So sorry for the delay between posts. If you've been paying attention, you may have realized that we sort of fell off the face of the planet mid-renovation (at least as far as updating the blog). We've been so busy lately! Time has just gotten away from us. In the meantime, spring has come to Indiana and our yard is full of tree a'bloom with white flowers.
This past weekend our entire neighborhood was bustling with yard sales, kids playing and people out enjoying the beautiful weather. It was wonderful to be outdoors after such a long, awful winter. Not only did we host our our yard sale, but we came home with a few treasures. Here you can see the cute pair of wood adirondack chairs that were FREE at a neighbors home. Without much hesitation, Casey loaded them into the pickup, brought them home and plopped them into the backyard. With just a little TLC, they will be perfect!
Now for the inside of the house...First, let's start with the stairwell.
The banister has been given a makeover:
First, Casey removed the old handrail from the stairwell and built a beautiful new handrail to match the banister below. Once this was done, I applied the same technique as I previously used to update our bathroom vanity. This meant wiping the stained bannister with a deglazer/deglosser, lightly sanding down the entire bannister, and then cleaning it again. I gave both the new handrail and the bannister several coats of General Finishes Gel Stain in Java and about four coats of Polyacrylic. The result was well worth the effort.
We've also been moving along beautifully in the kitchen. First, Casey built a frame above the microwave (pictured here) which would support the cabinet and push it away from the wall by a few inches. Then he added crown molding to all of the cabinets.
After this, I deep cleaned all of the cabinets with TSP, the cabinet doors and hardware were removed, and we stripped the existing stain and gave the cabinets a good sanding. Next, we cleaned the cabinets again with Mineral Spirits to prepare for the primer.
Once this was finished, the cabinet frames were given two coats of oil-based primer and three coats of Benjamin Moore ADVANCE in White Dove (semi-gloss). Benjamin Moore ADVANCE is a waterborne alkyd paint that offers the unique application properties and durability of an oil paint in a low VOC formula that cleans up with soap and water. I would recommend it over and over again!
You can see that the kitchen is still in progress. The cabinet doors are taking over the garage while Casey gives them a daily bath in their new bright white paint. It's a kitchen miracle. I'm just giddy! It's bright, cheerful and most importantly, everything we envisioned. I can't wait to share more photos with ya'll.
Until then...
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