The kitchen is getting a facelift. No--not a full "tear out and redo." I'd just buy another house before I'd live in a full kitchen renovation. But ours definitely needs a facelift.
When we first moved in (25 years ago!!) it was a drab brown kitchen. Rough brown wood walls (think exterior siding--what was the builder thinking?), drab brown cabinets, and yellow Formica countertops. I really disliked the walls--not only were they drab brown, but the rough surface caught every bit of dust and spiderweb. But I really couldn't stand the idea of taking all the cabinets down, prying off that siding, putting up drywall . . . you get the idea.
Then I made the mistake of watching one of those DIY shows where they make over a house in 24 hours--and they just used joint compound to cover the ugly wall. Eureka!
It ended up taking a bit more than 24 hours. And 12 gallons of drywall compound. And moving the fridge and the washer and dryer to the middle of the room. But I do like the results.
A few years later we pulled up the torn and stained linoleum floor and tiled it. That also was . . . a bit of work.
The yellow Formica was the next to go--or at least disappear. At the time we couldn't afford the $500 or so to replace it, so I painted and polyurethaned it a tomato-leaf green. Then I painted the cabinets a bright orange (they were supposed to be tomato-colored). At that point I declared it done and was happy for about 10 years.
But over that decade the counters got stained, and chipped, and some of the paint peeled. I thought about repainting (and you can get paint meant for counters now) but as the saying goes "you can't polish a turd." We really needed new counters. And I had already picked out the one I wanted a few years ago (yes, I procrastinate). What's the big deal--you actually hire a professional to do it, and it's a one-day job.
Yeah, right. Stay tuned.
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