{bathroom projects & a new job}

holy cow...has a week really passed since I last posted?!

Let me just say, I've been so, so busy. Good busy!

I lost my job on Monday, and by Thursday afternoon, I was offered a new job. I started last Tuesday and the rest is history!

I really do feel blessed. You were all right though. Things have worked out for the best!

I love my new job! I'm learning so much, and it's so fun being in an office again with so many different women! We laugh every day and while there can be a little drama at times (hey, we're with each other for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week) we do have fun! (Remember what it was like to have roommates in college? Yeah, it's kind of like that!)

I won't lie though, I do miss the flexibility of being a rep! The first day at my new job was a little bit hard. Going from one extreme (driving all over to different clients every day by myself as a rep) to another (staying in an office all day with a bunch of women) was pretty hard, but I've adjusted. :)

ANYWAY, while I was unemployed I decided to redecorate my bathroom. I had been wanting to paint my cabinets for some time, but with the white cultured marble sink & counter top I knew white would look kind of funny, so I decided on black.

Here is the before picture....

I knew I had to sand and prime the cabinets and my original weapon of choice was my handy dandy power sander, but after about 30 seconds of dust, I decided to use liquid sander.

I was a little worried that it wouldn't work as well as a real piece of sand paper, but let me tell you, this thing worked wonders!

After using the liquid sander, I primed my cabinets with Zinzer 1-2-3 no sand primer. Normally, I wouldn't have worried about the primer, but I knew these cabinets get used every day and I didn't want to worry about the paint chipping!

Oh! Before I forget, I wanted let you know that if you're going to paint your cabinets, use a GOOD quality brush! Purdey brand is the best! Seriously, invest in a GOOD brush and you'll be whistling dixie through out the rest of your project!

After a few coats of black paint & adding some pretty hardware, the look is complete!

I loved how my new black cabinets looked! The only thing that I didn't love were these...

Yeeaah...not such a fan of the crystal knob faucet.

After a trip to home depot, I picked out my new faucets.

I decided on a chrome, two handle faucet with ceramic handles.

I really didn't think it would be too hard to install them, especially after watching this video (p.s. do any of you think the guy in the video sounds kind of like Christopher Walken?), but I was wrong, so so wrong! It was a pain in my butt!

This project would have been easy as pie, if my sinks were normal, but of course, they weren't. After diving head first into the project, I realized that I needed to replace my water supply lines. Not a huge deal. Then I realized that the plastic nuts that came with the faucet were too big & there wasn't enough room between the sink & the bolt. So, finally, after about 4 trips to the hardware store & only hitting my head once (so hard in fact, I thought I split my head open) I got them installed. Ta-da!

All in all, I love the transformation that a little paint & new hardware has made. I still want to replace the lights above the mirror, find a new shower curtain, & paint, but all that will have to wait for the weekend!

Oh, and the total cost so far for this project has only been about $75! Can't beat that!

P.S. I'll post this weekend in detail about how to change a faucet. That way, all of you can learn from my mistakes! haha!

Hope you all have a fantastic week!