Smells Like Trouble

And no, it's not those dirty dishes in the sink.  

There was, however, a very subtle yet disturbing odor coming from the cabinet under the sink.  When we first moved in, we blamed the odor on just "mustiness" that might come from a house going uninhabited for a time.  And although it wasn't noticeable to most people, the smell didn't go away like we thought it would.  It wasn't overly apparent; you probably wouldn't smell anything if you came into our house, but when we would come home after being out of town for the weekend, there it was.

So then we renovated our bathroom, and when Eric was scraping up the floor tile, it smelled to me like a freshly tilled garden (keep in mind, this is not how normal houses are supposed to smell).

So we thought, "Aha! This rotted floor must be the source of the mustiness!"  But even when the renovation was complete, the smell smelled on.

Well, long story short (I know, too late), the smell was coming from our wood cabinets.  It became absolutely apparent when a small leak under the sink got the wood wet and-- boom!  That some old smell we were all too familiar with about knocked us over.  So we sprayed some mold killer, slapped on a few coats of stain-blocking primer and viola!  No more smell!  This is a big deal, y'all! These are results you simply can't appreciate through your computer screens, and unfortunately computerized "scratch and sniff" technology is beyond the scope of this blog.

Can we talk about that trash compactor?  Your days are numbered, buddy.

And now, seeing as it occurred to me that I've been sharing "before and after" cabinet pictures without really discussing the process, here are some "progress shots" from yesterday:

I've read a lot of "How to Paint Your Kitchen Cabinet" how-tos and all of them start out with sanding and/or de-glossing the cabinets.  Ugh, sounds like a lot of work and dust.  But when I saw written on the label of our primer paint can "No need to sand," along with the fact that these cabinets weren't treated with much finish, I just went for it.  No sanding, no de-glossing, no problem. 

Nothing says "abyss" like reaching your hand into a 43-year-old cabinet that you can't see the back of.

Painting the lower cabinets was way easier than painting the upper cabinets, so that was really encouraging because we could be done painting in just one more weekend!  Then we can start framing the cabinet doors and installing hardware.  Here's the hardware we like:

Things are changing around here!  Until next time...

Sal

Bring on the Rain

Things are moving quickly here on Briarwood Lane!  On Friday Eric took the day off so that he and a friend of our's could re-shingle our roof.  A lot of people ask me, "What is your next project going to be?" and seem interested in why we tackle things in the order that we do.  Well, we like to split our goals into three sections:  Big projects which are more expensive and/or disruptive/labor intensive, little projects that are less expensive and/or can be done little by little, and extra credit/undecided projects, which we'll tackle only once we've completed the necessary goals and then decide that we still want to do them.  The "big" goals we have for this house included new windows, full-bathroom gut job, new roof, kitchen wall demolition and installing wood floors.  Small goals include, but are not limited to things like painting, crown moulding, redecorating, landscaping, etc.  There are obviously a ton of other things that could be added to these lists, but you get the idea.

The first big goal we completed was installing new windows, which was something we decided to make a priority since our windows were in disrepair and winter was fast approaching.  The next big project was the bathroom renovation, because...let's be honest, we couldn't have gone much longer with that crumbling sub-floor.  After the bathroom a lot of people asked, "Are you going to do the kitchen next?!"  I wish! Around that time was when we noticed a little water spot on our ceiling and we knew that the roof would have to come next.  So let's take a look!  But first, a before picture...

Aww heck, let's just go back to the beginning while we're at it!

See that long area on the top left of the roof that always looks wet?  We found out that was a type of moss growing.  

I don't really have a before picture of the roof in the back of the house, but here's a progress shot of Eric and Vince on the roof:

To the left of Eric's knee you can barely see the old rusted hood vent...it looked pretty bad.

While the guys were banging around on the roof, I was in the kitchen...you guessed it, painting! 

So now all of the upper cabinets are painted...whew!  Next up, bottom cabinets! You might have noticed that I did not paint the inside of the cabinet above the sink, and the reason why is because it contains a can light.  While all of the other uppermost upper cabinets will soon have glass fronts, this cabinet's face will remain solid wood because of the can light, so I figured it didn't matter if I didn't paint the inside, plus it would have been really hard to paint around that can.  

We're feeling very thankful for all of the work we've been able to do in just ten months, especially when you consider that we've been able to check 3 major items off of our "big project" list!  And in case you were wondering, we are still not regretting having bought a fixer-upper!  

Sal