Did you know you can make tater tots on a grill? In the snow? No? Well that’s one of those little tricks you pick up when you’ve lived without a proper kitchen for over a year.

It’s been far, far too long since I’ve cooked inside on anything other than a hot plate and the scary part is that I’ve gotten pretty used to it. With everything else going on, progress on the kitchen (with its missing sink and plywood counters) hasn’t been a priority.

Luckily for for the kitchen– and anyone who would like to come over and eat something fancier than EasyMac– my friends over at 3M sent me a bag-o-DIY-goodies recently, and there is nothing that motivates me to work on a project more than new project supplies.

It’s like back-to-school for power tool junkies. Sandpaper and sanding blocks, gloves, masks, painters tape, and safety glasses– these  are things on my must-have-on-hand-in-case-of-DIY-emergency list, and you’ll need one or more of them for almost any project you attempt. Or if you’re an overachiever like me, all of them for almost all the projects you attempt.

So here’s what’s going on with the kitchen. When we last took a look at it I’d gotten the closets straightened out with some basic wood shelves, and the rest of it hasn’t changed since June.

One of the things that was done slightly out of order was to install the cabinets without finishing or painting the drywall, which was easier at the time but definitely means taking more care on this side of things. I started by masking off the cabinets before texturing near them with joint compound.

I guarantee you that Scotch Blue Tape will still be up there in two weeks. Heck, there’s still some masquerading as door trim out in the Station from a year ago…

But I hear if you take it off while the paint is still wet you get a better line.

Anyway, I started with texturing the walls– a technique you can learn more about here– and one of my complaints here is that my mud pan (which I love for its ease of use, but not for its shape) always gives me a thumb cramp that makes me look like I’m hitchhiking for the next three days. My Jedi-master-drywaller got around this by affixing a piece of sand paper to his pan and wearing cloth gloves… so the pan basically stuck to his hand.

When I saw these gloves with the rubbery grip that little lightbulb went off in my head…

Yep. Just sticky enough to keep the pan in place without my poor thumb keeping a death grip on it.

They were about 3 sizes too big for my hands, but it worked anyway.

In the meantime, there was some progress on making the twenty-four lineal feet of butcher block (currently residing in the living room) into actual counters.

Here’s where I have to admit that I’m not the most consistent wearer of eye protection ever. You will see a lot of pictures of me on this website doing things without safety glasses, and I’ll never tell you any different than that it’s just plain dumb. It is. And it’s usually  that I can’t find them when I need them more than it’s about how dorky I look in them however, the one’s that 3M sent were actually kind of awesome.

Yes. Those are safety glasses. They’re so cool they almost distract you from my crazy hair– and if I was wearing them properly– crazy different-colored eyeballs. And since I do often need a pair of sunglasses while working outside, these fit the bill on more than one count. I wear them all of the time, and it makes me way less likely to lose an eyeball while cutting through inch-and-a-half butcher block.

There’s still a little work left to be done on these before they’re in place and the sink is in, but  a big shout out to 3M for providing some great products that helped me get back into my groove.

Also, if you haven’t been checking up on Couple Speak videos and translation contests, you should get a good laugh in here. The entry period for new videos has ended, but you can still like your favorites. (You may see a couple of other DIY bloggers featured there.)

Legal Stuff: This post is sponsored by 3M, who in addition to compensating me for my time also totally tried to win over my affections with a pair of awesome safety glasses…and it worked! But rest assured all opinions are strictly mine.

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