Renovating Mom's Kitchen: Happy Christmas Present to Mom!

For Christmas this year the four Somers kids and their spouses decided to clean, sand and paint the kitchen cabinents for mom.  One thing I love about our family is that whenever we get together, we work hard, play hard, and go a little crazy.  It's a lot of fun.  We got babysitters for the little kidlets (thanks Xochitle, Karina, and Shonna) so we could work without little helping hands.  Then we got to work (about 10:30 in the morning).  All of us worked until 1 in the morning, and two of us worked until 5am!  It was quite an adventure.  We hoped that mom would be happy  having her cupboard doors back on (they got taken off several years ago).  Well, here is the slide show of our craziness.  Have fun:

First we unloaded everything in the kitchen and

 stacked it all in, on, and around the dining room table. 

You never realize just how much stuff is in your kitchen until you start

taking everything out of every nook and crany. 

Mom wasn't supposed to get out of bed, but she kept sneaking in

and trying to get a peek at what we were doing to her house! 

One time we actually had to block the dining room door

with large items she couldn't move to keep her out!   

These are the walls and cabinets after we got everything out and started washing it down. 

One of the goals was to get rid of the evil dark green (almost black) paint on the walls. 

another "pre" shot.  Some of the cabinets had never been painted. 

 It is an old house with lumpy walls and lots of seams. 

We did a little sanding and a lot of scrubbing.

Here is Aurora trying to scrape some glue off of this counter.  The counter had a nasty piece of linoleum on it that was peeling, worn, and chipped.  We stripped the linoleum off and tried hard to rescue the wood from its congealed mass of ancient glue. 

 

This is William's idea of how to get the glue off. He wanted a torch or flame-thrower,

but had to satisfy himslef with paint-thinner and a lighter.

Yes, he is a Pyro.

 Fortunately, the house did not burn down.

Some of the glue actually melted and scraped right off,

but it was such a tedious project that we left it so we could get to painting. 

"Yeah-HEee-heee-HA-ha.  I looove fire!"

Lock this manic up!

 

While Aurora, Angel, William, and I were washing and scrubbing in the kitchen,

Brice, Morgan, and Wes were sanding the cupboard doors out in the garage. 

 

Morgan has really got the saw dust flying. 

Hey--is that a baby in there?  How can she breathe?!

The mechanic is fixing the sander belt. 

After the washing, we finally get to the fun part--PAINT!

When Brice was done sanding, he went really crazy. 

 He started building a new wall to Mimi's kitchen! 

This wall extends the kitchen another five feet or so.

He framed it, walled it, and roofed it. 

 More pictures on this project to be seen in another blog. 

Angel looks way too happy to be washing the grease

off the ceiling above the stove. 

Or maybe this is a comercial-- yes. she's "SURE!"

Crazy Aurora:

" I am going to paint Angel; just watch this!"

Morgan says, "Let me give you a hand there."

Aurora, "Right here, this is a nice round spot to paint."

"HEY!  Are you painting my BUM?!"

Aurora: "Ha-HA!  Now it's time to paint William!"

"She got me, how do I look?"

"RAaaarghh! 

 If you come near me with that paint brush again,

I'll pound your head in with a hammer!

Wait a minute, it's you, Aurora, that pounds in heads with hammers. 

 Run, Melissa, she'll get you!"

"He-he-he, you're next Morgan."

"Nooo! not me.  Go get Brice instead."

"I think he would look good with a green goatee.  What do you think?"

Brice: "Now you've done it Morgan.  I'm going to kiss this green mustache all over your face."

I love you  green whiskers and all!

Angel: "We don't need to paint Melissa, she stuck her bun to the ceiling and turned it white."

"Yessss, yesss!  No need to paint me!  I've painted myslef well enough!

Just call it my souvenir-- or my one month tatoo job!"

Papa: "Ohhhh, are you going to paint me next? 

I won't run.  Just get it over with!"

"Well, are you going to paint me or not?"

Ror: "I think we should paint his armpits."

Melissa, (standing on a chair):

"I think we should paint him here.  Do we have any brown paint? "

 Hoodlums.

Notice William.  He is getting a nose ring. 

Who is painting who? 

"Why is Angel the only one still working while the rest of us are goofing around?"

"Yup, I'm the good girl.  I've got character. 

Besides, I do better at my evil plotting when I'm working." 

Well, the painting is done. The cabinents are dry.  Lets put all the stuff back in them.

And lets put the cabinent doors back on.  Look--their green.  Mom likes green. 

One job done.  At least for now. 

Coming in August: demolition of the wall behind the stove to extend the kitchen.