The Kitchen Project

On Friday, we painted the trim a subtle white called White Chocolate. The arrival and installation of the cabinets before all of the crown molding had been installed meant that Greg had to do some stretching, craning, and awkward weight balancing on sills and cabinets to reach every corner of the room. I stuck to the windows and door frames. We did two coats one after the other and are happy with the results.

Although the kitchen is far from functional, we are now eating out of the new refrigerator and freezer. It beeps when the door isn’t fully shut and we have learned when it is closed and when it isn’t.

Yesterday, we turned our attention to the hallway. The replastering of the entrance to the kitchen required the hallway to be touched up, and since we lacked the paint we’d used in the rest of the hallway and had never finished the ceiling the last time, we decided to finish the work started years ago while moving in a slightly different direction in color. The ceiling was repainted white over the existing patchy single coat of gray. Greg chose a slightly greener tone for the walls, which he loves and I’m learning to appreciate. I don’t think we’ll need to redo the white trim around the doors, but the crown molding bears the scars of both ceiling and wall paint and needs to be done. We may replace it to match the kitchen depending on the cost.

Sunday was also devoted to working in the backyard. Our garden has been out of sight, out of mind since we handed over the back porch to construction. We’ve kept it under some control with basic weeding and mowing, but the most successful shrubs needed clipping, the tomatoes had yet to be put in the ground, and wildflowers had swarmed our perennials and needed to be pulled out in large clumps. I also removed several years’ worth of dead blackberry canes. The blackberries always ripen the week we’re away at the beach, and the birds get to them before we do; let’s hope this year is different.