The Great Kitchen Facelift: Part I

I moved into my new apartment this past July. Which is definitely the best time to move. longer days, typically good weather, and no snow. However, mid-summer humidity and warm temperatures do not make for good painting conditions. Despite this the roommates and I painted the entire apartment from baseboards to crown moldings. Except for one spot, the kitchen. When negotiating the lease I was granted permission to refinish the kitchen cabinets. Our landlords were the former tenants of out top floor apartment and left it in kind of a mess. Especially the kitchen cabinets which were still filled with food, dishes, and general neglect.

This is the way the kitchen looked when we first came to see the apartment. Things didn't look much different when it was time for us to move in.

Shortly after settling in we started up the refinishing the cabinets. However, after sanding down and painting two doors we realized we will never get this done at the rate that they were drying. Two weeks later the doors were still tacky! I know oil based paints take longer to dry but this was insane, the heat and humidity were fighting against us. So we said lets get back to this project in the fall when things cool down.

A work in progress. You can see how dusty it gets, the bottoms of my feet and ass are filthy.

Appropriately, yesterday marked the first day of fall and the beginning of the Great Kitchen Facelift! That's what this cabinet refinishing project is officially going to be called for now on or GKF for short.   The first part of the GKF, removing the cabinet doors and sanding everything down. I have to break everything up in sections so life can still continue on somewhat normally.
So I started with just the upper cabinets. My little electric sander and I almost sanded down all of the cabinet frames. Even getting into all those little annoying grooves in the moldings!

I think it already looks a ton better despite all of the cabinets contents being out on display. Next, more sanding and hopefully some paint!