I'm pooped!

I successfully completed my all nighter last night. My brain's so tired I'm having a hard time figuring out what I got accomplished! lol I got 2 coats of paint on the base cupboards and 2 coats of paint on all the drawers, I only have 1 coat of paint left on the backside of the 23 doors I was working on. I REALLY want to paint that last coat tonight so I can start re-installing them tomorrow, but re-installing them tomorrow is kind of a pipe dream because I need to cut some 1 1/2" blocks for my Primary class for Sunday and I need to bake and frost a cake and clean up the dining room because Middleton's are coming over to celebrate Wendy's birthday. I do already have the TexMex lasagna in the fridge ready to be baked, premixed salad and french bread. So the cake is really the only food that needs preparation time.

I guess if I get those other things done and I still have time I'll paint some more! I also painted the first coat on the vanity in the basement bathroom. I decided I'm not going to refinish the countertop in the bathroom and install a new backsplash, I'll just replace the sink. That bathroom needs remodeling anyway (the shower needs to be updated, I'm pretty sure it's original 1967!) and who knows if I remodeled if people would want to keep it or would end up remodeling themselves. I really need to take a picture of the shower, just for posterity's sake! lol

And speaking of pictures, here are some updates after today's marathon:

Uh yeah, that's right...we're seeing progress!!

I really like the drawer pulls I chose. They are very simple but I think quite classy looking. The cupboard doors will have a round pull.

I like it...I like it a LOT!

I HATE painting!

Did I ever mention that I HATE painting? Well I do. I didn't used to hate painting, but now that I'm on the paint every single day all day long schedule, I've decided that I HATE painting. Maybe someday I'll change my mind and will want to pick up a paintbrush, but I'm pretty sure it won't be in the near future.

So, as we're looking for houses in Texas any that have the 70's or 80's colors or flowery wallpaper that has to be removed will NOT be considered! No painting, no paint brushes, unless a professional is hired!

I'm going to try to pull an all nighter tonight. I figure if I DO it'll put me one day closer to putting the painting supplies away for good!! So far today I've sanded the cupboards, put the first coat of paint on them and gotten the second coat of paint on one side of half the cupboard doors and one coat on the edges of the doors. It may not sound like much, but it's kept me busy all day long.

Every day Bear ends up 'helping' a little more. Today his paint brush was his tail! Oh yeah, and speaking of hating things, did I mention that I HATE pet hair? It's all over the place! The house is a wreck with drawers stacked on top of each other, newspapers sitting up next to cupboards to protect the floor from paint spills and pet hair everywhere! I can't wait until my house is clean and in order again!

Well I guess it's back to painting.

GRRRRRR!

Well, hopefully the start of today isn't a premonition of how the whole day will go! My side doorbell rang and when I went and answered the door a sheriff's deputy was standing there. Turns out my dear father-in-law was worried because he'd had an 'appointment' with his son to take him to get his hair cut on Tuesday. I'm not sure WHY Darvin told his dad he'd take him Tuesday because he wasn't off work on Tuesday, but in any event...Grandpa had been waiting all day long for Darvin to pick him up. Instead of calling I guess he just started worrying...all day yesterday he worried and he was worrying this morning too, so he called the sheriff's office. Well, I guess it's nice to know that if we go missing someone will come looking for us!

And then just as I was getting off the phone with Grandpa to tell him we were all OK, here comes knucklehead (big ol' Bear dog) with a pair of my new (maybe used once or twice) pantyhose in his mouth chewing them to bits! Doggone dog!! I had washed them and hung them over the hook on the bathroom door. My guess is that they'd fallen down and he found them and decided they'd make a worthy chew toy!

Enough of the woes of the morning. It's time to do some painting!

Darn your work ethic Dad!

Darn my Dad and his work ethic! 'A job worth doing is worth doing well.' Well, thanks to you Dad I'm laboriously sanding each of the cupboard door fronts instead of putting the first coat of paint on them tonight...And unfortunately I'd put some touch up primer on some of them earlier which is not yet dry, so I'll have to wait until tomorrow morning to finish sanding.

Oh well, I did get 2 coats of paint on all the cupboards today including the laundry room and basement bathroom.

Plan of attack for tomorrow is to start by finishing the sanding and doing any necessary patching. Then I'll put one coat of paint on the cupboards and if I'm lucky I'll get the second coat on and the first coat on the cupboard doors and drawers.

I am sick and tired of painting!

On a positive note yesterday Darvin learned that he passed his Texas Pharmacy Law Exam!

Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy

Some days are harder than others for keeping the Sabbath day holy! Especially when I'm in the middle of a 'project' like trying to prepare the house for sale. The roller and brush with primer are calling my name! I will resist, I will resist, I will resist...

This is my progress from yesterday on the china hutch and desk.

First coat part way done

Second coat all the way done

Second coat on both sides of a truck load of cupboard doors!

There are plenty of other things I can do that should keep me busy, studying my Primary lesson for next week, working on a Christmas present for Grandpa, etc. So..., I will choose today to keep the Sabbath day holy.

The End!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hopefully everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! Since we didn't have any of the kids from out of town and Darvin had to work graveyard shift we picked up Grandpa Clement around 4 p.m. and headed to Regional's cafeteria. When employees have to work on Thanksgiving or Christmas the hospital provides free dinner to them and their families. So that's what we did this year. They had a good selection of food, and I didn't have to cook OR clean...the best part!!

Darvin slept a good portion of the day trying to prepare to stay up all night for the graveyard shift. Consequently I painted and painted. When all was said and done today I got 23 cupboard doors painted with 2 coats of primer on one side and all of the kitchen, dining room and hall drawers. I also did a little touching up to the primer on the living room door.

Got the 2nd coats done after doing a little Thanksgiving day (pre-black Friday) shopping at Walmart. I've got a few more things on my shopping list, so may head out after a while to do the legitimate black Friday shopping. I sure miss having the girls here this year, it's a lot funner to do the black Friday shopping when we can go together.

I'm happy with today's progress on the painting. You can see in the picture I put one of the new drawer pulls on just so I could get a feel for how they'll look. Did I mention that I LOVE Penetrol? It's designed to be added to oil based paints to eliminate brush and roller marks. It works so well! I start by rolling the Kilz oil-based primer on the door, then use the brush to smooth it. I didn't mind the roller marks on the regular doors in the house, but really wanted a smooth finish for the cupboards. It's working well, rolling the primer on saves time and then it takes just a few quick brush strokes to smooth it. Tomorrow I'll turn the cupboard doors over and put primer on the insides and hopefully get the cupboards themselves painted with primer. I hope to do the actual painting on Saturday. It will sure be nice to be done with painting and on to the next project!

Work, work, work, work, work...!

Thomas, Lindsey and Brooklyn left early this morning to return to Boise. They arrived last Saturday afternoon. Thomas has my name for Christmas this year, so they gave me an early Christmas present. Of course their visit alone was a beautiful gift (snuggle time with baby Brooklyn was WONDERFUL),

BUT the real gift was to help me finish the painting in the house so we can get it on the market. We work, work, worked! When Brooklyn was up we'd take turns taking care of her. Otherwise we had a paint brush or roller in hand! What a wonderful present. We were able to get all but two closet doors and the living room door painted and rehung.

We'd kind of forgotten about one of the closet doors and one is in our bedroom and we didn't want to paint the living room door while the kids were here because that's where Brooklyn was sleeping and the oil based primer STINKS (no killing brain cells in my grandbabies!).

Besides finishing the doors we got all of the kitchen, dining room and hall cupboard doors cleaned, taken down and all the hardware removed from them. So, today I'll finish 'round one' and start 'round two'. I plan on brushing all of the cupboards, doors and drawers to try to maintain a smooth instead of bumpy look made by a roller. My goal is to finish all the cupboard painting by Friday, then I can move on to refinishing the kitchen and bathroom counter tops and putting up new backsplashes. One of my handymen, Barney Zauss will remove (unless I can easily figure it out) and then install new sinks too. At that point I'll have the realtors come back in to give me market analyses then I'll clean until I drop and get this baby listed!

Oh how I appreciate Thomas and Lindsey coming! I was really having a hard time getting back into the painting swing of things. Progress had been so slow...now I feel like I've caught my second wind and can get the job finished! It was particularly helpful that we got the doors done because Thomas was a pro at rehanging them. That in and of itself was slowing me down.

Yesterday I had a doctor's appointment with Dr. Wilkinson here in town. He's an MD who specializes in alternative medicine. I have been suspecting for some time that I'd benefit from bio-identical hormone supplementation, so I have some lab work to test my hormone levels among other things scheduled in the next month.

After my appointment I met Darvin, Lindsey, Thomas, Brooklyn, Grandpa Clement, Thomas's parents and his niece Lexi at Old Country Buffet for a 'quasi' Thanksgiving dinner since we won't be together on Thanksgiving. Then Lindsey, Darvin and I went to Twilight: Breaking Dawn Part 2. It was nice to spend fun time together, even though the painting was 'calling my name' at home!

Didn't make it to 'round two' today on the painting. I had an appointment at the Firestone dealer to have my tires rotated and oil changed. It took an hour and a half plus travel time, so about 2 hours or more. But I did get two coats of primer on the living room door, our bedroom closet and the trim to the cupboard in the pantry and got the 'recycle closet' door painted and rehung. Overall, I'm not disappointed with my accomplishments for the day, particularly because I used the time while the car was being serviced to work on filing paperwork for tax preparation (another item on my 'to do' list). What an amazing difference a little primer and paint makes!