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| Cynthia Johnson refinished her bathroom cabinets in three days and at a cost of $58.45.
(Photos courtesy of Cynthia Johnson) |
By Kay Reynolds
The Virginian-Pilot
CYNTHIA JOHNSON picked up her DIY skills the hard way. But that doesn’t mean she doesn’t have fun with them.
“I’ve been doing DIY projects for the past 20 years,” she said from her Virginia Beach home. “I learned to fend for myself after a divorce. I still remember the day I learned that screws went in clockwise and came out counterclockwise.”
Johnson taught herself basic home repair by reading directions and through observation.
“As a single mom on my own, I found out if you hired someone – if they showed up – it was just so costly to have them do the work,” she said. “Then I saw how it was done and thought ‘I can do this.’” Basic repair became bigger projects, such as bathroom and kitchen renovations.
Initially, Johnson went to the library for instruction. It was easy to check out a book or copy a few pages to take home. Now, she finds the Internet brings a world of advice right to her home. However, she still goes to home improvement centers to take advantage of free classes and learn new skills.
“I went to a course recently at Home Depot on home safety,” she said. “It is fantastic to find out about things. There’s nothing you can ask that they don’t have a solution for.”
Johnson buys her own tools, from screwdrivers and hammers to power tools, such as circular saws. She didn’t feel she’d need the big power tools when she moved to Virginia. But you can’t keep a good repair woman down, not when new projects call out to be done.
“On Father’s Day, I bought myself one of those reciprocal saws,” she said, laughing. “Didn’t think I’d be needing that again, but I do.”
Her latest projects include refinishing the kitchen – 20 doors and nine drawers – using the same techniques she describes in her bathroom renovation.
Johnson repainted the entire kitchen in $3 worth of “oops” paint. “Now I’m ready to work on the kitchen floor,” she said. “I’m doing the whole downstairs in laminate flooring. Everything’s ripped up right now and ready. I just wanted to get those cabinets done first.”
Johnson does the work on her own, although she admits to enlisting help from her daughter and grandchildren during their last visit. Still, her enthusiasm for DIY made the work a party. She is proud to be a trailblazer for women.
“Nowadays,” Johnson says, “I run into other single women who do this themselves. What a good thing.”
Cynthia L. Johnson’s low budget bathroom fix-up in her own words:
I am a 65-year-old female who bought a “fixer upper” at Chimney Hill in late November 2005. It had the original Masonite cabinets from 1983 throughout the house: downstairs vanity, upstairs double vanity and kitchen cabinets. The exterior of all the dark cabinet doors were all marked, scuffed and pitted, but their interiors were in decent shape (no sagging boards or holes, just dirt and markings). Of course, the Realtor’s suggestion was to rip them all out and replace them with new. Having a limited budget, being semi-handy and acquainted with the magic of paint and imagination, I had a different solution.
I found a wallpaper (“Ultra Board Wall Paper — Beadboard”) that is guaranteed to cover even cement walls. I am also a big fan of “oops” paint (wrongly mixed or returned paint sold at a fraction of its cost) and bought two quarts of American Tradition Semi-Gloss Enamel in white for $1 per can. Using paint, wallpaper, pine screen and pine screen lattice with the addition of knobs, I changed the whole appearance of the upstairs bathroom double vanity into something being featured in most every home decorating magazine I have recently seen.
The entire project took three days (with drying times) to finish and can be accomplished by anyone who knows how to use a screwdriver, paintbrush and hammer (or wants to learn).
I removed the doors, scrubbed down all the doors and interiors with some bleach and water, rinsed and let dry overnight. I then sprayed them with “Goof Off No Rinse Pre Paint” and painted with Kilz Ultra Enamel paint. I painted the interior walls, bottom shelves, and interiors of the drawers with two coats of white paint. Then I measured, cut and covered the doors and drawer fronts with the wallpaper to within approximately a ¼-inch from their edges; cut and attached the wood trim (there are different size trims that look proportionate on the doors and drawers) and drilled holes for the new knobs. I then painted them all with two coats of white paint and re-hung.
Total cost with tax was $58.45.
Recommendation: When using multiple cans of any “oops” paint at one time, mix them together and stir, stir, stir to get a uniform color.
Reach Kay Reynolds at 446-2640 or kay.reynolds@pilotonline.com
THE DIY FILE
DIYer: Cynthia Johnson of Virginia Beach
Project: Bathroom
Time spent: Three days
Cost: $58.45
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