Kitchen reveal- part 3

After waiting 24, very looooong hours, I asked my father-in-law to pop over and hook up our fancy pants new faucet. Although, it was like Fate was mad at me and I wasn't meant to have a faucet. Why? Because that afternoon (as I'm watching the epoxy dry) my mother-in-law went to play golf (obviously she had a more eventful day than me!) and her car got hit in the parking lot. And not just like, "opps, lemme write them a note" kinda hit. Hit like, holy-crap-I-should-just-pull-away-and-hope-for-the-best-even-though-I-hear-that-I'm-draggin-something-kind of hit. (Ok, I'm being dramatic. He didn't take her bumper...but pretty darn close!) Because of that, once my fil and mil arrived at our house, he worked, then he had to stop. Call the witness who saw the guy hit her car, then drive away, and left a message. Then pick back up where he left off, and stop again because the witness called back. Of course he called back!

When all was said and done, around 9:30 my fil told me what parts we needed to pick up from The Depot, and that he'd be back on Saturday to finish the install. It was Thursday evening. I almost died.

Now, let me be clear. I know that people go several weeks without a functioning kitchen while undergoing renovations. I also know that there are like 100,000,000 people in third world countries who don't even have a kitchen, let alone a kitchen sink (or faucet). So, walking the extra 15 steps to the pedestal sink in the half bath wasn't really going to kill me. However, it kinda was. I'm not going to sugar coat this, I don't really like being displaced, especially in our own home. Its like a mean/bad/horrible joke. Add to that the cutest little person ever-in-the-world who wants a clean sippy cup (I know, right...the nerve of that little kid!) So yes, the idea of waiting another 36 hours (I might have counted) until I got a functioning sink wasn't going to do.

So you know what I did? I did it myself. (You'd think I'd have a picture to post here, except I didn't take a picture of under the sink before I put all the "stuff" back...and now its all kinda blocked.)

No lie. I looked at all this stuff, the strainer basket, the garbage disposal...the plumbing and after picking up the pieces my fil told me we needed (and another trip to The Depot) I was anxious to put Lil' Man down for a nap so mama could play! And play I did. I borrowed my neighbors pipe cutter saw/thingy and hacked away until I made all the lil' tubes fit! I have never been so excited to turn on a faucet in my life! (Oh, I should also give props to the guy on You Tube whose video about installing the basket assembly I watched...) Anyway, after the excitement wore off of the plumbing NOT leaking, it was time to CLEAN!! I scrubbed the floors (having the granite guys come in and out and then having the backsplash installers in and out made it so dusty and took away from the new kitchen smell...) and then Lil' Man woke up...but I didn't really care, because when he was done with his milk, know what I got to do?

I got to wash it. In the sink. With my new faucet. With my newly installed plumbing lines.

Check out my sexy new faw-cet! Isn't she a beaut?? (Notice the door on the counter behind the faucet?)

Alright, so I install the faucet, hook it up and then guess what? I still have six more cabinet doors to finish painting. Why? Here's my reasoning. Before all the work was done (granite install and the backsplash) I decided to paint all the upper cabinets, but wait on the base cabinets. I figured the paint on the base cabinets wouldn't have enough time to cure (dry) before they were getting a beating. And, I also know that while those gentlemen are super careful, they wouldn't be AS careful in the newly painted kitchen as I would be. So, I waited. 

And, while I waited The Hubs thought I was loco. Bananas. Gone Mad. Why? Because we have a toddler running around the house and "how are you going to keep him out of the cabinets when they don't have any doors on them, Erin?" and I was all, "I don't know...but I'll figure it out!" And I figured it out. Remember how I told you that I had to empty all the base cabinets out so they could remove the old counter (and install the new one?) Right, well this chicky didn't FILL the cabinets once the new counters were on. Thus eliminating the need to get "fussy" while having a toddler roam the kitchen because the cabinets were, oh you guessed it, empty. Ha :P

So once we had a functioning faucet (ahhhh, I didn't realize how much I use my kitchen sink!) I put the drop cloth on the counters (because all the stuff from the cabinets was now living on our kitchen table) and painted 'til my arm felt numb. Well, actually I painted until I ran out of room. I only had enough counter space for four doors, but I had six...so I had to wait an extra 24 hours before finishing all the doors, then they had to dry and yaddy yaddy...so FINALLY on Monday morning, around 9am, I was able to install the very last of our door hardware and WAHZAM, hang the last door. 

This also meant that I got to clean the kitchen. Again. WOOT! I filled my bucket (from my faucet!) got out the mop, grabbed those awesome yellow gloves and a sponge and got to work. When I was finished I had the joy and satisfaction of knowing that a week and a half ago our kitchen looked like "eh- its clean, but nothing to write home about" to "holy CRAP, that's MY kitchen!" 

We tiled the side of the tall pantry because the previous counters ran a side splash on it, and we didn't know if once it was removed we would have damage, so we just tiled the whole thing)

One of my favorite parts of our kitchen is that we DON'T have stainless steel appliances. Why? Because EVERY-one has 'em...and this is a great way to show people that you can use "plain white" appliances in your kitchen and make 'em look awesome!

Our new fancy pants under mount sink (and when they installed the granite, they added supports for the counter to the right of the sink and left of the dishwasher, remember in that photo how there wasn't any supports?

The finished product. 

Ahhhhhhhh

The one and only thing I had left to do (besides keep it clean) was to seal the grout on the backsplash. We had to wait 48 hours for the grout to dry 100% but I picked up sealer from The Depot and sprayed it on, wiped it off, and pushed all my appliances back into place. Done!

***A few things I didn't know until doing this makeover:

- How much I rely on our family for help. The Hubs' grandpa came over and removed the old laminate counters for us the night before we were to have the granite installed so that we didn't have to go too long without counters (little did I know it was going to be the sink that would cause me the most heartache!) And then having my fil install the faucet, and help me with the parts I'd need for the plumbing lines

- How un-flexible I am. Which is why, during this project of constantly being hunched over, using only my right arm (because I'm right handed) I was at my chiropractor three times during this process. 

- How much I didn't like our old kitchen. Damn. You know how people say things like, "I really didn't think it was that bad..." well, I didn't realize it was that bad until I saw how awesome it became. 

Kitchen reveal- part 2

And so it began. I used a deglosser on all the cabinets (which is basically liquid sand paper) and then followed it up with a nice cleaning on all the surfaces with TSP (which is a SUPER cleanser/degreaser...so if you ever need to just give your kitchen a super clean, just this TSP stuff!) Next up, I used a fine grit sandpaper on any area that the deglosser didn't do a fab job on. (Like the areas on the cabinets we touch more, even though we have pulls on the cabinets, sometimes you don't use them...) 

I used Frog Tape to mask off all the interiors of the cabinets and along the baseboards. (Frog Tape uses fancy-pants technology in their tape, so once it makes contact with a latex (or water based) paint, it instantly forms a barrier. (Its the same technology in your babies diaper...that makes the diapers bulky once they pee in 'em). I used the regular blue tape (which isn't nearly as expensive as the Frog Tape) on other areas that the clean crisp line wasn't 1000% necessary.

As I was huffing the fumes from the deglosser and TSP, I went out front with Lil' Man to play and started talking to my next door neighbor who just painted her cabinets a few years ago. I told her I was planning on painting the doors in the garage, so Lil' Man could play and I could work. She brought up the BEST point. Bugs. And pollen. And other gross stuff that lives in the garage. Oh. She suggested that I do what she did, paint the doors on the kitchen table, in the AC. This way you don't have to worry about anything falling on them. Score. 

So that's what I did...

See how gross the cabinets look? Once I was all done with the deglossing and the TSP wash, they looked awful and started to get really dark in spots. 

Thankfully we only had to go one night (like, less than 12 hours) without counters. But lemme tell you, those were 12 very long hours. Lil' Man thought we gave him new toys to play with (the cabinets). When he went to bed that night, I found a Goofy stuffed animal sitting in the bottom of one cabinet, and a car in another! And, knowing that we were going to need the kitchen table for the contents of those base cabinets, I had to quickly finish the upper doors, to make space for all the "stuff" that lives in our cabinets...

 See, no counters or drawers! 

I didn't realize, until there were no counters, that there was no support for the counter to the right of the kitchen sink (and left of the dishwasher!) 

With all our base cabinets emptied out for the arrival of the new counters, our kitchen table looked like this! To say it drove me banana's is an understatement!

Once the new counters were installed I did a little happy dance. Actually, no. I didn't do a "little" happy dance. I did the Carlton. It was epic. 

Ok, so we now have counters (which look totally fab) and we have a new sink (which was SUPER fab!) but I learned that because of the epoxy they used to attach said sink to said counters, we had to wait 24 hours before it could get wet. Lame. 

Kitchen reveal- part 1

"What did you do?" my chiropractor asked me when I hobbled into his office. "Just finished painting my kitchen cabinets" I mumbled in pain. 

He proceeded to do his magic on my back, shoulders and neck and when he was done he told me, "Erin, are you sure you're done with this kitchen project? From the looks of your back, you should be done." I nodded (now that I could move my head again) and said "I'm finished." And then, maybe a little too proudly said,  "wanna see the pictures?!"

And so, here is the big kitchen reveal:

yes, that's a Spiderman figurine on the top of our cabinets- I'll explain later

 

new fancy-pants back splash makes my mixer POP!

 

 Check out my uh-maze-ing undermountsink!

 There's Spidey again...just watching over things

 My lil' Keurig likes his pretty new counters

Ok, so now that you've see all the pretty's...here's how this all went down. 

My dad came to visit the weekend before we were getting the counters templated (and, if you remember that little piece of granite I kept moving around) He said after looking at the samples, "You know what would look awesome? Paint your cabinets black!" and I said, "WHAAAAAAA?" and he said, "Honey, I'm telling you, paint them black. Its going to change the whole house." I nodded and said, "but that's going to be uh-lot of work!" and he just looked at me like, "...and when did a little elbow grease bother you, missy?" Oh. 

So he left and the super nice template man, Tony, came to our house. In order to get a perfect template, he needed to remove our existing backplash...

Pretty awesome, hu? When I came back in from playing outside with Lil' Man, I was so excited I was bouncing up and down! I couldn't believe it was actually happening!!

 To create the template, he used (what was basically) a lot of yard sticks

 He hot glued the yard sticks together to create a perfect replica (that they would later use to cut and layout our granite slab)

After he templated, I was BUZZING with excitement. This was really going to happen. We were really going to have a new kitchen. And then it hit me, like a ton of big, fat bricks- PAINT. YOUR. CABINETS. BLACK. (It might have just been that I had just gotten off the phone with my dad, who might have said that, over and over and over to me...but whatever!)

So I waited for The Hubs to come home and had "the talk". 

me: If you were to come home tomorrow and the cabinets were black, would you still love me?

him: What?

me: Was that a yes?

him: Hu?

me: You didn't say 'no' right off the bat, so I'm going to take that as a yes!

him: Oh boy. 

The next day Lil' Man and I went to The Home Depot and got all the supplies I needed. I called The Hubs before checking out. 

me: Just to be 100% sure, I'm going to buy all the stuff to paint the cabinets. 

him: Oh honey. 

me: So that's your approval?

him: Not really...I think your crazy. How are you going to do all this painting with Lil' Man running around your feet?

me: Hu? (blowing into phone) I. Can't. Hear. You

him: Erin. 

me: (still blowing) You. Are. Breaking. Up. 

him: I love you

me: hehe, love you too! BYEEEEEE