The answer to the first question is yes...and no. The kitchen is close to fully functional with a few exceptions I'll outline here. As to why it isn't completed yet, the answer is these two words: front entry. And yes, it was my bright idea to start this project before finishing the kitchen entirely. I broke the cardinal rule of "one room at a time."
I spent this Saturday working on one of the remaining projects: the back door. Originally, this door was covered in many layers of white paint. I stripped it a while back. We figured there was no sense of fancifying the door until all the messy work was done, so it's been kind of halfway there for a while. I finally got around to the detail sanding of the door this weekend. I pulled out our profile sander, which comes with a multitude of attachments that will match many different profiles. I used three different attachments to sand the door.
Stripped some door hardware while I was at it too.
I then stained parts of the door that were very light to try and even out the tone. Next weekend I'll apply the final coat and then a finish coat after that.
Here's a photo of the door at the beginning:
and here's after being stripped and the way it's been for a while...
and here's what it looks like today after much sanding and partial staining.
The other unfinished project in the kitchen is adding the trim to our shelving and installing the under-shelf lights. Again, reason for the delay: front entry! But Steve did already cut out the pieces. They just need to be sanded down to fit perfectly and then stained to match.
The final item to make our kitchen truly complete will take a bit longer and that will be the built-in shelving units for the pantry. Since the nearby woodshop is closed right now, Steve has to go farther to work on the project and that makes it more time-consuming and less conveneient. With all the projects we have to wrap up in the entry and elsewhere, I am hopeful a completed pantry will be a x-mas present for us.
...and as to Eric's 2nd question, "What's on the mysterious other two walls that are not pictured in the "Kitchen Current" link?" I am going to have to wait on that as this post has gotten kinda long.
Also, this weekend Steve finished hanging drywall in the entry and started taping. I'll do a separate post on that.
4 comments:
The door looks great, Jocelyn! I guess we never heard that cardinal, "one room at a time rule". I think we have 7 rooms in progress right now.
Yes, boy, completely finishing a project is very, very hard at times. I would love to be outside working on the side of the house where I removed the addition. I had to stop that project because of weather last November. I then moved on to the kitchen and the plan was to finish the kitchen by August and start on the outside again. The kitchen isn't finished and winter is quickly approaching. On top of all that I have all the trim for the two parlors sitting in an upstairs bedroom. I have to walk by it and look at it several times a day and I can hear it calling to me at night. The lack of a kitchen sink and dishwasher is a big motivating factor to finish the kitchen right now. If it weren’t for that I would be working on the side of the house regardless of the finished state of the kitchen.
Y'all definitely give us something to aspire to. Everything looks beautiful!
And as for one room at a time, we've broken that one (porch and basement, with 4 side projects thrown in) and are truly regretting it.
Amanda,
We used Strypeeze to remove the paint and let it sit for a few hours. The paint pretty much peeled off in one fell swoop. They were quite dirty and then I used a little Brasso to brighten them up. They are now shinier but not perfectly polished- but we didn't want that.
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