Kitchen Reno - Taking it apart!

First step... start taking the kitchen apart! All the drawers needed to be removed, doors taken down, hinges and screws removed. I took a few pictures of the nastiness inside the cupboards....

Drawers were so scungy that previous drawer liners were still stuck in them

This was just sticky and covered in cat hair

Under the sink was damp and rotten looking... some sort of sticker was put along the back edge probably as some sort of seal but it was all curling up and gross so I just pulled it out.

The back sides of the cupboards were covered with years of food drippings that just needed to be sanded off

Kitchen Reno - Sanding

I sanded down all the cabinets, inside and out with my very first power tool, my porter cable orbital sander (Thanks Dad!!) When I went to Home Depot to get more sanding discs, I laughed to myself when the salesman tried to warn me about sanding too long in one area... I guess I don't look like an experienced sander (I have spent countless hours sanding in the shop working for Dad). 

Even after sanding, under the sink still looked pretty bad... primer will hide all this!

Kitchen Reno - Primer & Paint

Amazing what a few coats of primer and paint can do to a Kitchen... when I saw how great this all looked, I really had a hard time with my color choices... I realize I neglected to mention my plan was to do the kitchen in a dark brown with brushed nickel fixtures... once I saw how bright the white looked, I almost changed my plan... almost... Brian and I had a talk and we both decided that I should proceed with the original plan.

No more rot!!! Yay!

Kitchen Reno - Burnt Out..

I realize I don't have pictures of the kitchen after I painted the exterior of the cabinets the dark brown! Anyhow, it looked great. I loved my choice of color, Behr Spiced Clove (I think that's the name). I must admit though... everything I did was ALOT of work and once I started working the new job and the old job at the same time, I just dropped the whole project for a while. It was at a point where the kitchen was usable, there was just no doors on anything... the doors were sitting in a pile awaiting sanding. I had removed all the ugly knobs from the center of the doors and filled the holes with dap (which was challenging considering the doors were soooo thin...). It wasn't until I was sick of having my cutlery and utensils on the counter that I finally got to work on the drawers at least!

Kitchen Reno - An exciting moment

After sanding, priming and painting all 4 drawers, I installed my first 'pull' and put the drawer in the cabinet! It was starting to come together, really and exciting moment. Thanks to those great youtube people, I watched a demo on how to install a pull first and got to work! Installing the pulls wasn't that hard, just lots of work with tape measures and drills. Drilling those holes is a bit nerve wracking as you don't want to make a mistake. 

Kitchen Reno - The doors

The day before yesterday, I got a spark of motivation and decided it was time to get those cabinet doors done! I dragged everything outside, set up a table and started sanding. Then, I didn't stop there, I started priming all the doors too... did I mention there is 16 pieces? After 3 straight hours of sanding and priming it was after 9pm, pitch black in the back yard and I was just finishing my last pieces... I had to finish because that meant I could paint the next day. And that is exactly what I did! I spent the entire day, first, painting then after letting things dry (not too long as the paint was starting to bubble in the sun outside) I brought the doors in and propped them in their places in the kitchen (pictured above). This was pretty exciting, the end was getting close. Hinges... ugh... I drilled all the holes, started installing the doors and some where about half way through I realized I did not have enough screws to finish the job! I wanted to at least get all the doors up so I stole screws from other doors and made it all work. In the end, I was missing about 60 screws... how was this kitchen ever held together?! I didn't throw anything out...?? The kitchen looked amazing... next the pulls for the doors... I drilled the hole for the first door and found out the 1" screw that came with the knobs was too short! Ugh... I called it quits for the day... nothing could be done without a home depot trip at this point!!

Exploring behind our house....

Brian, Tag and I went exploring out in the Mountains right behind our house. We went about 25-30 km up gravel dirt roads and saw what there was to see. We found an area called Headwaters Lakes and wow was it amazing and SOOOOO quiet. All these little lakes all next to each other and these cool little cabins all around. There seemed to be a forestry campsite in the middle of it all... sure would be a cool place to camp. Here are some pictures I took along the way (I decided like like the old corrals... well, even though old looking, are still being used).

Brian at one of the lakes at Headwaters

Checking out a trail to the cabins at Headwaters

You know I hate them, but it kind of reminded me of our old outhouse at the cabin! Wrong color, right moon!

Ok... this little ground hog is what cause Tag to have his first encounter with a cattle guard. Long story short, we are lucky Tag didn't break his legs...

Me and Tag's Adventure

Brian is off on an install so Tag and I decided to go have some fun of our own! We went down to the lake to play fetch in the water....

Then we drover around and found a Mountain to go for a hike on... wow was it steep and soooo hot out!

I am really sweaty! ugh!!!

I am hoping to take Brian on this trail soon, seems like a good one but its a workout!!

Our first out of town guests!

Dad and Jeanie came up this weekend to bring up a bed and freezer for our house and stayed the night. It was such a nice treat to have guests!! We had BBQ steak for dinner and the next morning I made the Sunday pancakes with strawberries, blue berries and whip cream. Dad, Jeanie and I headed off to the Sunday Market on the waterfront and then for a swim in the lake after! It was a fun visit!

Thanks again to Dad and Jeanie for all the stuff you brought for us! We are now set up for more guests!

I had to stop...

On my way to work today coming down the mountain from my house I had to pull over when I came around the corner and saw the morning sun trying to push the overcast sky at 6:15am. I am not religious... but what does that make you think of?

Escape for a hike

I decided I needed to escape from all the work I am doing right now between the 2 jobs, so when I got home from job number 1, I skipped job 2 and Brian and I drove up the hill for a hike.

Showing off his new pack

A mountain goat along the road, he was so big... I know the picture doesn't exactly show that, but he was pretty cool.

Looks like mini tumble weed to me...

a grown over corral

A little target practice... 

A Special outing for Cali & Auntie Holly

My plan was to spend more time with the kids this summer, but, I ended up finding work in the interior faster than I thought.  I took Cali out for ice cream and the park so we could have some time together before I moved permanently to Peachland!

Friday the 13th...

It started out as a bad day... but I escaped all that and got to spend some special time at Lundbom with the family and all my nieces and nephews!!!

Hot Dog...

Tag discovered the fan... its been pretty hot up here and we are all doing our best to try and stay cool!