old country house blog

The Kitchen Cabinet RE-DO

  I have NEVER had a project bring me to my knees like this kitchen cabinet Door – RE-DO.

  I am so far in over my head, in so deep, that to even talk about it is stressful.  

 I think to be successful, at almost anything, you have to know your strengths and weaknesses. And often, if not always, your strengths and your weakness are simply two ends of the same stick.
   One of my biggest strengths is my tenacity and my commitment.
   One of my biggest weaknesses is my tenacity and my commitment.

   Let me back it up a bit and catch you up on where all this philosophical stuff is coming from.

   So 5 months ago we decided that the only affordable way to update our kitchen would be to get new cabinet door fronts. Or at least to start there.

   So I spent weeks researching doors, and styles and colors and prices and finally settled on an online cabinet maker. Then I measured and re- measured and calculated and re-calculated, until finally, at the beginning of March, I ordered the doors.
   Then I went on with my life, often times forgetting that the doors were coming.

   The doors finally arrived, of course, the week before the last week of school, one of the busiest times of the year.  Therefore, they SAT in a Pile on my front porch, while I did the last week of school sprint to the finish line. Simultaneously, I dismantled the kitchen and painted, until I got it right, the existing cabinet boxes and walls and trim of the kitchen to PREP for the installation. This is where I should have stopped and called in a professional. This deserves repeating – THIS IS WHERE I SHOULD HAVE STOPPED.

    But I did NOT stop and literally the minute the kids were done with school, I began my biggest acting job ever, ACTING like I knew what I was doing installing cabinet doors. I THOUGHT it would be easy, just one door at a time, measure, hang, then move onto the next. RIGHT?
Heck I have a few Master’s degrees! Ha!

   What I wanted… what I hoped for was to take YOU along a fun step by step journey, to show you, share with you, like all those other cool blogs out there… how YOU TOO can do this yourself, in your old house or new house, and show you how to save money and make a beautiful kitchen.

    But I could not nor would not have taken you on THIS ride. You, being a smart person, would have jumped off the ride, and while sprinting away, over your shoulder you would have shouted back…, “no thanks!”  Which is what I should have done and what I am now doing.

   If there were photos they would be of things like…me standing on the kitchen counter, big heavy door in one hand, propped up on my bent knee, yelling at whoever was closest…my husband, my kids, the dog…the cabinet door…myself! Me dropping things from the top of my ladder, screws, my screw driver. Me with my kitchen in pieces all over my house, after the last week of school, when NOT one thing that was set down, was ever put away, or thrown away… hence my house looks like we just moved in last week and began unpacking boxes…No pictures of that for you! well okay…ONE!
this next photo is not for the faint of heart……

and I still have to pack!!! I have to laugh. 

But Today is a new day. We leave for 10 days tomorrow, and I have to stop, put my tools away, clean up the BIG mess, and get away from this.

    Just because you deserve to know…the truth… the good the bad and the mistakes…Here are few pictures of where we are right now…

     ….when you look at it, remember, each door took me , on average – 1 hour to hang…many hours…
oh well, it will get done, and when it is I will show you the beautiful pictures. Lessons learned. Many many lessons. and for now…..
We are going to Disneyworld!!!!

1 thought on “The Kitchen Cabinet RE-DO

  1. You brave soul. It looks great.

    I redid my kitchen cabinets a few years ago and while I was able to take the doors off by myself, my husband was convinced I couldn’t put them back on, so he took over that part. I didn’t argue. I reused the same doors, but I did change the hardware, so there was some degree of difficulty…

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