Step 1: Borrow tools from friends and neighbors. I contacted everyone I knew who owned a home, including the next-door neighbor at the place I was moving from, and managed to corral a whole arson of tools, ladders, stools, brushes, rollers, and drop cloths. The electric screw driver proved invaluable when we were taking the hinges and knobs off those old cabinet doors, unscrewing screws that I'm sure hadn't been turned since they were originally installed before I was born.

Step 2: Do not attempt to use a power sander indoors. I admit I laughed when my mom said she was going to pack her power sander in her luggage so we could use it on the cabinets. Little did I know what a lifesaver it would become. What was I thinking, that we could sand all those things by hand? After filling our lungs and eyes with sawdust when my mom sanded the first cabinet door in the dining room of my new place, we decided that maybe an outdoor sanding station was the way to go. Luckily, my old house had a deck, where my mom and aunt set up shop--sanding, priming, painting, and repainting all the cabinet doors and drawers. The neighbor loaned us big sheets of plastic to lay down on the deck, and another friend had a saw-horse-type table thing that my mom put each cabinet on when sanding. (The only drawback: the occasional bug or leaf that got stuck in the drying paint.) We did use the hand sanders for the frames of the cabinets in the kitchen itself. We also discovered that you don't have to sand the wood raw in order for the primer and paint to stick.

Step 3: Sign your next paycheck over directly to Home Depot. Because you're going to be going there a lot. All my best-laid plans fell by the wayside that weekend, as we went back over and over for more paint, new hardware for the bathroom, another roller cover, or a vacuum to clean up the sawdust in the dining room. My original cost estimate was nothing but a fond memory by the end of this little project (which included not only redoing the kitchen cabinets, but painting the dining and living rooms as well).
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Step 4: Remember that Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither will your kitchen refinish be completed in a normal weekend. Give yourself at least a day longer than you think it will take, if not two. Between letting the paint dry (one primer and at least two coats of paint are recommended) and visiting Home Depot, you can't really rush this project. We did ours in three full days, and put everything back together on the fourth--though of course we lost some time experimenting with that power sander inside.

Step 5: Kiss your helpers, do a little dance, and enjoy your new kitchen. It was a lot of work, and I admit my mom and aunt did most of it while I painted the other rooms, but the transformation in my kitchen as a result of this little facelift was remarkable. It went from drab, dim and dated to bright, light, and cheerful. Later, I also got new appliances, which opened the room even more and brought the kitchen fully from the 1970s into 2007. Welcome home!
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