{Thank you all for your thoughtful comments and prayers on the last post. I feel like there is so much more to be said, especially on the points you brought up. Mulling over future discussions.}
I'm not always big on book signings. Autographs don't really do much for me, but book signings are usually accompanied by book talks, which I enjoy.
Last Saturday, Sarah, Emily and I went to a book signing, and the talk was pretty brief, but really? We were there to just say hi to John and Sherry Petersik, the duo behind the fabulous Young House Love blog.
The signing was going to start at noon, and so Sarah and I got there just before 10 in order to make sure that we would get a good spot in line.
And while I've always known that Portland is pretty laid back, in this case, it was really laid back. As in, no one was in line. The store wasn't even open. We were the first people in line. It was a triumphant moment.
After deliberating for approximately 5 seconds, we decided that we would forfeit our chances of being number one, and go get coffee. We did, however, get a picture for the record. We also got a super duper parking spot right in front of the store, which counts for a lot.
That's me. Showing my non-Portland roots by being too early to a book signing.
Giving up our place in line (I think the next people arrived about 20 minutes later) meant that we could wander around the store for awhile.
This couch belongs in Sarah's house. Seriously.
Eventually, we did get in line, and after a short wait we got to meet John and Sherry.
They actually remembered us from when they visited last spring, so that was fun. And I got to say what I wanted to say, which was, "Thank you for inspiring me to paint my kitchen cabinets."
It's all I wanted to say, but it was a happy moment for me because my kitchen cabinets are one of the biggest accomplishments I've done in our house. I haven't posted pictures before because I keep thinking that I would stage the shots better, or wait for better lighting, or for the time when we do actually replace the sink faucet or paint the pantry door.
But since that's going to happen...oh, maybe, never, then I'm just showing them now.
I don't even have true before and after pictures because I'm not great about taking "before" pictures.
Even still, here's mostly what we had going on late last spring:
A true before shot would show
--wall paper in the kitchen
--a rectangular florescent light on the ceiling
--a window instead of the sliding glass door, and a dining room table in that back area
--no window and beadboard on the near left of the picture
But I don't have that. So you can use your imagination.
I can show you the (new) dining room wall before the window went in.
The window technically looks into the playroom--not outside--but the playroom has outside windows, and so some of that light enters the dining room. It's all about more light, and less cave.
But let's focus on the kitchen cabinets or I'll get totally sidetracked.
Here's a good before shot of the cabinets. It was the day Jordan--our contractor friend who has done several projects on the house--installed the tile backsplash.
And then after he installed the tile and I painted the cabinets:
Before:
After:
Over by the coffee bar area, we actually do have a true "before" picture. It's a still shot that I grabbed from video footage:
This was with my grandma's furniture, a just-turned-2 Jules, and faux-brick wallpaper on the back wall.
And then after:
We did quite a lot with this area. We installed an IKEA wooden countertop right on top of the existing formica countertop, added a wooden backsplash (that's from an old sailboat), took out the decorative piece of wood that joined the two cabinets, and installed two shelves. I also replaced the yellow glass in the cabinet doors with frosted white glass. We've been pretty tickled with how this turned out. Particularly since the countertop, wooden backsplash and shelves were just wood we already had hanging around.
So, there you go. There wasn't a chance I was going to buy new kitchen cabinets, and I won't lie and say painting them was a piece of cake.
No.
It was hard work.
But the hard work totally paid off, and THAT is why I wanted to see John and Sherry last Saturday. Because they helped me take my kitchen from this:
to this
It's a really good feeling.
