Progress Report

Before we even moved into this house, we started working on the kitchen. I took down all the cabinet doors and drawers to transform the gloomy seventies look into a more modern one by painting them white. In the meantime Ryan ripped out the ceiling, painted the walls, and replaced the fixtures. The painting took a bit longer than anticipated. In fact, it is still not done. But, we are making progress. Sort of.

You know how they say "When it sounds too good to be true, it usually is?" After reading some rave reviews on the web, I decided to use Rustoleum's Cabinet Transformation kit. It contains everything you need for a complete cabinet make-over: a bottle of de-glosser (overpriced Spic & Span, if you ask us), a bond coat, optional decorative glazing, and the final clear protective top coat.

Supposedly two coats of the bond coat will turn those nasty dark tinted doors into fresh white colored ones. Not true. Even after three coats, you could still see brush strokes here and there. I was okay with that, though, and felt a fourth coat wasn't necessary. There is perfection and then there is completion.

We have 27 doors and 11 drawers. The doors were painted front and back, three coats on each side. 27 x 2 x 3 = 162. Add the 33 coats of paint on the drawers to that and you have 195 coats of paint. That does not include the 65 coats of the clear protective top coat still to be added, nor the painting of the cabinet frames. It's a lot of painting. A LOT. I cannot begin to tell you how much I have come to detest this project.

But the end is in sight. All of the doors and drawers are done, as well as half of the cabinet frames. But then. I found out the clear protective top coat is not really clear at all. It dries yellowish, like aged varnish. My white cabinet doors all have a stained, dirty look to them. Every single one, though some worse than others. As if someone peed all over the cabinets and did not wipe it off. It's hideous!

Can you spell F R U S T R A T I O N?

I am sure if you use a different color than white and/or apply the optional decorative glazing, there would be no problem. But we did not. We wanted simple white cabinets. Argh!!! I must say though, when I just walked downstairs to pour myself a cup of coffee, I was nice to walk into a kitchen with doors on the cabinets instead of on the dining room floor.

Perhaps the pee stains will grow on me.