We love DIY!

Eh, kinda. We've been toiling in spurts over this kitchen for so long, I've forgotten what it feels like to really cook something that requires more than a pot, cabbage, sausage and stock. There's been drywall dust everywhere and it gets into everything, and when I've gotten it cleaned up, it magically reappears! But I'm ahead here...

So, Eric stripped the awful polka-dot-and-spiral wallpaper we've lived with for over a year, and scraped off the remaining residue. We had an uneven area patched and re-plastered, and primed everything so we'd be ready when we finally chose colors and painted. Mind, we hadn't agreed even ONCE on colors! We have a new stainless dishwasher and will be acquiring a new black fridge and stainless/black range in the coming year. Why? We think black fridges and ranges look cool, that's why. And our current stuff is O-L-D old.

Up there's Eric knocking out the wall above our cabinets. Hence the dust! We're putting in opaque sliding doors on tracks there, for storage. Our kitchen is pretty small so that will be handy. I enjoyed Mike's ancient shop vac! Look at that thing, it's like 25 years old and it spits dust up out of the vents on top. Looks like an easy Christmas present to me! (Shh, Sue) I might leave the insides of that one cabinet painted red, just for kicks.

Here's what the inside of that wall looks like,
complete with vintage Pepsi can. The cord goes
to our doorbell. Below are an admittedly cruddy
yet effective shim, and the crumbling ceiling inside the wall space. I'm actually excited about the ceiling part--I think we'll cover that up with those pretty aluminum (or are they tin?) patterned ceiling panes (? I know nothing) that you see in lots of restaurants around Omaha. That'll be pretty slick! Too bad you'll only see them as the sliding doors open and shut. Unless I can talk someone into putting them elsewhere too...




On Saturday morning-ish, we went to Lowe's to choose paint. No, we hadn't agreed on colors yet. What's going to look good with stainless AND black AND doesn't remotely resemble the palette the previous owners had? That pretty well eliminated any fall colors--no reds, oranges or pretty orangey-yellows. I liked grey but Eric didn't. He liked some yellow rock color but I didn't. We couldn't agree on a green or blue, didn't want white or cream. He wasn't game for my all-out vibrant-Frida-colors Mexi-theme (I already have free reign over the main bathroom). And we thought brown would clash. The only thing on which we could agree was a sand-textured paint I'd seen in a friend's house, because it would disguise the old-house irregularities in the walls. After squabbling quietly in the aisle and somehow making each other crack up in the meantime, we began to piece together a color scheme that may or may not work. Here is the main color, a dark grey-green (compromise!):



We're pretty pleased! It looks like a professional stucco wall and it's a nice color. I think the first picture looks like suede. Yay! The texture in the second pic is a little easier to see. And here's most of what I can get for the kitchen:

We spent tonight touching up thin spots and correcting mistakes, and trying to squeeze in some studying (me) and gym time (Eric), so we haven't done the doorjambs or windowsills yet. You'll have to wait and see what those colors are. :) I'll probably spend tomorrow night doing that while Eric finishes up the cabinets.


After this...countertops and floor!