Jamie's condo: Concrete jungle

One of the projects I worked on this weekend is Jamie's never ending mess poor dismantled condo.  This is how our sessions go: I saunter in there and tear things apart, spray paint some things, slap primer all over every possible surface, laugh at her outdated light fixtures and furnishings like a mean child on the playground, and then leave her there to live in the disaster.  Really, I don't mean to make fun of her at all....we laugh about these things together.  Right?  Right, Jamie?  Hello? 

Anyhow, I know I haven't given you a full 'after' picture of the kitchen, and that is because we're waiting for the new flooring and lighting.  The flooring will run through the entire place, so we need to prime and paint the walls and trim throughout before the gorgeous (and only $1.59/sq ft!) laminate floor is installed.  So, no full kitchen pics for you!  Here are a few blurry 'before' shots of what we're working with:

And, this is what the place looked like on Friday night after the carpet removal:

              

Don't you just want to park your car in there curl up and watch a movie in there?  No?  Don't wanna pull up some concrete slab and chill?  How about now?

             
It looks like the perfect cozy place for a three-year-old to watch cartoons, doesn't it?  There's even a tiny bit of carpet there for comfort.  Or, you could have a seat in the 'couch mosh pit' and eat your dinner in the totally swank dining area:

Where's the table?  Well, leaning against the owner's bed, of course.  DUH!  Americans love to eat in bed!  They also love to do this to get through some really boring priming and tack-strip removal:

No sneaking peeks at the kitchen, just focus on the bottles, people.  You see, you really can't get men to help without some beer.  Not that we need a man to help, but it makes things easier since no one really likes to prime miles of trim alone: 

And because I'm so proud of her, here is a pristine little feature of the kitchen that Jamie has done a great job on:

The $6 shelves I snagged from Hobby Lobby have been primed, painted, and styled with the help of adorable clearance items from Pier 1.  With new outlet covers installed, it will be looking mighty nice in there.  Stay tuned as we make more progress!   

Jamie's Condo: Behind closed doors

Over the weekend, Jamie was on a roll.  After a work-til-midnight painting session all by herself last Friday, we were ready to hang the upper cabinet doors up Monday night!  It was important to let them cure for at least three days to avoid soft spots or dings during installation, so look at how happy she is to finally be getting these up after three weeks of them laying around her garage:

She may also be auditioning to be a spokeperson for Black and Decker?  We were both giddy with excitement when we got all them all up:

             

Seriously, we did the happy dance around the kitchen while her 3-year-old looked at us like we were idiots.  We reused all her old brassy hinges by spray painting them (two coats) with Rustoleum Universal Satin Nickel paint for less than 8 bucks:

This saved not only gobs of money, but time and aggravation getting new hinges to fit.  And they look brand new!  We just went and bought new stainless screws to replace the old brown and rusty ones.  Once the doors were up, I went around with the handy-dandy Measure Pro Cabinet Kit from Menards and marked with a sharpie where we wanted her knobs to be placed.  Since she didn't have any cabinet knobs before, she had to put some muscle into drilling the holes:

She kind of looks like she's praying, doesn't she?  We didn't need the prayers, everything turned out great (except my photography skills, sorry!):

Here's a 'before' to remind you what these cabinets looked like three weeks ago:

We made sure to hang the cabinet doors before drilling the holes and attaching the knobs, it makes it easier to drill through when it's not resting on the ground, and it's also at eye level.  The knobs are from Target, a pack of 10 was $20.  Hardware doesn't have to be expensive to look great, right?  Next up is finishing the wall paint, attaching the lower cabinet doors, and installing the amazing satin nickel bin pulls we scored from Target for the drawers!

 

Nice weather and fabulous finds

Yesterday was a gorgeous day, it got up to around 60 degrees which was such a welcome reprieve from the unseasonably cold weather we've been experiencing.  I was also very excited because on my lunch break I found 3 pine wall shelves for Jamie's kitchen at Hobby Lobby on sale for $6 each!  They are exactly like this one (that costs a lot more), but they are unfinished and will be painted the same color as her upper cabinets:

Three for the price of one (with no shipping costs, I love you Hobby Lobby!)  Anyway, my lunchtime score combined with the weather put me in such a wonderful mood that I couldn't resist standing in the middle of the street like a weirdo to snap a picture of all the mature trees on our block turning colors and dropping their leaves.

I think I freaked out the mailman in the process.  Oh well.  Our street really is lovely to drive down this time of year.  Also, our burning bush is seriously kicking all the other burning bushes' butts on our block.  Check out that color!

Teaser: something (or two somethings) in this picture will be replaced soon after 1.5 years of inoperability.  I'm sure you will never figure out what I'm talking about!
ps - doesn't the planter look sad without the annuals?  I really should figure out what to do there over the cold months.... 

Jamie's Condo: Progress

Here is the progress Jamie and I have made in her kitchen:

Whadaya mean you don't see any progress??  We painted the ceiling, silly:

Oh, and all these:

One more coat on the doors and the cabinet boxes, and we will be ready for her new satin nickel knobs and pulls!  After we paint all the lower cabinet doors, of course.  Sigh.

Everything is looking very nice so far, which is good since this isn't my house.  Grunt work aside, us girls really got into a lather at Pier 1 yesterday purchasing bamboo panels for the living room, and decorative items for open shelving we have planned for the kitchen.  Seriously, we were like a circa-2007 Britney Spears in a Frappucino and Cheetos store.  Watch out!       

Jamie's Condo: Welcome to 1985!

I have known my great friend Jamie since we were 12.  She is a single mom with an adorable 3 year old and a really ugly plain circa 1985 condo that is full of potential.  One night we were drinking two bottles a few glasses of wine when I blurted out the following:

Me - "We should totally paint your kitchen cabinets!" 

Jamie - "Oh my God!!  I've always wanted to do that since I moved in here four years ago!"

Me - "And we could totally paint all the 80's oak trim in your place white and make it look fresh and clean!"

Jamie - "Yes!!!  I already wanted to rip out all this flooring and get new dark laminate in the entire condo, too!"

Me - "We also have to paint your bathroom vanities, get new granite tops and faucets, lose the huge medicine cabinets, paint the walls in the whole condo, get rid of the vertical blinds on the sliders, buy new window treatments, lamps, rugs, accessories and furniture!!"

Jamie  - "Um...okay?!"

Me - "And I can document the whole thing on my blog! Yay!"  ( I think Jamie said 'Yay' too, but she may have been too busy thinking about the damage to her credit card that was sure to come)

And then we went to measure the bathroom vanities, which was hard with wine glasses in our hands.  And then we shopped, picked paint colors, shopped, and drank more wine over the course of the next few visits.  And we also took some blurry before pictures because we were drinking we took these at night without a flash.  Here are some befores of our first project, the kitchen:

Jamie is very sad about her 80s wood cabinets.  Not because the wine bottles behind her are half empty. 

Notice the shutters and flooring.  Please.  And no, we didn't clean up before we started painting.  Keeping it real, people!

Jeez, those wine bottles just jump into the frame when I'm not looking!  So how was I going to fix this space?  Jamie wanted to keep her almond appliances until she had the money to go stainless, so I knew we couldn't do bright white cabinets or the appliances would look dirty.  I also wanted the ivory countertop to stand out and I wanted to add some interest to the room.  So, the plan was to pick a dark brown paint for the lower cabs and a nice ivory paint for the uppers.  Here we are getting started with removing the doors and taping off:

The BIN was chilling out getting ready for 'prime time.' heh heh....and here it is in action:

            

The reason I love BIN is that it goes on thin, requires minimal sanding, sticks to laminate, covers dark spots, dries quickly and leaves a great smooth finish.  However, it is stinky and hard to work with because it is shellac-based.  It is also really hard to clean out your brushes since only denatured alcohol will clean up shellac.  It's worth it though, because we went from primed to painted in one night:

We chose Behr Polished Pearl Semi Gloss for the uppers, and Glidden Bark (color matched to Behr) for the lowers.  We love the colors!

One coat of paint was looking mighty nice, but we are still doing one more coat, and not just because I leaned against the wet bottom cabinets about three times.  The rest of the plan for this room includes:

New brushed nickle hardware for cabinets

New lighting fixture and pendants for pass-through area

Under cabinet lighting that is already started will be completed

Crown molding will be added to the top of the cabinets

Color on the walls

New flooring TBD

Next up, the dreaded sanding, priming and painting of the cabinet doors!

Look at her sanding with surgical precision!  Stay tuned....