4 Hours!!

This morning/afternoon I spent 4 hours sanding a cabinet door!  

It was certainly not how I would have chosen to spend this day.  But since starting this kitchen renovation, I have been trying very hard to make sure that everything that I do will be something that I can be happy with for a very long time.  

So after finishing my pantry (alright, not truly finished as we still don't have the crown molding on it), I realized that I much preferred the finish that I ended up with on that piece to the first cabinet that I had painted black. 

No pic of the other cabinet, but it was just too shiny and the distressing didn't show as much as I would like.  

Here's where my inexperience shows, since I thought that I would just lightly sand to take the shine off, then be able to put another coat of paint, distress again, and top coat like I did the pantry.  

BUT NO!!

I started sanding and the poly coating started to roll and ball up. GRRRR!

So, using a sanding block, I tediously sanded the poly coating off of a cabinet door.  I did it very cautiously to try to avoid over-distressing. I used tweezers to peel it out of the corners!!!  

And the whole 4 hours I was sitting outside in the blazing heat!

Actually it wasn't terrible in the shade. 

And when I was finished I was covered in black dust!

I don't have a pic of the finished product, but honestly, I am still trying to decide whether it is too distressed for my taste. 

In the mean time, note my new clock!

And me trying to be artistic...

Blessings,

Ronda

Fruit Flies and Moles and Hills, Oh My!

I am SOOOOO tired of having fruit flies in my house!

And I am SOOOOOO tired of having moles in my yard!

Little pests!

But I am progressively working on getting rid of the fruit flies using the funnel-in-a-jar-of-fruit method.  

The moles on the other hand have me stymied.  I have read of various methods, but outside of standing in the yard with a shovel, silently waiting for movement, I've not had much luck.  Even my cat, who patiently sits and stares at the ground for hours on end, seems to have had no luck with moles this summer.  

Although I live in the country and "country folk" are not supposed to care about their yards, I still have a desire for my yard to look like this:

When the reality of it is this:

Ok, so maybe that is a slight exaggeration.  Maybe a little more like this:

And this:

Ok, just kidding, but the shot of the mole hills really is what it looks like.  

Enough whining.  Maybe someday I will be rich and will be able to pay a gardener to make sure I have a beautiful yard. :)  

Maybe...

(Remember, my hubby is a pastor...)

Blessings,

Ronda

The Red Door

Happy Saturday to you all!

This was a rather unusual Saturday for me.  

I usually spend at least part of my day cleaning the house.  But today, I had projects that were calling to me...

Every time I walked by the front door...

Going THIS way...

...and THAT way...

I thought, "how terribly brown this area is!" 

(Please ignore the mess in the above pic.  That is, of course, my second project of the day.)

Anyone that had been to my house in the last few days had seen my little paint chips taped to the front door as I tried to decide on the perfect color.  This area was just BEGGING for a POP of RED!

Decision-making in general is not one of my strong suites, but when it comes to choosing the perfect shade of red...that was AGONIZING!!

Time will tell.  It changes throughout the day.  If I don't like it, it will only take another coat or 2 of paint.  

It's growing on me :)

The front entryway still needs something...

Definitely need to rid the area of the last vestiges of the orangey pine trim seen in the pic.  

Next up...

A Day of Rest :)

Have a blessed Sabbath!

Blessings, 

Ronda

Back Hallway and Hoosier Cabinet

I really thought that I might wow you all and put up two posts in as many days, but it just wasn't meant to be!

I did have a very enjoyable evening out last night with a bunch of other homeschool moms. Yes, we are still technically homeschoolers, even though Cammi is taking 2 classes at the high school this year.  

So one of the things that I have done along with the overall painting downstairs was paint a chalk board strip on my back hallway. 

This is what greets most people when they enter the house, since most use the back door. You can see, it is also where all of our "stuff" gets dropped when we come home.  I actually cleaned it up some for this shot! 

I knew that we had to have places to hang coats and such here, so when I started talking about what to use, DH remembered the coatracks that were in the old church.  So we contacted the new owners and sure enough there was still one there.  There were originally at least 4, but no idea what happened to the rest of them.  

I'm not great at fancy handwriting, but it's fun coming up with things to write on the chalkboard.

Part of the reason that we wanted to make the kitchen larger was to be able to move my Hoosier cabinet in there.  This originally belonged to my great-grandma.  

Since this is meant to be a kitchen piece, I thought that I would fill it with kitchen items.

The red recipe box was my grandma's and has her recipes still in it. 

Yes, the chocolate chips are a temptation. ;)

Love cookbooks!!

Blessings,

Ronda

Linking to:

Hey-O!!

I know, Belle Sutton, it has been a long time since I blogged!  Thanks for the reminder!

Our family just got back from a wonderful vacation with my extended family in Gatlinburg, TN.

We stayed in a 7 bedroom cabin high up in the Smokies.  

It actually rained every day...

But in between storms we played some games, took some hikes, ate good food, went ziplining and white water rafting.

Me, the hubs, the kids and spouses. 

Blessings, 

Ronda

Another Step in the Right Direction!

AHHHHH!!  I am so excited!

No, it's not completely done, but...things are moved back and I am unpacking boxes. 

Here is the view at this point from the front door...

And the view from the back door...

Obviously, there are still many things to finish.  Most notably, the base cabinet with now countertop on the left.  And yes, I have removed the doors from the pantry on the right in preparation for painting it.  

And yes, that is hubby's air compressor sitting in the kitchen! He decided it wasn't worth taking back out to the garage since he hasn't quite finished putting on baseboards.  

Exciting times!! We are just a handfull of boards away from having the floor complete!  

Blessings, 

Ronda