move them to a new location and take another picture)

Garage Sale - What?

I also decided, since I was already going through all of the stuff in the kitchen and coming up with a lot of stuff I didn't want to keep (where did all of this stuff come from?), but was still good, that I would do a garage sale.

 

     Yes - go ahead...call me crazy.

 

Not only, though, do I have all of my kitchen stuff, I have a lot of clothes that the girls can no longer wear. I had intended to take them to a place that purchases used clothes, but I had a bad experience doing that (another story for another time) and so I have a lot of baby stuff that would go in the garage sale as well.

 

So, not only am I cleaning out the kitchen, but, in the next couple of weeks, I will also be cleaning out and organizing the hall closet and the master bedroom closet.

 

     Yes - go ahead...call me crazy!

Kitchen - Cleaning and Organizing

So here are a few pictures of the kitchen as I have been cleaning it out and organizing it.

 

All that stuff on the floor will be in the garage sale!

 

These are the recipe books I'm selling.

 

These are the recipe books I'm keeping.

You'd think I like to cook.

In reality, I just like to collect recipe books and kitchen gadgets.

 

Pay special attention to the countertops.

 

Now look at 'em! Boy they clean up good!

Any bets on how long they'll stay like that?

 

I organized inside all of my cabinets...

 

...and drawers.

 

I moved the area where I chop and prep food from in front of the coffee maker...

 

...to the other side of the stove.

We'll see how I like it.

 

Now, just don't look at the other side of my kitchen.

Ooooo! You looked!

The other side isn't quite finished...

I told you not to look.

The Laundry Room - Before

The next few pictures are of the laundry room. Though I am calling this our kitchen redo, because of the close proximity of the laundry room to the kitchen, by default, it is also getting a much needed redo. I didn't really take any before pictures of the laundry room, so here are a few for comparison when it is all done.

 

Maybe someday I'll have a new washer and dryer.

 

The wall opposite the washer and dryer where we hope to either put more cabinets or some kind of shelves with hooks underneath for winter coats.

 

How'd that one get in there?

Oh yeah - she wanted me to take her picture and then did that...

The Next Big Decision

So our next big decision (and by "our", I mean "me" as Aaron, though gives his opinion, usually defers to me when it comes to choices of paint color) will be what color to paint the laundry room. I'm thinking yellow! I thought it would be fun and different to do a light yellow on the walls and a couple of shades darker on the ceiling. Yellow will go great with the other colors in our house (grey, grey, more grey, and a little blue) and will hopefully brighten up that space!

 

Which yellow will it be?

 

Stay tuned to find out which yellow we choose and maybe, just maybe, the other half of the kitchen will be finally cleaned and organized...

 

Just maybe...