Countertop Transformation

This has been a very successful week in our kitchen. After taking 2 weeks off, we fell very behind and did not complete the project by my birthday. I think we can be finished by the end of this weekend though..I'm hopeful.
This week we got the backsplash tiled, finished mudding/sanding/painting the walls and I just finished the countertops.

We purchased a product called Countertop Transformation that transforms your laminate countertop in '3 easy steps': base coat, decorative chips, protective top coat.

 To anyone considering using this product my advice to you is BE PATIENT! Expect to have to redo some places..in my case several times. But in the end, it's worth it.  My new countertops look really good! I can resume light use in 2 days. I have to wait 7 days for full use.  These pictures below are before the top coat was applied.

 

before

 

after



close up



 The next pictures will be of a completed kitchen.  I'm so excited to be finished with all this work.





 

change of plans

I went to Lowes after work today and bought a gallon of Ocean Soul paint. Last week I bought a sample and painted a small section and I loved it.  Andrew wasn't quite sold--it's a pretty bold color--sort of a cobalt blue. I planned on getting the first coat on tonight but about 5 minutes after getting home with the paint, I decided I didn't like Ocean Soul anymore.  I didn't even get the can of paint opened and I had changed my mind.
So, now I'm going to spend my lunch tomorrow looking at paint colors..I'm thinking green.  I think Andrew will be pleased.
Since I didn't paint tonight, I spent a little bit of time putting things back in the cabinets. All of our food-and dishes-have been in boxes in our dining room.  It makes cooking very difficult. But things are starting to get put back in place.
I also spent most of my night cooking roasted chicken with carrots and potatoes and baking zucchini bread. It's only the second meal to be cooked in our house since we started working on the kitchen. I'm ready for it to be finished so I can start to enjoy cooking a little more.

cabinets are FINISHED!

28 days

The party is in 28 days. Kitchen is still a disaster. I feel like we should be farther along but things are finally starting to look different-and much better than before.
I had a rough morning yesterday so I wasn't as productive as I hoped I would be. But the weekend ended well. We made a decision Thursday night to buy a new range hood/microwave. We got it installed today. It took 3 hours and 2 trips to the store for supplies but it's in and it works. And it looks good. Andrew did a great job on the electrical part. And I..well, I really just watched most of the time until he needed a second set of hands to hold it up.
We started rehanging the cabinet doors but there's still a few that haven't been painted. By tomorrow night they all wil be hung and possibly have new hardware. I'll post a picture once that step is completed.
Andrew thinks we can be finished by the end of next weekend. I'm hoping he's right. I'm ready to have my kitchen back.

I'd like to poll the audience

Andrew and I work really well together most of the time. And we are working well together on the kitchen. We haven't had a lot of time to work together, most of the time we work alone while the other person is at work, but when we do get to work together, we have a lot of fun.

We also, normally like the same things so decisions are made pretty easily: I found the tile and called him to describe it and he told me to get it. We've always agreed on wall colors. Andrew found the tile for the backsplash and it was exactly what I wanted.

But now, we have our first disagreement. Grout color. Of all things, it's something as small and unnoticable as grout. I want a neutral color that will blend in with the tile. It's supposed to make the room look larger.
Andrew wants a darker, contrasting color.

We still have a few weeks before we have to buy the grout so I thought I'd ask for some opinions.

Which grout should we use? Neutral or contrasting? 
If it makes a difference the tile is 13x13 light beige with brown marbling. White cabinets with black countertops. Marble tile backsplash. Undecided wall color.

I'm pretty sure Andrew is the only one that reads this but if anyone else wanders over, please tell me what you think.

Day 10

We haven't been working on the kitchen for long but I am ready for it to be finished. You can't tell a big difference yet; Right now it just looks like we tore our kitchen apart to make things a little more complicated. I keep trying to reach in the cabinets for a glass and then I remember all our dishes are in boxes and laundry baskets in the dining room. I went grocery shopping tonight but all the groceries (except refrigerated things) are still in the walmart bags in the dining room floor because there's no other room for it.

We have finished about half of the painting. We still need to paint the back of the cabinet doors, all the drawer fronts, and the upper cabinets. And I think the lower cabinets still need a second coat.

Next steps...finish painting
                   rehang cabinets and doors
                   paint countertops
                   scrap texture off walls
                   paint walls
                   tile backsplash
                   tile floors

I'm really tired of painting so tonight I think I'll scrap the texture for a little while. I'm getting a late start but I still have a few hours before Andrew gets home so maybe I can finish the wall I started a few days ago.

I still haven't figured out why I can't get the pictures from the card, but it hasn't changed too much.

focusing on the positive

The kitchen is starting to look a lot different already. But we had to add something to the list.  There are always unexpected things that come up and for us it was this.

We decided to move our upper cabinets up a few inches and when we took one down we found this behind it. It's some kind of glossy paneling so I don't know how easy it's going to be to paint. And the walls have a texture on them so now we have to either scrap the texture off OR texture to the part we'll be uncovering. I'm a little discouraged by this. So, I'm just focusing on the progress we've made instead of all that's left to do.

Andrew worked so hard tonight and I think he's beat now. But it paid off because he got all of the linoleum up. {Thanks a lot baby!} And I got the base cabinets and doors primed. And I should be able to start painting them tomorrow. I've never painted cabinets before so I'm a little afraid I won't be able to make it look good.
We also went to Lowe's tonight and got a few things for laying the tile, including a wet saw. We still have to pick a color for grout but then we'll be ready to get the floor down.
Tomorrow is the last day we'll get to work on it this week. We are going to be leaving Friday right after work to go to OK for Grandma Johnson's 90th birthday. We'll lose 3 or 4 days so we'll have to really work a lot next week to stay on track.
As for the staircase...I'm not sure it will be done by my birthday.  But as long as we keep working on it when we can, I'll be okay with that.  Maybe it can by my Christmas present.

I took pictures of the kitchen but my computer says there is an I/O device error when I try to get them from the SD card. So, Andrew will have to figure that out for me and I'll post them later.

project list

This summer marked the 2 year anniversary of buying our first house.  The house was about 100 years old when we bought it and we got lucky. A lot of the updates that 100 year old homes need had already been done by a previous owner. New roof, New windows, New A/C unit, New water heater.

Unfornutely they did not have the same style as Andrew and I. By the time we closed on the house I had a pretty long list of updates I wanted to make once the house was ours.

• paint EVERYTHING (the previous owners loved ugly wall paper and LOVED pink)
• finish stripping/refinishing staircase (the previous owners started this one for us but gave up on it)
• rip up ALL the carpet and restore the hardwood floors
• make the fireplace look better somehow
• new bathtub, sink/vanity and mirror in downstairs bathroom
• update kitchen--may involve completely gutting the kitchen and possilby taking out a whole wall
• build new closets in our bedroom
• redo upstairs bathroom--definitely has to be gutted.

We spent a week, with the help of some friends and family, stripping wallpaper and painting over all the pink. Then we moved in and got back to life as usual: working full time, and various church/social activities. That didn't leave much time to check off many other projects.

But now I'm ready to dive in.  We don't have much more free time (actually we probably have less) but I just can't look at the pink countertops..yes pink countertops..I said they loved pink.

My new (hopefully more doable) list

• finish staircase
• update kitchen (paint cabinets, paint countertops and hopefully lay tile floor--the tile is already bought)
• new sink/vanity and mirror in downstairs bathroom
• finish closets in our bedroom
• flooring (proably just new carpet but I'm still hopeful about restoring the hardwood)
• upstairs bathroom  (I have no idea what to do with this room--it needs a lot)

I've asked for the first two things for my birthday. I'm wanting to have a small party at my house, but would like these things to be done first. My birthday is September 12.  We have 43 days.  I don't think Andrew is looking forward to it but he has agreed to help me get it done.  We'll have to work hard but I think we can do it.  We're 'the bests'-we can do anything.

I'll take pictures and post them with my progress.  I'm ready to get started..I think it's going to be a lot of fun.