In which our heroine paints the crap out of everything

Greetings from the Land of Reno.

I have been as busy as a little beaver, finishing up the magnificence which is the kitchen here, namely painting cabinet doors, installing trim, painting islands and refashioning ugliness into grace and beauty. And it looks damn good, if I do say so myself.

The rub here (and there always is one, isn't there?) is that I can't actually post photographic proof of my incontestable awesomeness lest He Who Shan't Be Named sneak in and peek before he gets home from abroad. I want him to be stunned and a little afraid of the terrific changes in the house in his absence, which, as I've said previously, he believes to have been largely occupied by my eating bonbons while watching soap operas on TV. Ha! Joke's on him, because I have turned this sow's ear into a veritable silk purse, using only my cunning and about eleventy cans of paint. Oh, and some power tools. And the internet. But that's all!

Let it suffice to say that today's brilliance included re-purposing a piece of wood found in the basement into an under-cupboard baseboard trim, figuring out how to overcome the seemingly insurmountable obstacle of removing and hiding those craptacular stick-on balsa wood cabinet ornaments (which apparently some people make themselves), painting, painting, and more painting, and use of power tools, which I can't go into here as it would give the game away.

I'm actually thinking of putting this blog on "super secret" and inviting the rest of the universe to see what I've done, as I'm inordinately proud of myself (though that could just be a combination of melamine paint fumes and it being 2 a.m.).

But right now, I should probably go to bed, as I have to get up early tomorrow to tackle the problem of the oven not working, which I suppose is 'karmic balance'. And I had made myself an epic lasagna, inspired by this terrific blog Ian turned me on to, which I can't eat because MY OVEN CRAPPED OUT. Super weak.

However, given the generally positive way the day went otherwise, I'm not willing to let this little setback get me down.

One week til I can post all the pictures!

Lazarus Rising

Well. There's a lot new here at This Old PMQ, namely, complete made over kitchens and living room.

We went from ick (seafoam green and yellowed trim) to FABULOUS! in one easy paint application. Well, maybe it wasn't so easy; there was a lot of wall fixing to do before the paint went up.

I'm not saying that my husband didn't do a good job fixing up the house. He did a lot of work before I ever got here. However, for some reason, he seems to lose all sense of direction when choosing paint colours.

As you can see, my husband must have had a head injury or simliar when choosing paint. Bear in mind, it rains about 360 days a year here in Halifax, so you need cheerful colours. Not a washed out sage green [he now claims this 'came like that'. Ed.]. But he tried, and really, what more can we ask?

Also, from the old photos he has somewhere that I'll codge and post here, there used to be egregious simulated-tile panelling in the kitchen. That had to go. Now, the kitchen is really looking great, with the new paint, and repainted cabinets with new hardware (that he did all on his own).

Next step...floor fixing.