Primed up, ready to go.

We did it. We finally buckled down and patched up all the holes, scraped off all the old paint, and primed our entire kitchen. Literally - we painted pretty much everything except the floor. And it is now all very bright!

Though, once again, Reagan got a little carried away scraping the window frames clean of their many layers of chipping paint, we were able to get a coat of paint on everything Saturday and Sunday evenings. Here's an example of just how gunky the windows got (and how they weren't able to be stripped totally clean):


And then we started priming:

You can see the very professional way that we covered the lights...with leftover NY Times delivery bags.

Ok, before we show you the totally primed shot, let me just remind you of how awful this kitchen once looked:

and

And now:

Very white! And clean!

The lights make the photo look a little yellow, but it's very nice, really. But don't worry, it's not going to stay totally white. We managed to choose colors to be painted next weekend! Trying not to be too yellow...again.

The cork sample (our floor) is sitting on top of the color we like for all the woodwork. The paint card is an off-white for the walls. The color to the left is (very) similar, but we promise the one on the right is so much better.

In other big news, we bought a sink this weekend! We still have no cabinets or counter in which to put it, but, eh, details.

And all the trimmings.

Progress! We now have lights! And woodwork! We're so close to the point of painting.

To have lights in the kitchen has turned it into a room we actually enjoy being in...even with the unfinished walls and floor. It makes cooking and using knives a lot more safe, in general, since we can see enough to get our fingers out of the way.

Our biggest accomplishment, though, has been completing the carpentry work of putting up the chair rail, cornice molding, and door trim around the new opening. Adam managed to figure out the miter angles and splicing methods necessary to make believe the larger door opening is original. Just kidding - that would be wrong.

Adam at his makeshift table-saw/workbench, complete with running water.

Lights and molding!

Another light and more molding!

Chair rail (and yet another light in the nook above the door).

More chair rail!

The door trim moldings on the sides are up, but since the header in this new opening is sooooo much bigger than it was before, we had to splice together some pieces to make molding long enough.

And done! It makes it a finished piece. Yes, the top piece is painted, but it will all get painted over eventually anyway.