A Boy Named Dutch

Posted on February 16, 2011 by April

Remember my muddy $5 oops paint, and what an awful shade of mud it was even after using copious amounts of white paint to lighten it up? Well, after dealing with my muddy test spots for a couple of weeks, I bit the bullet and just painted over them. My kitchen cabinets are now white…again.

{And I just couldn’t resist the self portrait!}

The paint is Dutch Boy’s Bright White, Medium Base, Semi Gloss. And thanks to the cheaper price for a gallon as opposed to a quart, my doors and trim work will now be Dutch Boy Bright White as well.

It’s actually not a bad color in person, and in the day light. The picture makes things look a little minty green, but it really is white. And it went on quite smoothly, and being low VOC it wasn’t too stinky. I may be a Dutch Boy convert.

And speaking of paint (actually paint has nothing to do with it, but I really couldn’t find a good transitional sentence), Bubba (aka my husband) and I celebrated our first married Valentine’s Day together. He gave me the funniest doggie card signed by Annie, Goldie and himself, and these…

And he did the DISHES! Without me asking him too!!! Yes, most women would want something more valentiney for the big V day, but not me. Give me a silly card that makes me laugh, some pretty yellow flowers, and an empty kitchen sink, and I’m happy as a clam. He also made me a yummy dinner, but of course, being the wonderful hubby he is, that happens every night. ( I hope this post earns me some brownie points!)

I hope you all had a wonderful Valentine’s Day! And if your anti-Valentine’s Day, I hope you were able to adequately avoid the sappiness of the day!

Clear as mud…

Posted on February 11, 2011 by April

Remember how I had briefly mentioned my desire to paint the kitchen cabinets with a can of $5 oops paint from Home Depot? And how the color was a little darker than I wanted, and it would be SO easy to lighten it up with a touch of white paint?

Oh how nieve I was….and am.

Saturday, it was cold, and a little snowy out, the perfect day to chip away at my indoor Honey-Do list. (Yes, I make a Honey-Do list for myself. Don’t worry, Bubba has one too.) Somewhere near the top of this list, I hand penciled in an experiment with my oops paint. So, I got out my experimenting bucket, and played chemist.

Here’s my lab…

After pouring my too-dark-for-me oops paint into a clean and unused 5 gallon bucket, and of course after pulling on my white lab coat, stylin’ goggles and rubber gloves (not really), I began stirring a few drops of white paint into the mix.

Hmm…still too dark, and a bit blurry I might add.

So after adding and stirring, adding and stirring, adding and stirring, I ended up using a quart and a half of white paint. Bringing the grand total of this little experiment (so far) to $20. In hindsight, I should have just spent those same twenty smack-a-roos on the paint color I wanted. But then I couldn’t say I was the proud owner of the gallon and a half mud colored paint.

Here’s what it looks like on my cabinet doors.

The picture is dark and distorts the color a little, but believe me, it’s not pretty. I’ve contemplated adding even more white paint to see if that would lighten things up a bit. But after my investment of nearly $20 for “cheap” paint, I may just call it a dud and move on.

Live and learn I guess, oops paint is hit or miss. Unfortunately this time, it was a miss.

But to leave on a positive note, I’ll share one of my favorite hits, at least for this week.

3 jars, and a set of three metal scoops from Wal-Mart. The scoops were 3 bucks for the pack, and the small jars were $3 each while the larger of the three was $4. Not a bad deal, especially since they made me so happy.

Here are my little jars holding cotton balls and q-tips in the bathroom.

Oh and that reminded me, we replaced the old cruddy faucet with a brand new sparkly one.

I’ll be posting about that process soon. Once I find the memory card that has the photos of the grossness. It was nas-TEE. Although, I find myself saying that with every project that requires ripping out the old and putting in the new. Comes with owning a 50+ year old home I suppose.

I hope this post was as clear as mud to all of you!

Hello Pinky…

Posted on December 2, 2010 by April

Over the long weekend, I thought it would be nice to complete the painting of my bathroom. If you remember correctly, I had started painting ole peachy blue way back in May. Being the procrastinator that I am, I’ve put off completing this little project until now. Actually, to be honest, it’s really not done yet. I still have some cutting in to do, and the cupboard doors still need to be painted. Unfortunately, those are still lime green, completely throwing off my soft blue soothing vibe.

Anywho, the ceiling of the bathroom was still the same old grubby white it was when we bought our little castle. So, off to Home Depot I went to purchase paint for ceiling. Now, being the novice I am, I thought that picking out paint for the ceiling would be a no brainer. I just wanted a boring white ceiling, that wouldn’t grow fun little organisms. A paint by Glidden seemed to fit the bill, it went on pink and dried bright white. Perfect! I would know where I had missed so that none of the old grubby white would show through my pretty new clean white ceiling.

Happily I went a painting, within an hour or so, my ceiling was pink, and slowly turning to white. Had I been thinking like a blogger I would have taking a picture at this point. But unfortunately, I was being very task minded and just wanted to gitter dun. And gitter dun I did. Within another couple of hours, my ceiling was bright white and pretty! I was thrilled! Until the next day, when the morning showers were finished. And I discovered to my horror that bathroom ceilings do not stay dry….

The above picture was taken after the ceiling had time to dry, so it was even pinker before. And no, that’s not something growing on the shower wall, that’s the plastic surround that we are planning on changing out someday. Hopefully soon….

Here you can see the pink spots more clearly.

But I would like to mention that after a week or so the ceiling paint seems to have “aged” so the pink isn’t as abundant. I guess I’ll just have to chalk this up to another home improvement lesson. Paint that goes on pink when wet, but dries white, does not stay white in a bathroom with poor ventilation.