Cabinet Shuffle

And here it is:

The finished project!

As you can see, there's lots of storage in it!  And it has a nice country-cupboard look to it that sets it apart from the other white cupboards in our kitchen.

I still haven't figured out what to put on top of it - it needs a plant or something decorative.

This was a fair bit of work:  because I used alkyd paint the coats needed to dry a day before I could apply another coat, and the painting ended up stretching over a couple of weeks as a result.  Painting inside cupboards is a real pain, too, literally:  my back was killing me every night.

Expense-wise, it wasn't bad.  I probably spent between $175 and $200 all in.  To buy a new cabinet like this would be about $400 or so (and assembly required), so I feel pretty good about it.

It's nice to change up the kitchen a bit.  The grey paint on the walls is new as well - it was green, but I was tired of the colour.  We had it redone in 2001, so it has needed a little work.  It could use more, but that's all it's getting for now.

No more projects until the new year!

Retirement Sucks!

Just kidding, it's freakin' awesome!  My worst day retired is still way better than a good day at the office.

So here's the thing about retirement, though:  you have to set your own schedule.  This is something I am struggling with; I want to be a good girl and do my housework on a regular basis (like I had to do when I was working), but when the days stretch out before you seemingly endlessly with few hard commitments, it's easy to say you'll do it tomorrow, as you become distracted by things like blogs.  Hmmm.  You see the problem.

Anyway, the fact that there is a warm kitty curled up on my legs is what I am blaming my current laziness on.  Bad kitty, Jezebel!  But don't move.

The freedom of retirement means I can take on projects I never would have gotten to do while working.  For instance, when we had some windows replaced this fall, and the work messed up the walls a bit, I decided to repaint the kitchen!  I will post pictures soon, but the kitchen is still in upheaval because I started a project in August that is only now almost finished:  purchasing and painting an old china cabinet.

In its original home.

I bought it from a nice young woman on Facebook (yeah, I know, I said I wouldn't go there anymore).  It looks pretty good in this photo (the only pre-paint one I have), but it had been exposed to some weather and was a bit rough.  What I needed was more storage space, and this is going to help out a lot.

Once I'm finished I'll post a completed pic.  Soon!