I don't think I have mentioned this before, but we decided that a good project for February would be to remodel our kitchen.  Doing some good, hard, physical work during a really emotional time would help expel some of that pent up sadness/anger/grief.  So a couple of weeks ago, we started by painting our cabinets.  I wish I was smart enough to take a "before" picture, but it wasn't on the forefront of my mind.  Needless to say, our kitchen cabinets were ugly.  Very old, dark wood, with bright gold knobs backed by bright gold plated stars.  UGLY.  And I am not a fan of painting over wood, but these were just BAD.



So we removed all of the doors and hardware and bought some sandpaper, primer and white paint.  The project took us about a week, and they look BRAND NEW!  I honestly was concerned about painting them white, but I wasn't brave enough to find a different color that might work...I just couldn't picture anything else in my head.  I am so glad they turned out as nice as they did! 



This past weekend, we decided to strip wallpaper, paint and dig up the carpet (yes, our kitchen is carpeted).  Stripping the wallpaper was a 2 day job, even though it was only on ONE WALL!  Three layers of the most hideous paper you have seen attached to paneling.  Yup, paneling, not drywall.  My dad and I worked on it for a day, and it became a "project" when he cut himself twice!  And I have to give him credit for his "band-aid."  A napkin wrapped in electrical tape.  (The injury happened while I was out buying supplies, otherwise I would have taken care of it "properly"!).  Needless to say, after we were finished removing all of the layers, we decided we could live with the old wallpaper in our bedroom!



Priming and painting didn't take very long.  We picked a soft yellow color to brighten up the room a little bit.  It was beige before, and the white cabinets almost blended into the walls.  The process of removing the carpet was the next hurdle.  This carpet was tacked down along the edges every two or so inches.  It was also glued to the floor and was adhered as tough as the wallpaper!  Removing this is what caused our backs and hands to become very sore, very quickly.  I have to give Greg most of the credit here.  I had to play the pregnancy card and back out of the carpet removal process.  I already had a sore back, and didn't want to over do it with the baby girl in my belly.  So after many hours of digging with a edging shovel, he finally got it up.  Only to find that they placed it under the cabinets and the oven as well.  (Sigh).  We didn't bother to remove it there...so we had to cut it along the edge and tile over it.  I have to say, I am impressed with how it turned out!  Laying the new tile was easy and what an improvement it made!  I think our house even smells better now that the carpet isn't absorbing every single thing that spills on it.



So we are almost done with the project.  We would still like to buy some new counter tops and a storage unit and then it should be complete!  And it felt good to do all of this work.  To see our new and improved kitchen knowing we transformed it ourselves.  A great project to get us through a difficult month.  The only thing better would have been a long vacation to the Caribbean!  :)  I'll post a picture when it's all done.