At the Finish Line!

After many months putting together all the details we finished the last big project, the backsplash!  We had found back splash tile on sale at HomeDepot for $3.67 per square foot. This was a great deal so we went to great lengths to get enough tile to complete the job! We called and visited Home Depots all over the area and got more than enough to finish the kitchen.

We ended up with a teal glass color tile that makes the teal spots in the granite pop. We used a tile adhesive and a trowel to stick the tile on the wall of the kitchen. For all the edges and around light switches we needed to cut individual tiles. We used a hand glad tile cutter that snapped the tiles smaller to fit the spaces we needed. We also grouted the tile by rubbing it on the tile with a rubber tile float and wiping it off the tile surfaces with a wet sponge. Then we needed to seal the edges where the tile met the granite. We used painters tape first; this created a clean line when we pulled off the tape.

The tile made the kitchen finally look complete! We still have to install the under the cabinet lighting and finish some moldings by the door, but everything else is finally done! We added handles to the cabinets and drawers, which cost about $60 per box at Lowe's and we used exactly 3 boxes. This relatively small cost really made the cabinets look great and blend in with the stainless steel appliances.

This kitchen renovation actually took several months to complete, my boyfriend and I both worked full time and both taking classes so this didn’t help with timing of course. All the late nights and time without a functioning kitchen were worth it. We have a beautiful kitchen and we were able to get nicer appliances, flooring, and countertops by doing all of the other parts on our own!

My Kitchen or Jurassic Park?

So far I have told you about the flooring project, the walls, the paint, the cabinets, the appliances, now we are getting into the fun details!

We began our countertop quest by being set on making our own concrete countertops. We bought melamine boards to cut and piece together a frame to pour our concrete.

We also bought concrete, a mixer and a bucket to test this whole thing out. A DIY post online made it seem like it was easy and simple. Well as I have found out numerous times now, no project is simple and takes way more money and time than planned.

We made a “sample” concrete countertop. It was a small 15 x 20 inches piece of countertop.

After mixing the concrete and pouring it into the frame, we needed to use a vibrating sander to break up all the bubbles that would have been on the top surface.

After a week of drying, the concrete piece was finally ready to check out. The surface was very smooth and it was very cool looking, however… this little piece weighed a TON! We thought about it and decided to save our supplies and sample piece for when we make our bar in the basement using the old cabinets from the kitchen that we saved when we gutted the kitchen.

Now what? We went looking at granite. We ended up at Soulliere Decorative Stone in Utica, MI. I found a couple cool granite slabs I liked, but I feel in love with one that looked like dinosaur eggs. I couldn’t stop thinking about how different and awesome it would look with our black cabinets.

After a few days we decided to go back and ended up picking out the exact slab we liked and ordering it. When you get granite, you usually pick out a slab of it, buy the whole slab and included is the cuts you need and a sink, then the company keeps the scrap pieces.

I thought, as great as our sample concrete countertop turned out, I better leave this to the experts since it is such a huge part of any kitchen.

They cut and installed the granite within a week, it was so easy and they did a wonderful job, and since we had our own sink, they took off money since we weren’t getting the sink that was included with the granite slab. They also made small window sils with the same granite so they would match!

I was very impressed with the company and haven’t had any issues with my granite countertops, except for the fact that if I move I want to take the dinosaur egg counters with me!