Kitchen Upgrades...Finished!

It all started when I mentioned a summer project: fixing some settling cracks and painting the kitchen. That conversation led to a decision to put in new counter tops...

Way back in April, my husband and I started shopping for granite.

The thing that made our decision difficult is that we already loved our kitchen. The cabinets are in great shape. The layout is great. The back-splash is beautiful. It's neutral, which means it will be easy to sell. While the appliances don't fit the latest stainless steel trend, they are practical for everyday life with a soon-to-be toddler. You know what I mean. Fingerprints galore. All of these things are working for us, but we just wanted it to feel a little more like a custom home.

Here's what we started with:

 And here it is today:

 While we were at it, we decided to extend this counter top to be a full breakfast bar length.

And here you see the finished product:
Eventually we'll invest in enough bar stools to go across the whole bar.

Before:

After:
New counters. Finished tile work. New sink/faucet/plumbing. Slightly darker paint color (still neutral, but it highlights the crown moulding better). And painted corbels & trim

.

I love this new sink! It's so much deeper than the old one... deep enough to fit an entire pizza pan!

I had a hard time choosing which beige would be best. We ended up going with the middle one. My husband is convinced they are all the same color. Ok, maybe they are.

After the granite was installed, we had to find tile to match what was already existing. Let me tell you, this is not an easy task. Of all the local tile shops where I live, there was only 1 that carried a natural stone tile to match. And it wasn't cheap. However, it was far cheaper than tearing out the old and replacing everything.

Corbels had to be added to support the weight of the granite. Lucky me got to paint it all (another way to save a lot of money).

At one point, my wall looked like this. Demolition is not exactly fun to look at. I had to keep in mind that it's not the finished product. Keep calm. Thankfully, we hired a professional to install the tile.

And a few hours later, this it what it looked like (sigh of relief). Much better. So glad we hired out this job.

So there you have it. Our first ever kitchen upgrade. Stay tuned for all the little things we learned along the way. :-)