As we contemplated the task of refinishing our kitchen cabinets, we seriously considered paint over stain since the amount of work involved in stripping stain off the large amount of wood we have in our kitchen is staggering. In the end, though, when I saw just how amazing the countertops were, I couldn't put painted wood up next to it. Jerry told me over and over that he would really, really prefer to use the power sander to strip the cabinets since using the stripping compound and scraping would take forever. I kept refusing since I knew it would make the biggest mess I could imagine - dust all over the house! But when I watched Jerry strip and restain the one small area he did already, I saw what he meant. Since the cabinet doors were already off to have the hidden hinges added, I thought I'd surprise Jerry by prepping the kitchen for power sanding.
Moving the refrigerator and putting up the plastic sheeting.
A closed-in kitchen "before" shot.
I removed every last item from my kitchen. I emptied every cabinet and put everything in my bedroom. I bought plastic sheeting so that Jerry could seal himself in while he sanded to try to contain the mess as much as possible. I didn't tell him I was doing this, I just had it done when he got home from work last Friday. He actually didn't notice that all the cabinets were empty when he walked past the kitchen! It wasn't until he went in our room to put his things down and saw al the contents of our kitchen on the floor that it hit him. I love a good surprise!
Ethan thought a bicycle helmet, safety goggles, and a bandana = perfect outfit for power sanding!
The first step was to try to seal the kitchen off as much as possible to try to contain the dust. Next, Jerry and the boys had to suit up for the work. I found it hillarious what the boys thought would be a good get-up for power sanding!
Aaron went with the full cammo get-up, a Bob the Builder construction helmet, safety goggles, and a bandana!
This is over halfway through the process. Notice how dusty Jerry's skin is!
It took a long time, and created a LOT of dust, but in the end, we got all the stain off the parts of the cabinets that cannot be removed and sanded or stripped outside.
Everyone helped with the clean up!
Cabinets ready for new stain! What looks like a dirty lens is actually dust particles still hanging in the air from cleaning up!
Of course, now the cabinets look really funny. Some still have the original stain. Some are stripped down to the raw wood. Others already have the new stain on them. It may look silly, but it is the look of progress, so I'm okay with it. Overall, the sheeting did work pretty well. The dust primarily stayed in the kitchen, but the kitchen? There was a layer of dust on the counter so thick, you couldn't even see the counter. Even the walls and ceiling were completely coated with it.
Through the process, we discovered that the end panels of the cabinets are 1/4 inch plywood. They'll have to be removed and replaced since you cannot power sand stain off that thin of a board...Live and learn!
Ready for the next step!
This isn't my favorite part of remodeling, but the results are very worth it!
4 comments:
Wow, they look great! You guys are my remodel heroes! And Jerry is right, power sanders are cool. I got Del one...but I'm the only one that's used it so far. So maybe I secretly got it for me. Heh heh.
It does look great! Looks like lots of work too! But imagine all the money you are saving by doing it yourselves!
Doing it ourselves does save a lot of money, but also takes a lot of time and effort. Fortunately, Jerry gets a lot of satisfaction from the work! I cannot wait to show you guys the next step - staining!!
I couldn't wait to read this post just by seeing the title alone. :) And I was cracking up by the boys choice of necessary equipment - I like Aaron's camo outfit and Ethan's bicycle helmet. I am impressed that both of them had safety goggles on...which led me to wonder where Jerry's safety goggles were? :)
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