{baby steps}

Let me say first of all that I can't believe I'm blogging about another kitchen renovation.

Technically you could say that I'm on my third in two houses. In our first house, we painted the original cabinets before we moved in, to hold us over until we could do a full scale renovation.

It went from looking like this...



To this...



We were very proud...even of that loud lime wall color. In my defense it was a Martha Stewart color, and anything Martha approves of looks good, right?

But even with a coat of paint, that kitchen was very sad.

So after 4 years we saved up enough money to replace the cabinets, counters, flooring, window, lighting...pretty much a brand new room. That renovation brought both of us to our knees and had me making up silly prayers.

But in the end it was one hell of a kitchen.



And I'm convinced it helped us sell our house.

And now we're doing something I swore I would never do again. Painting kitchen cabinets. And looking for new counters, sink, faucet.... Oy.

But it will be worth it!! That's what I keep telling myself.

As if a kitchen renovation isn't stressful enough, we are attempting one on a super small budget, so we are doing everything we can to save money. I'm hoping the end result will look great despite the small price tag.

Here are a couple pics of the cabinet progress from the weekend. Everything already looks brighter!



Thank goodness the ugly contact paper peels right off of the shelves! See below for a before and after...It is rather cathartic to peel it away - like shedding a skin...an old, dirty, blue-checked one anyway.



New hardware in an oil-rubbed bronze finish has been ordered and once our tax check comes we are planning a trip to IKEA for some accessories (and hopefully the sink and counters!)...very excited about that.

We bought some metal finish spray paint for the cabinet door hinges - those suckers are expensive so we're hoping the spray paint will do the trick. If there is enough left I'm going to add a coat to our scary bathroom vent cover. Maybe a darker color will make the creepy horse faces disappear?

Our progress is slow, but if having twins has taught me anything, it is patience.