Well…after starting on the doors this morning and spending 3 hours working on them, I am going to have to adjust my schedule since there is no way I’m going to get them ready for paint in three days…only got three sanded and filled in three hours and, with 11 to do, that makes at least the rest of the week for sanding and filling and I won’t get to painting until this weekend or next week…and my hands are right back where they were with stiffness and pain and I split my left thumb open…okay, nope…it’s a damn splinter from working on the doors and it hurts like crazy….and my right thumb is about done from sanding and it’s going to hurt for the rest of the week if I keep going….but, I have to so there is no if about it…just have to resign myself to being in pain for the next two weeks…okay, just pulled a half inch splinter out of my thumb that went straight in so you could only see a tiny part of the end of it but I was finally able to get hold of it with my tweezers and I was really surprised when it just kept coming out as I pulled on it…at least that’s one less pain to deal with…need to hit it with neosporin…

Well…haven’t done much today but sand some drips off the bottom of the cabinet that the range hood is going to mount to so it will be level…and then I painted the places I sanded so there will be good coverage under the hood…not the bare grease soaked boards that were there before I cleaned and painted it….and I ordered the last blind for the single kitchen window and that will be here next week just in time to hang it to complete the kitchen…should have the doors for the cabinets done and hung by then and will be working on the baseboards, walls, and ceiling…will probably do the door frames after everything else but I do need to sand the sides of them so I won’t mess up the grey paint on the walls…and I found out that I can get the range hood cheaper in store at depot than I can get it on Amazon so I can just go in and buy one when I’m ready for it…and that should be by the end of next week and I didn’t fill the mounting holes from the last one since it was a Broan like the black one I’m getting so I hope I just have to put screws in and hang it….but now, I’m done for the day and am going to watch football for a while and then I have the new Boba Fett Star Wars series out on plex to watch for the night…

Well…as you know, I have been abusing my hands for the past few weeks as I work on my kitchen and they are covered with cuts and bruises along with the damage to my right thumb that hurts constantly now…but, I took the day off working on the house yesterday and purposely tried to do the littlest amount I could do with my hands…and, other than my guilt from not working, it appears that it was a good idea…the nasty cut on my right index finger that has felt like a supercharged paper cut is starting to heal and it doesn’t hurt much to do this when it was so damn painful Friday that I almost stopped doing these…and the overall stiffness has improved, too, and I can move them much easier today and I hope taking today off will continue to help them improve….I have to remember that I’m not young anymore and I can’t just keep abusing my body like I could when I was younger…and I really don’t have a schedule like I had when I was younger, either…back then I had to juggle work, school, and home maintenance but now I just have this place to work on and I can look forward to taking a couple of weeks off after I finish the kitchen in a few weeks….that doesn’t help with the guilt of taking time off but I’m working on that….

Well….finally, I’m done with the cupboards…or only the actual cupboards and not the 11 doors that I still need to fill, sand, paint, and drill new holes for the pulls…and my hands seem like they won’t take any more abuse for a while so I may have to take the weekend off and let them rest..I guess they look okay with what I had to work with and I do really like both the grey and white paint…but, I pulled off a couple of small parts of the grey paint on the interiors today with the painters tape I put on to keep the white off the grey…and I think that was just because they hadn’t had time to cure yet and I can fix those couple of spots in about a minute so no big deal…but, that reminds me that I do have to wait a week or so before I start putting the stuff back in the cupboards so the paint will be fully cured and won’t stick to my dishes….I am going to have to take a day to clean up my tools after all of the dust that the sander spread all over everything and get my work box ready for the rest of the work in the kitchen…but not now…have been on the run since 7 this morning and it is 4 now so that is 9 hours and that is enough for one day…still thinking about that cocktail…

Well…after painting the first coat of white on the exterior of the cupboards, I am a little disappointed in how they came out…there are still so many flaws in them that I missed that they are little better than they were…okay, more than that but after 3 weeks of sanding, filling and working on them, I really expected they would look better than they do…I know they are 82 years old but damn, they should look better after the abuse I put myself through working on them….lots of the flaws just didn’t show up until I painted them and I blame myself for that…should have kept working on them and worked harder…oh, well….still have the second coat to put on later and I am hoping that will hide some of the flaws…darn…almost makes me want to have a cocktail or seven tonight….

Well…finally, I got the interiors of the upper cabinet done today with two coats of paint and that is a relief…I probably could have done a better job of prepping it but I just ran out of patience and got damn tired of all the dust…and I’m still feeling the effects of breathing in the dust even with wearing a dust mask all the time and I was just done with it…but, it looks a lot better than the dirty, stained white that was in there…and getting that done today gets me to working on the white exterior of the cabinets tomorrow…I may go out and get another gallon of the grey paint tomorrow morning so I’ll have it on hand if I want to get started on the doors over the weekend…and I forgot to get oranges at aldi’s and I tried some provalone cheese slices for 1.49 for half a pound that are really good so I think I may get more of those, too…I did get out and get more sanding pads and tape at HF this morning and I did get the seasoned beef steak roast for 1.79 a pound and I am thawing it in the fridge for a few days before I can use it for beef/broccoli stir fry over the weekend…so, one more errand tomorrow…man, I’m spending a lot of cash this month…

Well…darn, after the paint on the inside of the cupboards dried, it appears that they are going to need two coats of paint to make a good finish…so, I painted the other upper cupboards on the other side of the sink so I can do both second coats and the last lower one tomorrow along with the one under the sink…then on to the one over the stove Thursday and I may be able to do both coats on that one in one day if I get started early enough….but, I don’t think I’ll get to the white paint until Monday…or maybe over the weekend…I would like to get started on the doors soon so I can start using my kitchen again although I can put the dishes back in the cupboards without the doors and that can probably happen over the weekend if I can get to the white paint by then….darn, I need to go out and do the snow again……no grocery run tomorrow with 6-8 more inches coming tonight…ick…

Well…the plan for today was to just wipe down the cabinets and get ready to paint tomorrow…but, I finished the cleaning up around nine and there was no way I was just going to sit on my butt for the rest of the day….so I got the paint and bushes out and got started on painting the interior of the cabinets…finished one side of the upper and lower ones and that was enough for one day… maybe…I have a lot of cleanup to do today so that may be enough so I don’t feel guilty about not working hard enough…or I may paint more…who knows? I do like how the grey paint looks but I have to be realistic that these are 82 year old, crappy cabinets that are never going to look new again…but, they are clean and that is really what I was looking for and the paint is covering well enough that I think I can get away with a single coat…but I am doing two coats of the white on the outside of the cabinets since I’ve done that on the windows and it came out good….I probably shouldn’t push my old body too hard since I do need to do the snow this afternoon…and I do hurt like crazy…more later…

Well…after all of of the work and dust and cleaning…it’s nice to have my kitchen back…or at least a little back where I can start to use the counters again and not work out of the dining room…it is going to take a couple of more weeks until I can call it done but I’ll take the little bits of progress…and know that I’m over the hump with it and can see the light at the end of the tunnel…I’m not sure if it is as good as I wanted it to be but as I’ve said before, I’ve had enough of working on it and it is never going to be perfect with the house 82 years old…I could have lived with it as it was and I did for almost a year…but it wasn’t clean and that is one thing I can’t live with…I’m not sure how much work I’m going to be able to do tomorrow…my back has started to hurt like crazy along with my hands…and my eyes haven’t gotten over all of the dust and feel like they are full of grit even though I’ve been flooding them with eye drops all day..I did forget to take some of the nasal spray allergy meds that help but I’m too close to taking a red dot for that so I guess I’ll wait another hour and then take an ibuprofen, too…this has been one of the biggest projects in one room I have ever done and I am worn out….damn, it’s going to take a month to get rid of the dust in there…just cleaned the blinds a bit and I think I have more dust on my clothes than on the blinds…oh, well…

Well…I’m sure what has changed but I hadn’t had one bird on my feeder for the past couple of weeks but today the Juncoes are all over it and pushing each other off the sill…and I don’t understand that since they are sparrow sized and there is plenty of room on the sill and feeder for all of them…even had a few titmouses that have poked their heads up and looked in the window today…I don’t quite have a Juncoe mosh pit but it has been close at times and it has been fun to watch having 5 birds out there at once….I did get out to shovel the snow and we have had over a foot out here today…and that didn’t help my hands with the pain at all….it even hurts to type right now and I am glad I have an easy day tomorrow so they can start to heal before I get painting Wed…sure hope I don’t have to paint left handed since that would be really ugly…it’s hard enough to get a good paint job right handed and I did way too much work on prep to do a crappy job painting the cupboards…it’s probably going to take 3 days to paint the inside and outside of them so it looks like I won’t get to the doors until next week…and I need to let the paint harden before I start to put stuff back in them but I can do that without the doors on….but I’m not going to put anything back in the kitchen until I have the whole thing finished and the grey paint on the walls, the baseboards sanded and painted white, and painting the ceiling in the eggshell white that I used on the windows…okay, that’s enough…need to start thinking about dinner….