Larry's Great Example

Last month Grandpa Larry (Mitch's Dad) received his Silver Beaver Award. It is considered to be the highest rank you can get in scouting! I can honestly say I will never get this award (yes, women can get them too). I'm just not willing to sleep out in the cold, build and sleep in snow caves, not shower, and deal with a bunch of teen aged boys. But that does not mean we are not VERY proud of Him! Way to go Grandpa Larry!

Done and Done!

We are finished! I said I would do it and I did! I completely re-did our cabinets. From start to finish it was a 5 day project with 2 of those days working from 6 a.m. to 12 a.m. (Those were the two days the cabinets were spread out and being painted in our front room because it was too cold outside). I've always wanted to re-finish our cabinets. It's been that one thing that has really drove me nuts about our house. The family that lived here prior to ours used A LOT of grease in their cooking and our cabinets have had a film across them that no cleaning solution could touch. They were horrible. I even tried to used sand paper to just take the paint off with it but it would tear because the grease was so thick. Totally nasty.

This is what it looked like before. This picture was actually taken before we moved into the house.

This was me stripping the cabinets. The grease was so thick that I actually had to use a lacquer to get all the grease off. I was so glad I had that mask because I was totally starting to get high from all the fumes. Luckily, the lacquer took off most of the paint too. Naturally, I had to try a few test spots to find the perfect color. We ended up going with 'quail egg'.

Mitch and I putting in the hours

Ta-Da! We did it! I absolutely love my kitchen now! I made the silly mistake of making the comment of "it just makes me want to be in the kitchen because it looks so nice!" He replied with, "great, that's where you belong!" You better believe he got pinched for that one. :)

A Wild Hair

This week I have had a few wild hairs. I feel like I should be 8 Months pregnant and I have all this nesting to do! Let me assure you, I'm not pregnant but I have conjured up all a few fabulous projects that have made Mitch's eyes roll multiple times. Monday night we were laying in bed and I was looking at our dresser. Let me explain a little about this dresser. This dresser was given to Mitchell by his mother for him to use at college. In fact, if you saw the dresser you would think, 'yep, that old dresser with spray paint and scratches only belongs in some smelly dorm!' This dresser was so yucky looking to me that I actually put it IN my walk in closet so nobody would see it! Back to the original story... We were laying in bed and I was having negative thoughts toward my dresser. Then I told Mitch how I really want to re-do that nasty old thing. He replied with 'well, i'm not necessarily attached to it.' GREEN LIGHT!

On Tuesday Morning I dragged it down both our flights of stairs (I can do that now because I've been doing Jillian Michaels LAST CHANCE WORKOUTS!) then I re-stained it. Now I love it! (and so does Mitch) :)

Before

After! Even Ellie can't believe it!

On Wednesday Morning I woke up and told Mitch I wanted to re-do our kitchen cabinets...Stay tuned!