Minute Changes in the Kitchen

It turns out that living without a sink for two weeks will cause your kitchen to look like it imploded. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it! The kitchen is too much of a mess to show you pictures of the entire room. I like to try to maintain the charade of the ideal homemaker, and to show you the kitchen as it is would be admitting that I am anything but perfect. O.K. Whom am I kidding? I let you in on my secrets too long ago to try to pretend anything now. Here is what my kitchen currently looks like.

Messy kitchen

Am I winning the kitchen renovation challenge yet?

Messy kitchen

Do I at least earn points for having freshly baked cookies cooling on the stove?

Cookies on stove in messy kitchen

I know that everyone is dying to find out what was decided about the counters. Well, Home Depot has arranged for them to be replaced with the counters that we originally picked out. I am so pleased with their customer service! I highly recommend buying from Home Depot. However, that means that we have to wait a couple more weeks before continuing our progress.

So, what have I been doing for the past week other than waiting for the fate of my countertops to be decided? The truth is that I have not been doing much in the kitchen, but you probably already figured that out.

Monday night was my swim team’s league championship. That meant that we had an extra-long practice on Saturday. Then, Sunday morning was the qualifying meet for the championship. That evening be had a team dinner. Monday was a late night at the championship. This is my excuse for not posting anything on Monday in case you were wondering where I was. I could have been more organized and prepared a post earlier, but I also teach and was feeling overwhelmed last week.

The good news was that the girls won the championship! The boys took fifth, but they are very young. We only have one senior, and there are two 8th grade boys on the team, so we can only get better next year. It is the tradition for the winning team to jump in the pool after the results are announced, and they always push me in as well- clothes and all. Here is a picture of me soaking wet from a couple of years ago.

swim championship

I did try to squeeze in a couple of kitchen projects over the weekend. The cabinets were rather grimy and worn looking, so I decided to give them some attention.

Dirty kitchen cabinets

First, I cleaned them well with Murphy’s Oil Soap. Crème helped. Sometimes she just pointed out areas that I missed.

Cleaning kitchen cabinets with a cat

At other times, she had to take a more active role and show me how to do it properly.

Cleaning kitchen cabinets with a cat

The cabinets looked much better when we had finished.

Clean kitchen cabinet

Look how dirty the water was!

Bucket of dirty water

Douglas changed the doors on the tall counter by the door so that they would open in the opposite direction. It has always bothered me that they open towards the counter instead of towards the wall.

Dirty kitchen cabinetsPutting kitchen cabinet doors back on

He also took the hardware off all of the cabinets so that I could polish it, but I never finished. I hope to have some good before and after pictures for you soon.

Kitchen cabinets without hardware

Finally, I started to wipe down the cabinets with Restor-A-Finish. Unfortunately, I did not finish those either, but the ones that I did look great. Here is a look at the before and after.

Worn kitchen cabinetNewly polished kitchen cabinet

The final change was on the floor. For some reason, I did not have matching rugs in this room.

Non-matching braided rugs in kitchen

The long green braided rug was in the hall, but it kept moving around and made it difficult to open the basement door. I like it a lot better in the kitchen.

Green braided rugs in kitchen

The smaller green braided rug is now in front of the heater where we leave our shoes. Eventually, I would like to come up with a better solution for this area, but this works for now.

Green braided rugs in kitchen

I was hoping to finish the kitchen by the end of February, but I am not sure if we are going to meet that deadline. The counters are scheduled to be installed on Tuesday, February 18, and we will still have the tile the backsplash and paint after that. Please, keep your fingers crossed that the counter installation will go well this time around. I want to finish this room!

Do not forget to check out the other bloggers progress: Sarah, Carrie, Kelly and Suesan.

Happy Homemaking!

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About

I am a teacher, traveler, artist, writer, homemaker and a whole lot more. In January 2009, I bought the Cape of Dreams. It was the second house that I had ever owned, but it was the first that I bought by myself. I now live in the house with my husband Douglas, our dog Kahlua, and Crème de Menthe, the cat. Because, what life is complete without a little Kahlua and Cream? I love arts and crafts of all kinds, and I refinish furniture as well. We are slowly redoing our entire house. You can read about my projects on my blog www.CapeofDreams.com

6 Comments on “Minute Changes in the Kitchen

  1. Congrats to the girls team! It’s so nice to see kids actually doing something instead of sitting in front of the TV. What a great experience for them (and you!)

    The cabinets look spiffy, girl! Amazing what a little Murphys and some elbow grease can do. I’ve never tried the restor-a-finish but everything I’ve seen and read tells me I should be using it! Great results all the way around.

    And for the record… Creme is the coolest kitty ever. Can I hire her to help me clean my house? She looks like she’s very detail oriented. I can appreciate that. 🙂

    • I am so proud of both my teams. Even the boys swam their hearts out and did well individually. There just are not enough of them.

      Restore-A-Finish is wonderful stuff. Now I just have to finish. I am sure that Crème will keep me on task. She certainly is detail oriented. You might even call her OCD. She says that she would love to visit Texas and help you clean if you will let her chase squirrels, since she is not allowed outside here. Let me know when you want me to send her over. 😉

  2. Cabinets look beautiful! Isn’t living without a sink the most fun you’ve ever had?? I’m so glad to hear the counters will be replaced–what a relief, huh? Have you considered helping Crème write a blog of her own? In your spare time? I bet she would have a lot to say.

    • Not having a sink is the worst! I swear, I will never take it for granted again. Crème loves your idea of her own blog. I think that she would become insufferable if I were to give her one.

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