Murray the Kitchen Sink

On the drive home from the farm last night, I checked the blog to remind us of the date of last year's firefly phenomenon, and we got a good laugh when we realized that the project we were working on last May, was the same project we were working on this weekend!  Nearly a year later, and the two metal kitchen cabinets that I sanded and painted finally have their last coats of clear coat, and are positioned in the kitchen in their approximate final locations.  I like them.  think they may be worth all the effort.

The cabinets I painted needed a few touch-ups after banging around in a construction zone all year, but once we dragged them outside and covered a few spots and scratches with paint, they were ready for a protective coat of clear spray paint.  At first I didn't think this would be necessary, but one of the doors got a dirty smudge right away, and it wouldn't wash off, so I knew they weren't going to be pretty for long once they were in use unless they washed easier.  

The pear tree in the front yard is blooming, and the smell of the flowers and the buzzing of the bees provides a lovely ambiance for our meals.  

I was excited to harvest the first of the asparagus spears for the grill.  Despite the meager portions, we savored this first garden harvest.  

I been looking forward to lunches under the pear tree all winter.  It's a great spot - the food is fresh, the setting is superb....

...the scent of flowers all around...

...and the dress code is relaxed.  This is definitely my favorite location for lunch.  

While the paint was drying in the front yard, Brandon began the dreaded job of washing, sanding, and painting the big kitchen sink cabinet, which is in the roughest shape of all of our kitchen cabinets.  

The worst part of the sink cabinet was the bottom, where the pipes come through, and where it appears that moisture has rusted holes in the metal.  

The worst of the rusty and bent metal was cut away using the skill saw and a special blade made for cutting metal.  Then a wire brush attachment was used with the drill, to really scrub away the rusty bits.  

Then the sander was used to get it as smooth as possible.  We even sprayed the rust with vinegar and wiped as much away as we could.  

It's hard to tell by this photo, but I think all the hard work is going to pay off.  It looks much better after it's been sanded. 

The hardest part about cleaning up the drawers has been scraping up the old contact paper.  I'm not sure how old that stuff was, but the glue seemed to fuse the sticky paper to the metal.  We will paint the inside of the drawers too, but if they start to get grungy, I'll use new contact paper too.  That's stuff is impenetrable!

Our kitchen sink is named Murray.  

I found the image above on the interweb, which looks just like our sink.  I might have to disagree with portions of the heading - "Now it costs less than ever...in money and manpower... to give your homes the colorful appeal of built in cooking units!"  I agree about the low cost (ours came with the house) and about the colorful appeal, but less manpower?  Considering we've been working on them on and off for a year, I can't imagine cabinets that could require more manpower!