I know. I have issues. I create new projects in order to avoid working on current projects. I don’t think that there is a cure for it – but I am lucky that my husband doesn’t view it as a problem. I think. Because when I told him I wanted to, “just look at some countertops I found on Craig’s List that I might like,” he just smiled and said, “okay, but you’re buying.” I’m good with that. We drove about an hour and a half – one way to “just look” at these countertops – in our truck because I rarely “just look” and we drove home – an hour and a half with our new quartz countertops. This guy on CL fabricates for track and apartment/condo new construction. So he works on a massive scale. He would probably not have wasted his time bidding a kitchen renovation like ours. However, because he does 100’s of countertops at a time he buys 100’s of slabs at a time and he said he always over buys because he is always in a crunch for time and cannot wait for another shipment of marble/quartz/granite whatever to get the job done. So by buying extra – if there is an error made he has a quick substitute. He says he gets perks for finishing quickly so it benefits him to overbuy for the job. Unfortunately for him his workspace is filled, FILLED with half slabs of unfinished and some finished product. Fortunately for me – he needed room to work. I got an entire slab of Ceasarstone in Misty Carrera for 2/3’s of his wholesale price. Wholesale price.
Originally Mike and I were going to fabricate it ourselves but when we looked into the cost of all the materials we changed our mind and paid Juan, our countertop guy for our bedroom kitchenette to do the job. And I say “we” liberally here. Mike paid him because I told Mike it was his job to fabricate the countertops and if he didn’t want to do it he could foot the bill. Funny huh? I buy the countertops and then make Mike deal with the headache? Yes, we have separate checking accounts.
So, rewind to about a month ago when Mike mentioned that he hated our kitchen faucet and wanted a new one. It leaked, the valve was broken and it was hard to get a consistent temp. It’s been like this for almost 2 years. Very unlike us. The problem wasn’t just the faucet though – neither of us really liked the kitchen countertops or the cabinets. They were nice – just not our style. They were the previous owner’s style. The cabinets were maple doors with lots of detail and glazing. The countertops were red/pinkish/black dotted granite with a waterfall edge. The backsplash was a travertine tile with some handmade glass copper accent tiles. When we remodeled our house, changing the kitchen just wasn’t part of the plan. There was nothing wrong with it. It functioned just fine and at the time we were really just focusing on function. During construction the kitchen faucet broke and now that we are done with our major remodel the kitchen felt like a massive pimple ready to explode. I can’t just leave stuff like that alone. I try – but it’s just not me. Look at this faucet and granite – just dark and brown and busy.
Ok, so, back to the faucet. Mike and I started looking at faucet styles we both liked and it turned out we like a lot of the same things. The faucet we both chose was a one hole faucet. Our old faucet was a three hole faucet. Our new faucet was stainless steel our old faucet was rubbed bronze. Stainless steel would clash with our countertops and current cabinet hardware (yes our appliances are stainless steel – also from the previous owners and so is our kitchen sink – they competed with the countertops and made the room feel so busy). We have already started drawing up plans to enlarge the kitchen – so we were planning on changing all this stuff then – but somehow decided that a 2 – 3 phase kitchen update wouldn’t be such a bad thing. This was phase 1: paint kitchen cabinets, change knobs/pulls, change kitchen counters and backsplash, install a new faucet and somehow we talked ourselves into also installing a pot filler over the stove. Phase 1 took about 3 weeks – and I took my time painting the kitchen cabinets because I have 4 kids and Mike doesn’t do cabinets. He helped by taking all the doors down and removing the hardware then going to work while I figured out the rest 🙂 I’ve added a new blog category titled Kitchen Renovation because I plan on a lot more posts on this kitchen. Over the next few days/weeks I’ll be posting quite a few different blogs about the paint we used, the sprayer I use, a tutorial on painting cabinets, and a tutorial on installing a kitchen backsplash. So stay tuned. For now I’ll just show you the pics of how awesome our kitchen looks today!
With Natural lighting – most true to life colors.
With artificial and natural light – makes the white look creamier/warmer.
Another just natural lighting.
