Renos With Rosie: This is Crazy!

A couple of weeks ago we took off for a ten day getaway to Hawaii, but as usual we did things just a little bit differently than perhaps I would like, or that might seem reasonable and sane.

Don't ask me how these things happen, I was just minding my own business, trying to keep out of trouble, (off of my wife's radar) and wham!

Our dream vacation to the lovely Hawaiian island of Maui was all booked, it should have been a nice relaxing week of packing and getting those last minute things looked after before our trip.

But how did we spend the week leading up to our flight early on a Saturday morning you ask?

We decided to refinish the kitchen cabinets! Crazy huh?

My lovely wife Rose had been dropping a few subtle hints about the far in the future (I assumed) upcoming project to refinish the cabinets. My early warning radar was apparently faulty though or I would have run for the hills at the first sign of trouble.

Rose had been talking about this miraculous "Transformations" kit that her friend Stacy uses when he renovates kitchens and she had actually already purchased a kit and set it out prominently on the counter for a few weeks. I think she uses the technique of slowly moving it around the house, placing it close to things that I like, a plate of cookies, my book, my microwave beany thing, so that I eventually loose my fear and don't react quite so strongly when she finally springs the trap.

It sounded reasonable, "we have all week, it's not hard, it will look soooooo good!"

I read the instructions, I watched the video, she talked it up how Stacy does it all the time and how it just transforms the whole room, what could go wrong?

What indeed?

If you've been following the Reno's with Rosie series you know that we are in the midst of a series of minor renovations around the house. Since the new year we have:

Repainted most of the house.
Scraped the old popcorn stipple off of the kitchen ceiling. 
(Popcorn and a movie)
Rebuilt an old table that has been in the family for a long time. 
(A table's tale)
Built a "Gallery Wall" for some of my photographs from Italy. 
(Creating the curator wall)
Started on re-tiling the fireplace hearth.
Removed part of the cabinets in the kitchen to open up the room.
And now, we've re-finished the kitchen cabinets. 

It's been a lot of fun and a lot of work and when I look into my crystal ball I see a lot more work on the horizon, a lot more!

Instead of telling you all about the process, (who's got that kind of time?) I will give you quick overview and post some pictures so you can see for yourself what we've been up to.

1. Empty out all of the cabinets and drawers.
2. Remove all cabinet doors, 20 doors plus 4 drawers and remove all hardware.
3. Clean and paint the interiors of all the cabinets.
4. Wash and "de-glaze" all of the cabinet doors and surfaces.
5. Prime all of the cabinet doors and surfaces.
6. Glaze all of the cabinet doors and surfaces.
7. Protector coat on all cabinet doors and surfaces, put it all together and blah, blah blah......
I'm bored writing all of this, it was a lot of work!

We worked every night all week until at least 10 or 11 o clock except Friday night, we finished in the afternoon, had some friends over that evening and finally packed after they left for the flight the next morning at 8:30 am.

We had some friends house-sit (cat sit is more like it) so of course there was all of the preparation for that as well, but we did have a pretty good time in Maui.

Everywhere we go we attract rain but on the plus side, the hills of Maui are much greener than they usually are this time of year! And, we saw lots of rainbows!

Before-during the removal of the "floating" cabinet, with the old paint colour.

2 drawers, one with base coat, one with glaze.

The old beige "distressed look" and the new, gross grey base coat.

Cabinets painted inside and waiting for the glaze and the topcoat etc.

Putting on the glaze (in my pajamas)

Finished: except for the floor and the baseboards and the.......

Nothing to it! Next project is probably the tile floor, I can't wait for that, NOT!
But who knows, maybe I won't have to do it if I keep my wits about me or maybe I'll find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, here's hoping.

Rainbow over Lahaina, Maui.

Click this link if you want to experience all of the fun and excitement of Cabinet "Transformations" for yourself.
http://cabinets.rustoleumtransformations.ca/

Update: No, I didn't manage to avoid tiling the floor, but the good news is that I think it turned out pretty good. Check it out below.