Wrapping Up an Era

This is my last post for Editing and Publishing, and I have to say, much to my surprise, I'm going to miss it just a bit.  This class has stretched me in the type of writing I exercise.  I had a blog prior to the beginning of the semester, but I mostly wrote reflective pieces, sort of introspectives.  When writing for this class, I really had to rely on subjects that were more concrete, and think about the audience I was writing for, instead of writing what I wanted and having interested followers read my thoughts.

I have been very envious of fellow classmates to whom this kind of research and writing seems to come easily, although I'm positive their posts are not accomplished with minimal effort. Some of the posts have been very informative, some very entertaining.  Even the names of the blogs have been sheer genious:  "When Drury Gives You Lemmon" & "I Like Big Books and I Cannot Lie" are two of my favorites. 

I suppose my favorite post to write was the restaurant review, although I enjoyed writing the film review as well (I just didn't enjoy the film). I found that these two reviews depended on my ability to recall details, so I listened closer, observed more detail, in order to convey to the audience.

I don't think I want to go in to Journalism; but then again, who knows?  When I grow up, I'll decide what I want to be.  By then, maybe something else will have replaced blog writing, and I'll learn a new skill.

May All Your Kitchen Dreams Come True

My husband and I decided, after nine years of looking at the laminate nastiness that was our outdated 1970s kitchen, to splurge for our anniversary and renovate.

The beginning of the project

Armed with a budget of $2,000, we headed off to the big box store to see if we could replace our cabinets, countertop and backsplash with this budget.  Long story short, we couldn’t; not by a long shot. Our cheap cabinets may have been cheap, but the size was custom, and a replacement would have to be custom made to the tune of $1,500 higher than our entire budget, and this was only the base model.  

As my visions of a lighter, airier kitchen were quickly disappearing before my eyes, the gentleman in the paint section of Home Depot asked if we’d taken a look at the new product from Rustoleum: Cabinet Transformations. Well, no, we hadn’t; as a matter of fact, we’d never heard of it. He said that for about $150, we could transform our dark, cheap laminate cabinets into light, custom treated cabinets.  And I, being the eternal optimist, said something like “bullcrap”. Or something similar.

That was before we took a look at the product, before I read any reviews, and before we caved and tried it. Believe me when I tell you, the result was nothing less than amazing. Granted, if I had a nicer house with a bigger kitchen (and a bigger budget), I’d kill for some great, actual wood cabinets, but for a house that was never meant to be our dream home, this is a great fix.

What exactly is Cabinet Transformations^®? Quite simply, it’s an innovative coating system that completely changes the look of old, worn cabinets into the look of beautiful hand-crafted cabinetry, at a fraction of the cost of installing new – without the downtime or mess associated with cabinet replacement or refacing. Say goodbye to the thought of a messy demolition, over-budget contractors and weeks of disarray in your home. Plus, there’s no stripping, no sanding and no priming required, so it’s super easy to do!”  This quote is from the Rustoleum website, and if it sounds kind of cheesy and too good to be true, well, parts of it are.  I wouldn’t say you can change laminate cabinets into the “look of beautiful hand-crafted cabinetry”, but you can come darn close.  You will NOT say good bye to messy demolition, at least, not if you’re doing other projects as well, such as countertop or backsplash. And if you have a busy household such as mine, you’ll still endure weeks of disarray.  But it is in fact true that there is no stripping, sanding or priming, and to me, this is completely amazing. 

The product comes packaged in a box with everything you’ll need, except brushes. Depending on the size of your kitchen, kits come in small ($79) or large ($158), and in light shades or darker tones. Kits include the following products: de-glosser, which removes any protective finish or dirt that your cabinets may have; a base coat which is tinted in the store to the color of your choice (choices are shown on the side of the box for your convenience); decorative glaze, which is an optional step but can really give your cabinets a customized look; top protective coat to seal your cabinets and finish so you can clean them; cleaning pads and cheesecloth for the glaze. A step-by-step instructional video was also included.

The greatest pro of this product, for us, was that it allowed us to completely transform our kitchen and afford the other components of backsplash and countertop. Beyond that, it looks great! I truly didn’t think we could accomplish something like this on our own, but we did! The steps were easy to follow, and the results were nothing less than amazing.

After

As for cons, this is a time intensive project. Each step requires dry time after, so it wasn’t finished overnight. The de-glossing step requires one hour of dry time before proceeding, two or three hours between base coats (our cabinets required three coats, since we went from dark to light), eight hours before applying the top coat, which needed to dry 24 hours before reinstalling the doors on the cabinets.  In addition, the cabinets should really be cleaned with an industrial strength cleaner prior to de-glossing, a tip we are very grateful to the Home Depot man for sharing with us. Otherwise, the grease and dirt adhere to the glaze, and give a dark, dirty look. 

But for anyone with a tight budget and a dream, this could very well be the answer to your prayers.  Rustoleum also makes Countertop Transformations, which can be applied directly to laminate countertop to give the look of granite. We didn’t use this product, but the reviews are even better for it than for the Cabinet Transformation. 

I give this product an 8.5 out of 10!

The Fault in Our Stars

Considering I’m not a young adult, I rarely venture into the YA genre of books, but a friend of mine who is in fact a young adult sent me “The Fault in Our Stars”, and being a huge bookworm with no other unread stories laying around, I began to read it. And read it. And read it.  I couldn’t put it down.

 It is difficult for me to describe the mood of this book, so let me tell you what it’s about.  Get your tissue to dab at the tears in your eyes. I’ll wait. Ready? OK, so this story revolves around a sixteen year old terminal cancer patient named Hazel Lancaster, whose particular type of thyroid cancer has spread to her lungs, but is currently being held in check by a sort of miracle drug that is prolonging the inevitable, well, indefinitely.  Hazel is a bit of a recluse, and her understandably overprotective mother insists she attend a support group for young cancer patients, where she meets Augustus Waters, a seventeen year old bone cancer patient who, although he is in remission, has lost a leg to the disease.

What follows is a heartbreaking, realistic look at young love when the outcome is somewhat predetermined. Yet there are some amazingly dark moments of humor (what would a good YA cancer book be without characters who can make jokes at their own expense).  Our own spirits begin to be caught up in the questions of these star-crossed lovers; questions such as will I be remembered when I’m gone, will my life have counted for anything, or will I fade into oblivion?  These characters were raw and real, not glamorized or knighted for sainthood.

 I could easily see this book being made into a movie, but I hope it won’t be.  The beauty of this story is its realness, and I think Hollywood would just fake that up.