My Hero

I remember the conversation plain as day. It was back in October, and once again inspired by pinterest, I had a grand idea!

ME:"Jason! I really want to do this for Ella for her big present for Christmas! I found an entertainment center for $15! We can totally do this!"

JASON: "We? What do you mean we? Do you realize how much work this will be?"

ME: "All you have to do is pick it up...and maybe a few small parts of carpentry that require power tools. But that's a small portion of it and you like that kind of stuff!"

JASON: "Do you know how long its going to take to paint that thing? Do you realize how many coats it will take?"

ME: "Yes, yes. I'll get ALL the supplies and I'll do ALL the painting! Please? Will you go get it? Can we do this? She'll LOVE it!"

JASON: (begrudgingly) "Alright."

The entertainment system sat in a friends garage for a bit until we had time to start this fabulous project. Shortly after it made it's way into that garage, we were pleasantly suprised by a plus sign on a stick. Shortly after that I became violently ill and mononucleosis like exhausted. Even the wafts of paint fumes from behind closed doors was enough to do me in. Guess who ended up doing EVERYTHING (except for the very last finishing touches of detailed painting). Yup. You guessed it. Jason.

This man was working 12 hour days, 5am-5pm, getting home, feeding himself because I could not think about food, let alone look at it, taking care of Ella and putting her to bed, and then going to town on this project after Ella went to bed, and on weekends too. The man is my hero. We budget every penny, and we don't do a ton of Christmas gifts, this was Ella's BIG gift, without this...I'm not sure what we would have done for her. And one day when she's old enough to read this story and see how much her daddy was willing to do because he loves her, he will be her hero even that much more! And without further ado, here is the finished project (because of course I forgot to take a before picture...but just imagine big, brown entertainment center...you get the idea)

Here's what "we" did:

took glass out of big doors and replaced with plywood

added microwave and shelf
rehinged one door so that it opens downward for oven

made 4 stove nobs out of wood

1 coat gripper primer

2-3 coats of white

Added stainless handles and door pulls

cut hole for sink and plopped in an extra stainless bowl I had lying around

found old sink lying on side of road and grabbed it, used the faucet and nobs off of that

painted oven nobs, micro and oven door black

painted burners for stove and numbers for micro

printed one of my scenic photos 11x14 and added white frame and lattice to create window.

Voila! Easy as that!