Brandon and I started house hunting in October of 2018. We had some ideas on what we were looking for, and were excited for the next step in our journey.
After seeing a lot of homes, and putting offers on many, we found a house we adored in Burbank. We closed escrow two days before our 1 year anniversary, in February. The house is a 1907 Craftsman. Although it's smaller than we had originally planned, we were eager and ready to upgrade from our condo.
Going into the purchase, we knew there was some work we had to do. The house was flipped in 2012. Cosmetically, it was in fairly good condition, but some of the stuff that you couldn't "see" definitely needed work. Before we could do anything cosmetic, we had to deal with electrical and plumbing issues. We also had to replace the carpet in the bedrooms. There were some kitties living there before and they weren't very consistent users of their litter boxes.
After replacing the carpets, getting the wiring issues fixed, and dealing with the leaks under the house, we were ready to start making the house our own. After moving in, we were lucky enough to have my in-laws come stay with us for a couple weeks to help with the projects around the house. My father-in-law is incredibly handy. He took on some big projects for us, like re-configuring the master bedroom closet to have two racks, building a work bench in the shed for my husband, filling cracks in the exterior stucco, and fixing a water damaged spot in the ceiling of the master bedroom. He was a busy bee. My mother-in-law helped with unpacking all our stuff and putting the kitchen together. She also fed us after our long days at work. We appreciated their help, so much.
After the dust settled from the move, Brandon and I decided to embark on our first big project... the kitchen.
As I mentioned earlier, this home had been flipped, and with nearly all flipped homes, renovators like to take the easy way. The two bathroom vanities and the kitchen cabinets were all shaker style, in espresso, with the same hardware. The granite is the same in all three rooms, what I would call builder grade granite - brown with flecks. The stain was not done well and was not wearing well.
The home is small, and with a decent size kitchen filling half the open living space, we felt the espresso cabinets needed a makeover. We knew it would be a huge undertaking, but honestly with all the unexpected expenses when buying a new home, we didn't have the funds to hire a professional.
For the makeover, we bought 3 kits of Nuvo Cabinet Paint in Titanium White from Amazon and KILZ Restoration Interior primer. The kit comes with two cans of paint, two rollers, and an angled brush. Although the kit said we didn't need to prime, we felt that it would make the coverage of the espresso easier, and decided to do it.
So here was our kitchen before (this was when we were moving in)
We took all the doors off and labeled each door and matching hinges with a number. (We were keeping things in order so we wouldn't have to adjust doors after painting.) We removed the hardware, cleaned the cabinets (they were amazingly greasy), sanded each door with a hand sander and then cleaned them again with TSP. As a side note, We didn't use the hand sander indoors to avoid excess dust. We just sanded attached surfaces with a block.
Day 1:
Sanded surfaces...
 |
| Labeled doors |
We left our plates/glasses/etc. in the cabinets, and started priming.
Day 2:
This was the moment I felt like we had made a huge mistake! Brandon was at a retro video game convention most of the day and I was freaking out a bit while I primed and looked at this splotchy mess of a house.
Day 2 - First coat:
We were pleasantly surprised how well the first coat covered. There was a tiny bit of the dark stain peeking through, but it was much better than anticipated.
Day 3 - Second coat -
Finished painting:
The white cabinets completely transformed the space.
Before and after:
The paint job isn't perfect, but it's pretty darn good. This whole project took about 32 hours with two of us painting. It's a HUGE undertaking, but it's a big win. Also, the paint has held up exceptionally well over the last 6 months.
I will add, the Nuvo White has a tiny bit of a silver/gray undertone to it. It's most apparent when butted up against a true white.
