Bandwagon: Chalkboard Paint

Did you know that new refrigerator's that are counter depth and not ugly are expensive? Well, I am here to tell you, they are. Our house came with a fridge and while it is not the most beautiful thing, it keeps stuff cold (knock on wood). So it's sticking around. But after living through the gut renovation of the house it wasn't looking so hot. It actually stayed in the downstairs, uncovered and unplugged during the whole renovation (while we were out of the house) and we would keep things that we didn't want to disappear in the freezer...geniuses we are. Anyway, so I decided a couple of weeks ago to try and spruce this beauty up. And of course, what better way to jazz up a fridge than with chalkboard paint...or so the design blogs told me.
Here it is in all its glory.

First I removed the handles. I decided they didn't need to stay because you can open the fridge by grabbing the door, and they were ugly.

Then I lightly sanded the whole thing with 80 grit sand paper to rough things up and put on one coat of primer. I just used the primer that was recommended on the chalkboard paint can for metals and plastics, but I read other places that some people used metallic primer or none at all...but I don't care about magnets. Oh and at this point we moved it out of the tiny cramped addition into the future kitchen space so that the final coats didn't get banged up when we squeezed it out of there.

After one coat of chalkboard paint.

And after two! I'm debating doing a third coat. I don't know why. It looks fine, and the can didn't specify, but maybe I read on some other blog that three coats was recommended?

That's it! I opted not to paint the parts behind the doors (see the white strip below?) because that would have involved opening the doors to paint and then leaving them open to dry...and, well, we have food in our fridge. A very small amount of food. But still, I didn't feel like moving it to a cooler, which was my only idea and sounded kind of sketchy. But it's not so bad. Kind of looks like the fridge has a pinstripe. Ohhhhh, fancyyy.

Now we just have to "season" it after a couple days and then write away. Or after I put a third coat on. Whatever.

Coffee love.

Ummm, if anyone still reads this blog, We're alive. Boring, but alive. We did get a very exciting shipment of plumbing goodies mentioned here and I'm happy to report that nothing was left out of the shipment or damaged (they really harped on triple checking the shipment, so I was scared this might be a common occurrence). Unfortunately, the Cifial faucet for the downstairs that is also featured front and center on the last post will be taking a ride back to FaucetDirect.com. Sad. I love it. But, thankfully, P suggested we look at it with the sink we will be using and...well...it's just not right. The poor little faucet gets engulfed by this guy. Seriously. It looked like a fly on a horse..you know, small. I cried a little and then said my goodbyes and packed him back up. The faucet hunt continues...but, no worries all the other faucets get to stay, which means, showers and hand washing are covered! What isn't covered? Well, the actual plumbing. Details details.

Well, guess what else came in the mail this week?! The new coffee maker! We went with the newer, smaller, sleeker model, and I love love love. Day two of bringing coffee to work and did I mention I love? Well, I do.

And just in case you were wondering (cause I am sure you were) this is my new best friend that will keep my coffee hot for up to 24 hours. For those of us who are finicky about what time they wish to consume said coffee this is a little miracle.

Miracle.

Hopefully I will have more house progress to share on Monday. I hope I hope. Since that's what this blog is actually supposed to be about.

The Great Coffee Maker Debate.

Ok, so maybe it's not really a debate...only inside my head. We need a coffee maker. We drink coffee every morning. Even with the awesome $1 deal (if you bring your own cup) at the cafe downstairs...that's at least $60 a month...if we don't go back down for more in the afternoon, which, let's be honest, we do. So, coffee maker. Now, because I am my father's daughter I have been periodically perusing the Costco website trying to decide whether I want to become a member. About a month ago I found a coffee maker that I wanted on this website. Grind and brew, great reviews, sold. So I figured, instead of being hasty about opening a membership I would wait until my Dad arrived and we could go to the store. Great plan? Not so much. Upon their arrival we checked the website and the coffee maker was gone. GONE! Ugh. Well, maybe it will be in the store. Nope. Wasn't in the store. It was a sad day. So then I thought, maybe if I wait long enough it will come back on the website. Well, after two weeks of waiting, it hasn't come back to Costco and I have finally come to the realization that waiting is stupid when you can get the same thing on Amazon (for a slighly elevated price). Ok, so the point of rambling about my personal craziness is that now that I am ready to purchase said coffee maker, Amazon has opened up another door. A newer (better looking) model. For a slightly higher price, of course.

Ok, so this is the original one I wanted. Great reviews. Not a bad price for how amazing it makes coffee (supposedly). But here is what now slightly bothers me now that I have seen the new version: the size. They are the same height, but this one is listed as 16"hX12"lX11"d. Doesn't that seem excessively large? The one below is the newer model and is listed as 15"hX9.5"lX9.5"d. Maybe I am being crazy. Maybe that's not a big difference, or maybe it is when you have(one day will have) a kitchen the size of a postage stamp. And don't you just think it's prettier?

Thoughts?

Too bad I didn't make this decision a week ago when my parents told me to "ORDER ONE OFF AMAZON ALREADY!", guess we will have to drag our guests for Halloween extravaganza 2010 to the coffee shop in the mornings. Sorry guys! Oh well.

Happy Halloween!!!