Painting the Kitchen

Lots to do in this house before a baby makes its appearance. It'd be great to do it all now, while I am still agile, mobile, and hostile. However, busy schedules for both of us makes house projects difficult.

I was supposed to work on Saturday at Shawan Downs steeplechase, manning a booth to promote Maryland Million Day and to encourage people to vote for slots on November 4. But I got to Shawan and was told by the parking guy that vendors were canceled for the day - too much rain had flooded the vendor tent. So - no work for me! I drove the hour back home and helped John get things in the kitchen taken apart and cleaned, so we could begin painting.

The kitchen used to be this random color of rose/grey stuff

With wall paper and maroon wainescoating, which we decided would be lots easier to keep and paint than to try to remove...

John works on taking old wall paper off the wall behind the fridge. The previous painters did a less than stellar job painting the kitchen...
John works on cutting in the paint by the crown molding. Really he's just showing off his cool new work platform to Dad. New house project = new toy... So the new wall color is a wheat-ish kind of color, that picks up some of the background from the wall paper. We kept the maroon for the crown molding and the wainescoating. We didn't mind that color scheme. We did paint it again. John just has to paint the crown molding, and we need to buy new trim and paint and install it, and then we'll be done! One third of the downstairs done, two thirds to go.
CoCo, helping.
Zoe, helping (this actually is TREMENDOUSLY helpful, for Zoe...)
CoCo snuggles with Mom after a long day of painting.

The good part of this project, besides that the new paint looks much nicer than the old, is that the kitchen has never been so clean. I was cleaning the back of the fridge this morning, while it was pulled out. John says "Why? It's the BACK of the fridge. Who's ever going to see it?" A valid point, for sure. But I figure as long as it's out, it may as well be cleaned. I also did the front of the cabinets and all of the walls. That'd be the first time that's been done in, oh, four years...

My other project for the weekend was to find a dress in my closet that I could wear to my big Gala party for work on Friday. So I came down to the living room wearing a dress that still fit, and pouting. I told John "I don't look pregnant enough to look pregnant. I just look fat." And John just laughed at me. But I did manage to find a dress that would fit. It's not the most flattering, and I look like a big fat-ass. But it'll do. And I don't have to go shopping! :-)