Meet R2-D2

Say hello to our shop vac affectionately called R2-D2. Yes, we name our things. Makes us feel more connected to them.....Hans, Lulu, Helga, Landon, Stewie.....all inanimate objects. We're weird like that but let me tell you, this little guy is amazing.

We picked him up at Home Depot the day before we started our demo. Jon did the research and found this one. Now I'm usually one to wait out for a sale which we tried. We were hoping it would go on sale during Memorial Day weekend or at least there would be some sort of discount on home improvement stuff for the holiday but sadly no. So we bought this baby at full price. It hurt me just a little but we desperately needed it to start knocking things out. You can check out more about R2-D2 here.

Our top 10 reasons why R2-D2 is awesome (drum roll please)

10. He's so lightweight that I can pick him up with one hand

9.   He rolls smoothly around with ease on his little feet (wheels)

8.   He has a long extension cord to get around the total chaos everywhere

7.   He has a utility nozzle, a car nozzle, and a wet nozzle 

6.   He has 2 extension wands which makes a bigger difference than you'd think

5.   He can hold a lot of stuff in his little body

4.   He sucks up everything (nails, wood chips, sheet rock bits, dust, insulation, bugs, small children, you name it)

3.  His suction is so powerful that he can pick up stuff within an inch or two of where you aim the nozzle

2.  He can suck up wet and dry stuff

1.  He can give you about a 2 inch hickey, if that's what you're into. Don't worry, I won't tell.   

       

Poser

Me to Jon: I'm going to take lots of photos while we do all this stuff so I can post it on the blog so don't mind me.

I started snapping away at the start of our demo and I got this.

His model pose (pursed lips and cheeks sucked in for more defined cheekbones) showing off his tools. And this one below, his don't-mess-with-me-or-I'll-suck-you-up pose. We love that shop vac by the way. More on it later.



I told him to stop being such a poser because this renovation is going to take us forever if he has to stop and pose for every single shot. At least we know he'll never have a future in modeling for product ads.

And I couldn't help it. I had to get one out of my system before we got knee deep in demo.

The two thumbs up and the fake smile, all very dorky, I know. You don't have to tell me.

Paint Stripper - Burns Or No Burns?

So as I said before, we plan on re-using the cabinet boxes. This meant we had to strip the layers and layers of old paint from the exposed sides of the boxes. I've never stripped paint before so I didn't know what product worked best. What I did know was that I wanted something that had low VOCs (volatile organic compounds). Of course I'd be wearing a mask to strip paint but I wanted to reduce the nasty fumes that would be floating around the house.

Off I went to Lowe's (we have no preference between Lowe's or Home Depot. Lowe's just happens to be closer to our house) and I read through all the labels on shelves. I decided to give this a try. You can't see it but the little green rimmed circle on the label says "Low VOC".

I tried it on the bottom of the cabinets. On the bottle it says "Works in 5 minutes" but I left it on for 30 minutes. I let it sit, scraped it, and nothing happened. Not a speck of paint came off. It didn't even loosen the paint just a little bit. So I tried again thinking I didn't leave it on for long enough. I applied a generous amount with a paint brush and let it sit for an hour. I came back to scrape and this is how much paint I got off.

WOW. On the plus side, it didn't stink that bad. You could smell some fumes when you were close to it but the smell didn't travel much farther than a few feet from where I applied it.

After this failed attempt, I went to Lowe's online and read some reviews of other paint strippers (which I should've done initially). I was starting to think that maybe I'd have to use the harsher paint strippers to get the layers of old paint off. I read some product reviews for the harsher chemicals and this is what one of them said...

"...The would grain that came through was gorgeous. Paint it on, let it sit 15mins, scrap off with plastic spackle scraper. BUT, it's a serious chemical!!! Will burn your skin very fast, even the tiniest drop. Wear long sleeves and jeans and thick rubber gloves. The thin nurses gloves don't work, this stuff burns right through it. The beauty that came through is well worth it though!!"

Umm, no thanks. I like my skin. So this basically scared me back to the safer non-toxic, low VOC, green alternatives. This product got some really good reviews so I went off to Lowe's to grab it.

I applied this paint stripper with a brush and let it sit overnight. I didn't want to have to repeat the process again for longer amounts of time. I figured, surely if it doesn't work overnight then I've bought another dud. This is what I woke up to the next morning....

Winner winner chicken dinner!!! I was so excited. Yes, this is the kind of stuff that gets me excited these days.....don't judge me. I scraped a little of the left side so you could see how easily it comes off. Literally, the paint just fell off in sheets. This product smells a little more than the other one. I still wore a mask but the smell still didn't linger out of our kitchen. And on a very positive note, no burns on my skin! Good thing too because some of it dripped on my arm during the application process.

Kitchen: Before

We don't have very good "before" pictures but who ever does, right? It makes the "afters" look so much better.

That little door to the right is our pantry. It doesn't hold very much and it has weird U-shaped shelves in it. There are a couple of upper and lower cabinets to the left. Yes, our stove/oven is awkwardly small for that space.

                                                                             
Turn to the right and the kitchen opens up to our den. You can't see it in the picture but there's a pocket door to the left of the cabinets.

This is the awesome paneling that's EVERYWHERE. Scroll back up and you'll see what I'm talking about. We figured there was a sale on that molding the last time this kitchen was remodeled, and the owner/carpenter just stocked up like crazy. That pocket door leads to our dining room.

 

Turn to the right, again, and there's our fridge (you can see a sliver of it on the very left), more cabinets, dishwasher, and the sink (which I hate because it's porcelain and small) underneath the window. 

And that's the grand tour.