Kitchen Countertop, Sink, and Old Fashion Faucet Installed

What.a.weekend. Oh my. First let me say that I completely understand the saying that "if a marriage can survive a remodel, it can survive anything", LOL! Talk about stress!

On the weekends, I try to come up with projects that hubs and I can work on together...things that I can't do alone. The dining room wall is something that I can work by myself, during the week, so I left it untouched this weekend hoping that hubs and I could work on a project together. I thought about all the myriads of things that need to get done and then I jokingly said, "Hey, we could install the countertops this weekend, hehe". You see, our new countertops have sat in our garage for two years now. We never really thought we'd see the day that they would actually be installed:) But out of curiousity, hubs brought in a small piece of the countertop to see what it would look like. Out of curiousity, I removed a piece of the old countertop and placed the new piece in it's place just to see if our measurements were correct (they were, yay!). Within half an hour, hubs pronounced, "We're intalling our new countertops this weekend!"

(These two photos are before shots...)For many reasons, this was a much bigger job than we expected. Of course! We realized that when we tried remove the old sink. It was literally glued down to the old countertop (and not with sealant) and took forever to remove. Also, because we have a lazy susan type corner cabinet, we had absolutely no access to the mitered corner area of the countertop in order to bolt them into place. We had to put the mitered corner together first and then slide it into place. It took three tries before we could get the corner to come together. Using clamps to hold the pieces in place definitely helped. Also, I'm amazed at how roly poly and wavy the walls are! I shouldn't be, though. I couldn't believe how much old caulk from the old countertop I removed. When we got the new countertop in place, I could see why. I'm so glad that we are using fairly thick brick pavers as a backsplash. Some of the pavers are thicker than others, so we'll just place the thicker ones where the wall dips.

(Here are some photos of the newly installed countertop) Overall, I'm pretty happy with the new counter. Honestly, I didn't want laminate at all and preferred to use something more earthy or light. I love soapstone, but that was out of the question for our small budget. Tile would have been pretty, but I didn't want to worry about cleaning grout lines. My options were pretty limited so I chose this countertop because it seemed earthy "enough" and the colors were about the same as the aged paint on our kitchen island. My concern with the counter we chose is that it might be too dark...when I look at the kitchen now, I see the countertop first. But, when we add a painted white (it's a creamy bisque colored white, actually) brick backsplash, I think that is what my eye will see first. As I've mentioned before, the kitchen will have a lot of that creamy white in it - the beadboard, the ceilings, the trim - and the appliances and new sink are already that color. So, hopefully the darker countertop won't seem so "dark" when all the elements are in place. I might add that though our old countertop was much lighter, it was stained terribly. So I guess there are pros and cons of having light and dark counters.

But I must tell you, I love, love, love our new bisque colored extra deep sink and faucet (again, I've had these all boxed up and sitting around for two years!)!!! The faucet is from the Kingston Brass Restoration Collection and I really like the style...especially those old-fashion handles.

So another major project behind us. Here's what is left to do in the kitchen, in no particular order:
1)Even out the one dining room wall
2)Install backsplash
3)Install door trim
4)Install beadboard
5)Install crown moulding and finishing trim around ceiling beams
6)Paint walls, ceiling, doors, and trim
7)Maybe, maybe, maybe intall a single french door where we enter the house now (it's in the dining area across from the windows)
8)Install lighting
9)Install hardwood

I've gotten lots of emails from readers lately asking me about the color of paint I have on the cabinets. I'll respond to everyone soon, but until then, I just want to mention that the color is called "Cherry" by Waverly (at Lowes) and I used the satin finish:)

I hope everyone has a great Monday!