Our Kitchen Part 2

I recently wrote a post about how God miraculously gave me my kitchen.  Put it together perfectly as only He could do.  It once again, at that time in my life, taught me lessons in trusting Him and how perfectly He provides for us in the big and small things of our lives.  Every time I think about my kitchen it builds my faith and helps me in things we might be going thru now.  God is so good.

I absolutely am grateful and love our home.  I could tell story after story about how God provided for the building of our home just as He provided for my kitchen.  God put my kitchen together for me back in 2008.  The only thing we did, was a nurse that was working for us, put a coat of paint onto the cabinets for us when we got them.

When I am out antiquing with my dad, the furniture and types of things I love are cracked and peeling, old, worn and well used.  I have never minded peeling paint or worn looking things.  As a matter of fact I am drawn to them and appreciate them.  When I buy things and bring them home I know I will never yell at the children for scratching them or being to hard on things.  I mean we try to be careful but my children are special needs and there is a lot of us.  It is not ever in their mind to not set a wet glass or damp cloth on a piece of wood furniture no matter how many times I could tell them.  We live in our home 24/7 and are just hard on things.

Just as an example look at my kitchen floor.

We did a lot of research as to what flooring we wanted to put in the addition when we added on.  This flooring was tough, water proof, easy to put down and had a 15 year warranty.  We put it in the whole addition.  They were not figuring on our family before putting that warranty on it.  It started wearing thru the top layer of "wood like appearance" in just a few years.  We live in our home every day with farm life and a wheel chair.  We spend a lot of time in our kitchen.  So the whole kitchen floor, thru normal wear and tear, looks like this.  "Character"!  That is what my dad and I say about furniture that is worn and peeling.  My life and furniture has "Character".

So back to the kitchen cabinets...Over the years the hinges have slowly started to break.  Since I am not a picky person and make due a lot, here has been some of my fixes...Now don't laugh, I am being real and honest here.

 Yes, that is a finishing nail.

And...heh hem..that is a paper clip.

You know...I have a busy house full of children.  A child opens a cabinet door and it partly falls off. I look at it and see the hinge pin wore out and grab the nearest thing that fits.  It works now so don't give it another thought.  A lot of my hinges looked like this.  Some other ones broke beyond repair and a run to the store got me a hinge that didn't match but worked, so I put it on and went on with my life. 

A few weeks ago I went to open one of the bottom cabinets in the kitchen and the whole hinge broke in two.  I started looking around at the cabinets and chuckled a bit to myself.  So many hinges were patched or damaged.  Really they held up well for many years.  As they were given to us and used by the previous people and then us.  So the poor hinges were just wore out.  I thought about it and decided to do a project and replace all the hinges.  Then I thought.  Well, I will have to fill previous holes with wood fill anyways as the new hinges wont match up, so  might as well sand, prime and repaint the cabinets. 

I looked around the house and had the primer and still had the rest of the paint used the last time in good condition.  So I just had to buy the hinges.  I decided to do just the bottom ones all at once first, in case life happened and I needed things back together sooner.  Oh Lord, bless Tim good for putting up with all the things I do around here like this...

I took all the doors and hardware off all the fronts.  Took everything out of all the cabinets and put it all over the rest of the house.  The next day I was going to sand everything down.  I was going to do the doors out side on the porch so as to keep the dust down in the house. The next day (this is the end of January)  The snow hit.  Hmmmm.  So as not to waste time, I pulled up all the old contact paper from under the cabinets and put down vinyl tiles that I already had around.

Now I don't know about you...but it is very hard to function with a large family with ones kitchen all apart!  So, we dealt with it, I was patient and the snow was about gone by Friday.  I was going to do it then but that little foster baby arrived that spent a few days with us.  Now, I was not going to take a moment away from that delicious baby and the time I could spend with her.  So, the kitchen stayed apart and all over my house.  The baby went home and I started working on it all that week.  I prayed before I started and all along as I worked, as I can't afford to waste materials or make costly mistakes.  He is always so good to me to help me do these things.

It has taken me two weeks with all the drying time in between coats but the bottom cabinets are about finished!  I went with strap hinges as they look country and sturdy.  Sturdy is good!  While I was putting up the doors, You can see where on one of the cabinet doors, I had to flip it to make the hinges fit, after I had already painted everything.  I had to remove the handle and move it up, so filled those handle holes  They are on the bottom second cabinet from the left.  I will paint over that when dry.  No biggie.

So the bottom is about done!  Now I hope to get to the top ones done before the bottoms start to show to much "character"!

God is so good.  He helped me with this project 100% and reminded me of His faithfulness and provision thru the whole project.  As I rely on God to help me do and complete this project I will post agian once the upper ones are finished.

Joshua 1:9  Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.

 

Blessings, 

susan