Old Mother Hubbard

I promised I would tell you guys about the cabinets in my kitchen. I will try to make it as exciting a possible.

Here is a sample of what we had to start with. They are about 32 years old and very well made. I thought about replacing them altogether for about a half second. During that half second I saw hundred dollar bills in multitude disappearing out of thin air. In that same moment I decided PAINT would be the better option. So operation "cabinet facelift" ensued.

Off to Lowes we went.

If all of the cabinets in the kitchen looked as good as the ones above, all I would have done was change out the hardware. Clearly, the previous owners favored about 4 specific cabinets. 32 years of love and abuse was very evident on those 4 cabinets.

Here we are after about 4 days of work. The hardware angel at Lowes filled us in on the "easy" 3-step process of cabinet painting. "Easy" is obviously a relative term! Also, it may just be me but I'm sure there were more than 3 steps!

Lee removed all of the doors and hardware and we laid them out atop tarps on the screened porch.

The next step was the most offensive in my opinion.

We had to rub every surface with this stuff called deglosser. Oy, did it put off some fumes!!!

Gracie was deglossing the doors outside with Holly and Abbie. After about an hour she came into the kitchen where the rest of us were deglossing the facings. She announced "This stuff is just like moonshine! It's clear and it'll make you drunk as a skunk!"

We quickly inquired how she knew so much about moonshine. Her reply: "I watch Andy Griffith". Who knew Andy was so...educational?

Check out that headache, uh I mean hinge above . We found out in a hurry that they are unique. Unique= no longer manufactured. No other hinges on the market would do the trick, it had to be these because of the way the cabinets were made. I was not about to put the almost black from years of grime hinges back on my freshly painted white cabinets. Once again the hardware angel of Lowes swooped in with a solution. Spray paint!

Reluctantly I scrubbed all 38 of those crazy things with Greased Lightning and laid them out to be painted. Crossing my fingers, I gave the first one a coat of matte silver spray. To my utter delight and shock, instantly the hinge looked brand new. I almost cried!

I have a feeling that any of you ladies who've done home repair projects will understand my overwhelming emotion.

Here it is all put together. The handles I agonized over are now all installed and they look perfect with the spray painted hinges.

What's next?!?