DIY Kitchen Transformation: Crown Moulding Installation

This past weekend Dave installed the crown moulding around the tops of our cabinets. This isn’t a super-tall design, we wanted something subtle, yet elegant.

Later this week and this weekend we will start the priming and painting of the rest of the cabinets. We have a paint sprayer to use for the doors, but will hand-paint the cabinet bases.

We also picked up our hardware for the cabinet doors and drawers. I can’t wait to see how awesome they look when installed.

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The moulding is white because we chose a PVC composite.

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Utah Discoveries 9: In-N-Out Burger near Hill AFB

Lunch for 4 for under $30? Yes please!!
Lunch for 4 for under $30? Yes please!!

For those who don’t know, Dave and I are “Eastern People”. He’s from New York, and with the exception of 3 years or so in Hawaii when I was very young, I grew up on the Eastern Seaboard. We are accustomed to humidity, high populations, and rich colonial U.S. history around us.

People from the western U.S. have their own set of traditions and nuances (calling “interstates” “freeways”, for example), and apparently In-N-Out Burger is one of them. There aren’t many of these restaurants, and they’re all concentrated in a 5-state area: California, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, and Texas (why they completely leapfrogged over New Mexico is beyond me). In-N-Out has no plans to expand beyond this small market, unlike Five Guys, which now has well over 1000 outlets. We had a chance to check it out!

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Utah Discoveries 8: Park City Resort Alpine Coaster

The Alpine Coaster at Park City Resort is a unique experience.
The Alpine Coaster at Park City Resort is a unique experience. Here we are getting read to push off.

On such a warm day at Park City Resort, the kids had grown weary of the icy skiing by early afternoon. Many of the trails that were open took us right past the track of the Park City Alpine Coaster, and Timmy was very interested in giving it a spin.

Timmy and I decided to get some tickets and check it out!

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Utah Discoveries 7: Skiing at Park City Resort

It was so warm, Dave could ski in shorts!
It was so warm, Dave could ski in shorts…well, sort of…

On our first full day in Park City, we decided to check out the Park City Ski Resort, which was just a couple blocks from our condo. We took advantage of a military deal for the resort, although being one of the Vail Resorts, it was still pretty costly, even for end-of-season conditions.

It was quite warm, with highs in the 60s and blue sunny skies.

As a consequence, there weren’t many trails open, and we had numerous detours. We’re grateful the boys were skilled enough to negotiate some of the detours.

Skiing at Park City at the end of March was like skiing on the East Coast. Icy. Jacob and Timmy are obviously spoiled rotten skiing in Colorado because they had a very hard time with the changed snow conditions. They didn’t have the best day.

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Science Olympiad!

In March and April, our family was busy with Jacob helping his team for the Colorado Science Olympiad tournament. Plenty of after-school sessions, evenings at the kitchen island tuning his handiwork, and family trips to Colorado State University – Pueblo and Colorado School of Mines (known around here as just “Mines” — note the URL if you click … Read more

DIY Kitchen Transformation: Second Time’s a Charm!

This is after the first coat...I think it's going to be brilliant with the second coat!
This is after the first coat…I think it’s going to be brilliant with the second coat! Compare to the “before” picture.

So…um…yeah…we had the wrong kind of primer the first go-round.

This morning I picked up a can of Zinnser Bullseye 1-2-3 primer and it made a HUGE difference! I was able to sand down the blemishes in the primer job before applying the first coat of paint and it didn’t peel off in two seconds.

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DIY Kitchen Transformation: The Importance of Thorough Prep Work

We had a pretty substantial setback today on our journey to (like) new cabinets. Dave and I had read plenty of DIY tips suggesting that if one’s stained and sealed cabinets are old enough, a simple chemical treatment with a “sander deglosser” is all we would need before applying the primer, then paint. Boy were … Read more

Timmy’s First Rubik’s Cube Competition

Timmy studies his scrambled cube for 15 seconds before the timer starts.

Last week, Timmy was on a team representing his elementary school at a regional Rubik’s Cube competition. It was his first experience, and was the first time his school had entered a team. Timmy was the only 4th grader, the rest of his team were 5th graders. While the team didn’t take home any prizes, they certainly are competitive and I’m sure all the students learned a lot.

Dave, Jacob, and I certainly learned a lot. We had never seen a competition like that!

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