Weekend Recap: Cabinet prepwork, Boston and movies

Oh what a weekend. As I type this, I notice I still have some white primer on my hands. Lovely.

Friday night was just a low key evening. We made dinner and then watched a movie - The Tree of Life. It was terrible. Completely awful. I have no idea how it was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture. It was seriously that bad. Adam and I agreed it was probably one of the worst movies we'd ever seen. It was like random clips stream of consciousness style. The first half hour seemed like you were watching Planet Earth, except there was a part with dinosaurs? No idea. It was just bizarre. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. And I'm someone that usually likes indie flicks. I think a review on Netflix summed it up best, "Who needs water-boarding when this film is available, pure torture..."

On Saturday, I got up at 8 so I could stalk the Boston Red Sox website for their Virtual Waiting Room to open to buy tickets. I got into the Virtual Waiting Room at 8:50 (tickets went on sale at 9 am central). At 9 am, I was the third stick man in line. I thought I'd be in by 9:30. Nope. Finally at 10, I was able to get into the ticketing. Unfortunately, by then the seats we wanted were no longer available. Sad face. We had to settle for less than fantastic seats, but they're still decent and we're excited to go. I'm happy we got tickets to begin with though, because when I checked the Saturday game yesterday there were only single seats left. We'll be in Boston for a long weekend in the beginning of August. I can't wait to see the Twins play at Fenway! Now that we for sure have the tickets, I can start booking our hotel and airfare.

Adam and I went to lunch at a Mexican restaurant in West St. Paul which was actually very good. Then we started on our kitchen update supply list. First, it was Lowe's to get the subway tile, grout, adhesive, tiling supplies, primer, sander/deglosser, wood putty, etc. Next it was Hirshfield's where we bought Benjamin Moore paint to match the white subway tile. Our last stop was at Menard's for new white outlets, outlet covers, paint thinner, roller, trays, paper, etc.

Back at home, we hauled all of our loot inside and decided to get started on the cabinets.

The supplies are taking over the table

Day 1:
1. Remove upper cabinet doors.

Removing the cabinet doors - apparently people didn't the last time they were painted because the very top edge of the cabinet doors weren't painted

NAKED!!! Doors removed
* BONUS * You get to see our disorganized cabinets. ::embarrassed::

  2.  Carry downstairs in pairs and label on paper (this was my job)

Labeled

And in order

 3. Wipe cabinet doors down with sander/deglosser

3. Wipe cabinets down with sander/deglosser
(No pugs were harmed despite the stinkiness. We had the window open and hood vent going. Plus Chester was barricaded in the bedroom with a closed door. He pretty much hated it.)

4. Clear counters and cover with paper

So helpful...

5. Fill in all the cracks in the cabinets with wood putty

Look at all these lovely cracks between the cabinets. Yes, that big thing down the middle.

That I fixed

After all the prep work fun, we rewarded ourselves by going out to a movie in Roseville. We saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo and really enjoyed it. I read all the books a few years ago and loved them. It's been a while though, so I wasn't sure how close the movie adhered to the book. It seemed to be pretty close though. Just not quite as darkly disturbing as the books were in parts.

We slept in Sunday morning, and then started Day 2 of our kitchen project.

Day 2:
(Really, it is Day 2. We're just both wearing the same things as Day 1 because they're our project clothes)

1. Sand the wood putty on the cabinets until smooth

Sanding

 2. Prime 2 sides and the back of the cabinet doors

Backs are primed

3. Prime the cabinets upstairs

Primed cabinets

4. Prime the other 2 sides and front of the cabinet doors

I did the details like the sides and around the hinges

Adam did the rolling

5. Fill in unsatisfactory spots in cabinets with 2nd layer of wood putty

6. Prime the 2nd layer of wood putty

We were all ready to start the actual painting in the afternoon, but our paintbrushes weren't dry. So we just relaxed instead. I think we got a lot done over the weekend, but there's still so much to do!