This is a "before" picture. Here is a student of mine--she's baffled by the mess and darkness (we were cooking for an Easter bake sale).
This is Rico, a bird that found me and landed on my car at a friend's house. We no longer have him, since we found his owner (thank goodness), but you can see the beautiful green leaf print on our former countertop.
I've been searching my files for a before picture of our "breakfast" bar. I put breakfast in quotations because it wasn't big enough to do anything but catch clutter. Of course, I cannot find a picture, so just imagine.
The beginning: we saved 300 bucks by ripping out the awful counter (boy, that was a chore, but totally worth it!!!) and backsplash. I have a few war wounds from that stupid backsplash! Once it was out, it was kind of fun and very challenging to have missing countertops for an evening. We discussed with some friends how funny and convenient it would be to have clear counters with lids that lift (like at a bulk candy store). It's amazing what you can find "behind the scenes:" in the trianglular space behind our sink cabinet, I discovered an old Pepsi bottle, a lot of "house building" dust, a glove, and some other junk. I'm not long enough to reach it, nor did I want to prick my belly on the rough wall, so it's probably still there because I highly doubt the granite people removed it.
The granite was put in on May 28th and the electrician couldn't come until June 5th. One week felt like three...and, of course, the electrician couldn't come on the 5th. However, he did come on the 7th, a Sunday, which was very nice. I think God was teaching me patience because I couldn't put up the tile until the electrician made all the necessary little holes he needed (my friend, Natalie, was right--they make a TON of holes!). Finally, after a few hours of tiling and the electrician's return to mount the lights, my (our) kitchen is FINISHED:
I enjoyed laying the tile myself. I measured, cut, and set on my own for the first time ever. It was such a learning experience with a very rewarding outcome. Naturally, there are some things I would do differently, but now I feel like I can tile anything! And want to.
While in limbo and waiting on the electrician, I had to do something. So, I painted a wall with some chalkboard paint and framed it. Kaitlyn and I love it!
Here's what we did: we changed the countertops and backsplash from the hideous green leaf print laminate to a venetian gold granite and a natural tumbled marble set in a brick pattern. We also extended the breakfast bar a few inches, purchased two barstools, hung two pendant lights over the bar, and had under-cabinet lighting put in (all connected to a switch). Aside from the granite, the most expensive cost was the totalled hourly rate charged by the electrician. I sure wish I could do that myself! Doing the tile on our own saved us about $500. Our total kitchen re-do cost us less than $3k, thanks to some connections Eric (granite & electricity) and I have (tile).
Now we enjoy cooking again!
The next step is to paint the kitchen (nice and inexpensive!) and we'll be finished with it then. I've given up on fancy stainless steel appliances because ours work fine and I doubt we would get our money back on them by the time we're ready to sell (third time's the charm, we hope!) and they don't seem to stand out as much against a lighter palette; although, Eric and I both agree the kitchen would be stunning with them!
I love home improvement so much that I hope to tackle other jobs in the house. I'd like to put slate tile in our outside entry way, paint the front door blue (it needs to stand out and red would look weird; although, orange would be nice!), stain the concrete patio in the back a dirt color (to match dirty doggie footprints), paint the garage floor and add the little blue speckles, and adjust the girls' bath to look bigger (i.e., take out the giant sink & cabinets). Hopefully after all of this work, our house will look like it's worth the amount we've listed it for when it comes time to sell again [fingers crossed].
A little side bit:
Because I am SO PROUD of my little girls and SO THANKFUL for the wonderful blessings God has given us, I have to insert a picture of my little beloveds. Elise is 7.5 weeks old in this picture.
