Are You Wearing Blue?

Are you wearing blue today......because it Autism Awareness day? I know I am. I will be wearing it in honor of our 13 year old nephew Reed who has Autism. I also am wearing blue in honor of Reed's family because Autism doesn't just affect the child it affects the whole family. Reed's mom, Dinnean, is super mom. Reed and his younger sister Claire could not have gotten a better mom and are very lucky. Their dad Kevin is pretty great too. Claire is two and half years younger than Reed and she is amazing. This family pretty much takes everything in stride, yes there are tears, but there is more laughter than anything.

All right on to my kitchen renovation. I decided last May that I was sick of the way my kitchen looked. I heard of painting laminate counter tops. This process is actually not that hard. I started off with taping off our small counter top that our microwave is on.

I cleaned the laminate counter tops with a very strong cleaner. (I don't remember which one, but it was strong.) I painted two base coats with Killz to make sure that everything on the counter top was dead. After the Killz dried I then wrapped all of the cabinets in plastic, the upper cabinets and lower cabinets, and the refrigerator. Then I spray painted the counter with Krylon Make It Stone Obsidian Spray Paint.

Once the spray paint was done I lightly sanded it since it is a little bumpy. Then the tricky part began. Dennis' was very skeptical of the whole process anyway, but even more so once I brought out the blow torch. (Yes, I said a blow torch.) It is just a small hand held one. The blow torch was for the next step. I found a product called Envirotex, which would give the counter top a glossy sheen. I followed the directions on the bottle and pored it directly onto the counter top and help spread it over the counter top. Then you use the blow torch to get any air bubbles out. Unfortunately I got a little to close and torched a small area and had a nice little burn mark, which is easily fixable you just do all of the steps again. Luckily the microwave covered it. The Envirotex did give the counter top a nice glossy sheen.

I proceeded to do this with all of the counter tops in the kitchen, but I didn't stop there. Dennis should have never of gone out of town because I made a big purchase while he was away. More on that tomorrow.

Dennis and I have a very busy weekend. My good friend Dustie is getting married tomorrow, so we will be busy with that today and tomorrow. I hope the Easter bunny is good to you.

Have a great weekend!!