Kitchen Redo

You may have heard me say that I feel like I've been treading water since Christmas and, well, my kitchen is part of the reason why. 

Here we were, chugging merrily along. Sure my faux painted walls were getting old and ugly and we weren't fond of the black, granite-tile counter top. It showed every little speck of dirt and those grout lines were a pain. 

But we'd worry about that in a few years when we sold the house.

(See, there's always a pair of shoes laying around somewhere)

Then, the tiles started coming off. Not only was it very unsightly, working around it was a challenge. So we decided it was time to bit the bullet and move forward with new solid-surface counter tops. 

We studied the pros and cons of each, as well as price, and decided to go with the Silestone Quartz. 

And definitely not black.

Whoo-hoo!

The counter top would be installed and we'd be on our way.

Uh...not quite. 

When they installed the granite tiles, for some odd reason they used two layers of Hardy Backer. Which raised the level of the counter top. So when it was removed and the new installed, we were left with this.

Yep, about a one half to three quarter inch gap between the counter and the back splash.

Naturally, we had no spare tiles, and we would have needed a bunch anyway, so we searched different stores for similar tiles, hoping we could just fix it. After all, we liked our back splash.

After an exhaustive search (all during revisions and edits of my upcoming release), my husband looked at me and said, "Well, we may as well go ahead and get a new back splash, too."

Okay, maybe this is wrong, but inside I was doing a little happy dance when he said this.

So another search ensued for the perfect back splash. And mind you, we're selling our house in three years, so we had to look at things from a resale perspective. 

But, wait... This also meant I was going to have to paint the kitchen. Not just paint, but texturize, then prime, then paint. 

I love to paint. I really do. But since I had done the faux finish over existing wallpaper and I wanted a single color this time, I figured I'd add some texture. You know, smearing joint compound on your walls with some sort of spreading tool, hoping you get the right look.

Had I ever done this before?

No. But I'm a DIYer. How hard can it be? (You know where I'm coming from, don't you, Virginia?)

I know you can't really see anything but the white here but, personally, I think I did a horrible job on the texture. Maybe I'm my own worst critic, but it could have been better.

But, after four months, the kitchen is finally complete.

I don't usually have flowers on my island, but hubby gave them to me for Easter and they're so pretty.

Things are lighter and brighter.

It's kind of hard to see with all my stuff on the counters, but the mosaic is only solid over the stove.

The rest is a strip with subway-style tumbled marble above and below.

And best of all, this new counter top hides everything. I kid you not. Sometimes I can't tell something is there unless I run my hand over it or the light hits it just right.

In the end, it was worth it. Yeah, the timing could have been better, but at least it's done.

And hopefully, in a few years, someone else will love it as much as we do.