Out with the old part II

 Today is the day folks that you get the rest of the kitchen! Just kidding! Not yet, patience Iago. After the counter tops, came B's back splash. I say B's because I was totally indifferent to having one. B really wanted one and thought it would make the kitchen look a lot better. A lady that B works with, is married to a tile man. B asked her how much her husband would charge for a back splash. She told him between $500-$700. He doesn't buy any of the material either. So, we would be paying him for labor only. We had never priced out the materials needed for a back splash but we were sure that it wouldn't cost that much. We were right. All the tile and mud stuff and grout and caulking and spreader thing for the mud was a lot cheaper than tile man wanted to charge us. We were going to wait until the next Monday because B was on call for the weekend. He didn't want to start on the back splash and then get called in whilst he was working on it. Well, on Friday the guy from our ward that has helped us out a lot with projects around our house called B and asked when we were going to do the back splash. B told him that he was on call so we were just going to wait until Monday and start on it. This guy told B that he couldn't help us on Monday because he would be at work. B told him that was ok, we wanted to try and do it ourselves anyway and we didn't want to take him away from his family so we would just do it Monday. The nice fellow told B that that wasn't a great idea and that his wife and kids would love to spend the day at our house on Saturday and if B got called in, they would just finish the back splash for us. B tried to tell him no, that we really wanted to wait until Monday and he just wouldn't let it go. So, we ended up buying all of the supplies on Friday night, picking up the rented tile saw early Saturday morning and busting out the back splash.

 You might be shocked to know that in this here town that we live in, there's no tile store. There's a home depot, but if you have a question you never know what kind of answer you'll get from home depot. Anyway, the only reason we knew to sand the wall was because we called a tile store in northern Alaska and they told us that the wall has to be rough so the mud will stick. B was very excited to add a sander to his minuscule tool cluster. Looky there! A snippet of exposed counter top! Just a little taste of the amazing reveal to come!

A lot of the day was spent out using the tile saw. The guy in our ward told us to just buy one. He's crazy. Do people in real life just go out and buy a saw? We've noticed that saw's are not inexpensive so renting one for $30 was the way to go!

Putting the mud on the wall. Ok, confession time. I don't really know if it's called mud. I just try to sound like I know what in the world I'm talking about but honestly, I usually don't. 

Pushing the tile onto the wall. We really thought that we would be able to bust this back splash out in about half a day. We got the bigger tile thinking that it would take less cutting and we would be able to just line them up. Ya, it took a lot longer than we thought. B was so thankful that P from our ward had insisted on helping us. He helped a ton and when one brain would get stuck on how to measure for a tile to make it look good, the other brain would come get involved and they would figure it out.

Trying to figure something out. This little section of the wall took for-ever! Truly, hours were spent trying to figure out how to line them up and make the right cuts around the bottom of the cabinets and around the window. While they did the back splash, I was in charge of taking pictures, taking care of the littles, making the working men lunch and talking to the lovely folk that were driving down our street and got hit when our amazing oldest son went flying off the sidewalk on his bike and rode right into the side of their car. Thankfully the lady had noticed K and had come to a complete stop so he hit a stopped car. But, he hit them hard enough that he flipped over the front of his bike and landed on the ground. He smashed their headlight and left a tire mark on the side of their car. Needless to say we are so so thankful that he didn't get hurt and that the lady wasn't flying down the street like so many cars do.

This was a wonky angle. They had to go around the outlet and the window. It took more than one attempt to figure out the template. I think it's a stroke of genius to use paper to make a template so that they didn't waste tile after tile trying to get the angles right.

We had to wait two days for the tiles to set before B could grout it all.We were virgin grout mixers and like so many other things, it took us awhile to figure it out. But, after the second or third time, we were professionals! He was able to smash the grout in where it sat drying for a day.

After the grout had dried, he was able to caulk it. Once he was done with that, I went through and sealed the grout. Now, hold your breath, here it comes!

Doesn't it look so lovely?! Ok, I know that with those awful honey oak cabinets that it doesn't look that great. But we aren't done yet peeps. I bet you can imagine what the last step to our kitchen fix is. You guessed it! Cabinets! But that post will have to wait. Don't lose faith in me yet, there's still one more picture that I can hardly wait to show you!

Out with the old Part I

I know, the mind reels to think that I would actually write two weeks in a row. Let this be proof that miracles haven't ceased! Let's get on with it shall we? The time has come to finish what we started with our kitchen! It took a few weeks so you get the update in stages. Not only will that give me something to write about another time, but then you'll have to wait in the same anticipation that we did as we waited for things to get done and installed. First up are the counter tops.

 For your viewing enjoyment, let's start at the very beginning. Here is what it looked like with a horrible, totally unnecessary wall. That was the first thing to go.

 Yay! The wall is gone and so is the awful green paint. The tan only brought out the ugly cabinets so

 We changed it to grey. Well, in the can it was grey but on the walls it looks purple so, that's not great but we're tired of painting so the purple walls stay.

 Taking out the floors was next. This floor project took almost a year to happen. We didn't realize how much flooring is. Live and learn folks. If you don't want a hole in your floor for a long time, make sure you have the money for a new floor prior to taking out a wall. Just sayin'.

 The wood floor goes in. Aw wood. Nuff'said!

The floors all done and looking spiffy. Now we come to the counter tops! Another year goes by and then...

Demo Day Night!

Lifting a cast iron sink out of it's hole is heavy! Thankfully, I have muscles like Superman and I was a huge asset to this little endeavor and B didn't feel like he lifted the entire thing by himself. 😉

 After the sink was out of it's hole and taken outside, it was time to remove the old counter tops. The counter top place said they would be happy to do the demo for a $600 fee. B threw his head back and laughed his evil laugh before he told them he could do it in his sleep! Ok, not really. The lady told him that it would cost $600 to have them do it, we had flash backs to taking out a wet bar and had total confidence that we, (now when I say we, we all know that I mean B right?) could take off these here counter tops without a problem at all. B remembered he has a 30 pound sledge hammer and knew counter top removal would be a breeze with that baby!

I keep telling him that if his hospital gig doesn't go as well as he planned that he could totally be a demo guy.

Besides being picture taker, my job was to go around the cabinets and pull the nails out that got left behind. Yeah, that didn't go so well for me. After spending at least 3 1/2 minutes trying to take out one nail, I decided enough was enough and I watched in awe as B went along the cabinets and pulled the nails out like it was no big thing.

Then the next morning...

The counter top guys came! I am way over granite. I feel like it's in every house and it's usually dark. Our little kitchen is not a great place to have something dark. We picked a quartz that looks like marble. Not that we were trying to get the look of marble, we weren't we just liked the grey through the white. Annnyway, they carried this up the stairs like it didn't weigh anything. I asked if it was heavy. They said that quartz weighs between 15-17 pounds per square foot. They said that this piece isn't too bad thanks to the sink hole that takes out about 100 pounds of the overall weight. 

They put it down and then had to slide it into place. Once it was in place they both said they weren't looking forward to carrying in the other piece. I asked why and they said it was a lot heavier.

They kept the wheels on it so once it was up the stairs, they could roll it over to the cabinets. 

They said that this piece weighed about 500 pounds. I was amazed that they didn't drop it. But then again, I can only bench press about 26 pounds. No lie folks. They got it on and secured it in place. I have no idea how they did it because I may or may not have been reading while they did that part. All I know is that they were here until almost 3:00. They shook my hand and went on their merry little way. 

We didn't want to pay them to plumb the sink. If I remember right the lady said that to have their plumber come it would cost us over $1000. B said he could figure it out. He did. And it didn't even take him forever. What a guy! I forgot to take a picture of just the counter top because that's not the last thing we did. Hold on to your knickers folks, a picture is coming. I leave you in suspense so you'll come back! I imagine it's like a cardiovascular surgeon recommending that his patients eat fast food, it's job security, get 'em to come back!