Getting my personal HGTV fix

I wasn't planning on a project this summer, it just happened. While we were in Minnesota, a co-worker posted a piece of his mother-in-laws furniture on Facebook. He's been trying to sell it on KSL.com, but no one even called. I began texting him about the dimensions, was it all wood, did it have lights, etc....

It was all oak, had a light bar and was 17" deep. Perfect. Sold. After we got home I had our delivery guys go pick it up and bring it to my garage. I know I have mentioned before how nice it is to have your own personal delivery guys...a seriously nice thing to have. I was a little worried that it might be in good shape and I would feel guilty stripping a nice finish (because I had only seen a facebook picture on my small phone screen), but alas, it was well loved and needed some TLC. So I began the task by removing all the hardware and doors, sanding, taping the mirrors off and priming.

The folks at home depot advised me what paint to buy after I had selected a cream color. I was worried about paint brush strokes so we (Karl) bought a paint sprayer at Harbor Freight and I put plastic sheeting up on the fence and we spent a good portion of a Saturday with the paint sprayer and the hutch. It was a little overcast and threatened to rain, but the rain held off after just a few sprinkles.

All along the way I was learning, I have painted furniture before, but this was the biggest project I have undertaken. After a couple of days the latex paint was still tacky. Not sure why I didn't google this before I began, but learned that you should never use latex paint on furniture because of a problem known as "blocking" in the paint industry. Another paint industry problem, never trust the paint department in your big box hardware stores. Fortunately, the fix was not horrific. I was only concerned about the flat, shelf surfaces because that is what everything will be sitting on. I resanded the top and shelves, reprimed and then repainted with a wonderful alkyd paint from Sherwin Williams. It is an oil based paint so it took 24 hours to dry. Such a nice finish, and the paint is "self-leveling" so there are no paint brush streaks. If I were to do it all over again, I would use this paint all over and hand brush it. I wanted to antique the groves, another new skill. This is a side by side of the before and after of antiquing. It was pretty easy, you use a lot of rags, however.

I was also hunting for hardware everywhere I went, never found anything that had a vintage feel and would go with the leaded glass in the door panels. Then, on one of my daily trips to Home Depot, I saw some hardware displayed in their fake kitchen area- you know with the cabinets all set up in dream kitchen style-and asked if they had these somewhere, it took a while to figure out so I left my phone number and asked them to call when they figured it out. Later in the day, the gal called me and said I could HAVE them!!! Bonus! Apparently they are discontinued.

I love, love, love them. Here is the (mostly) finished product, I lost some screws (ha!) and had to make another trip to the Depot before I could hang the last door, so it is pictured without that door hung.

But this is far from a finished project because now I have to move everything from the old cabinet, move the table in the room, swag the chandelier, find a place for the old cabinet....and on! I am pretty happy with how it turned out. Thanks to my hubby for his help along the way, lifting and hauling and being supportive of my creative itch.

Motab Tour Part 2

The drive through Wisconsin and into Minnesota was so lovely. There was a whole group of people in the rows behind us that were so enamored with the beautiful farms and RED barns in particular. They were/are such well kept, picturesque scenes to watch. We drove to Black River Falls Wisconsin to place a marker remembering the pioneers that worked the timber there. They were known as the pineries, we learned what white pine looks like and why it was desireable. The logs were floated down to the Mississippi river to Nauvoo, orginally for building the temple but the saints were able to sell them at a high price and most of it was sold for the benefit of the saints. Anyway, a few years ago when the choir approached the town council of Black River Falls about doing this and having the choir stop they were not enthused, not even interested. But as they developed the plan and time went on the entire town became involved and VERY excited.

The choir men got new casual shirts with the choir logo to wear with khaki pants, the women a similar blue shirt to be worn with a dark skirt for this and any other future casual events. As we drove through town in our 11 tour buses it definately caught peoples attention. I saw people stop on the streets, look out their windows and step out on the porch and watch these buses drive by. I'm sure most of them had no idea what was going on. We stopped at the park, the choir got in formation on a stone amphitheater and the mayor got up to the microphone and in his Wisconsin accent welcomed the people of the town, the choir and MARK Wilburg. He also referenced Elder Card-own several times. (Mac Wilberg, Elder Cardin) the choir sang 3 numbers, Elder Cardin spoke for about 5 mins. and then Mac had the choir sing Battle Hymn of the Republic. It was hot for the choir, but not horrible. When the last song was over this little mustached mayor in a mismatched suit took the microphone again and his voice cracked and he was weepy. I felt like he was surprised at his emotion, embarrassed at being that way in public. I'm quite sure he had never done that before! He announced that they would hold the traffic (two cars and a postal truck) so we could all cross the street and have a look at the Black River. This was a non event. You had to look over a high cement wall, and it was not much to see but they seemed to be proud of it. Later that night several choir members discovered they had wood ticks. We boarded the buses after about an hour total time and headed to a memorial park for a catered lunch.

This house was one of hundreds of beautiful American homes we drove by, most with US flags and looked like it was right off a Norman Rockwell print.

This war memorial park was so nice. The local LDS members drove from the concert and met us there and did a little skit in pioneer and indian clothes, etc. A local caterer hosted another wonderful lunch complete with a sampling of Wisconsin cheeses. Then on to MINNESOTA! We arrived at our downtown Marriott just in time to walk 2 blocks to the new Target Field and watch a Twins game with 220 of our closest friends!

It was a great night, lovely weather, a super park and the Twins won the game with home runs and all! More to come........