So today I started painting the cabinets. I went to the house around 11, after picking up more samples at Sherwin Williams. I got “Smoky Azurite” and “Inky Blue,” as well at “High Reflective White.”
When I got to the house, everything seemed a bit less dire than the previous day, probably because I had already cleaned up the mouse poop. I started rethinking everything. Did we need to paint the outside of the cabinets right now? Not really. Did we need to paint all the insides? Probably only the unfinished ones so I can start unpacking boxes into them. The outsides of the cabinets could wait.
After scaling back my project to a realistic level, I started trying to figure out what to do. The Handyman Heroes were working in the bathroom and blasting 107.7 classic rock, which was perfect for my task. I started cleaning the cabinets again and sanding the ones I wanted to paint.
At 12:30, I went home and Colin very kindly reheated some leftover Pizza for me (my Dad’s method- in the microwave and then on the stove for a crispy crust!). I was pretty scarred from the disgusting mess that was the particle board under the sink. It was basically black from…mold? mildew? mouse droppings? All of the above?
Mouse pee… 
The hardest thing about today was doing a project in two locations. There was no running water at the house because of the bathroom remodel, so cleaning was a challenge. I ended up bringing all the drawers and some shelves home to paint but that made everything really hard because I was sanding, priming, and cleaning in two locations.
When I finally set up my station in the garage at our apartment, I started jamming. I cleaned the drawers, sanded them, cleaned them again, and primed them. Colin came out to help with each step so it didn’t even take that long. The longest part was the learning curve. Everything I did it was the first time I did it. Now I’ve done all these things so future projects will hopefully be faster!
Cleaned and sanded 
Cleaned…again… 
Primed!
It felt like a really long day already. There was blue mildew on some of these drawers before I did this so this is HUGE PROGRESS. I just have to keep my eye on the prize and reflect on how much I got done.
Around 5, we headed over to the house. I realized right away that I forgot to pee and there was no bathroom at the house…but I managed to hold it for a while before going back home. My first task was the under-sink cabinet. Colin started using our new drill (!!) to take off the cabinet doors for painting the insides.
I kept wetting a sponge with water and TSP cleaner and wiping and then rinsing the sponge. Every single time it was brown. Totally gross. At some point I said, “I wonder if I just scrape this…” And the top layer of particle board just came right off… Also gross but really satisfying. Part of me wishes I hadn’t scrubbed for so long but the other part thinks that might have softened the layer enough to scrape it.
Before 
After!
Regardless, Colin took over scraping and I started priming the inside of the lower cabinets. This was HARD work, because you had to sit on the floor and reach really far back to reach all the corners of the cabinets. My arms will be sore tomorrow. Colin finished cleaning under the sink and we tied off the trashbag of that gross bunch of sponges and paper towels. This kitchen will need a good bleaching before we cook in it.
We also tried the blue samples I got from Sherwin Williams, but the one we tried, Inky Blue, was too light and a little too bright. We are going to try some darker ones (Indigo Batik and Naval) and maybe just go for the navy cabinets. Too trendy? Only time will tell.
Colin helped me with the priming and we finished around 8pm. We went home and had more Mexican casserole leftovers and a beer. I had a really hard time falling asleep last night but tonight should be no problem.
