Come see the new Countertops!

The new countertops went on without a hitch!  They are really beautiful and I'm super excited to have it done.

Let's just get to the good stuff, shall we?

As I talked about in my other post, the counters had a lot of flaws going on.  I also really wanted my dishwasher mounted in well.

 Before:

During:

 The mess that was my dining room during the day.  I had to empty the countertops and all the lower cabinetry

 The old tops are off!

Halfway there

Excited kids

After:

Pure gorgeousness. 

We gained a few inches on the right side of the island area and about 6 inches on the left side.  This is SO much nicer for the kids that sit there.

I LOVE the Black Pearl solid surface by Hi-Macs and how it looks.  They did a matte finish, so it's not shiny at all.

 

 I'm also loving my new sink.  It fits so many dishes and you can't even see the mess from the living room!  It's a way cleaner look.

The new faucet is really awesome.  I love how elegant my kitchen feels now.

 

I didn't take a pic of the new dishwasher, but it is so nice to have one again!  It's a huge bonus that it is as quiet as they claimed.  Awesome.

Here is the tile we've chosen to do our backsplash in.  I think it's going to look amazing.  That project is one I'm tackling myself and getting as much advice from YouTube as possible. 

Hopefully I'll be able to show you my tile job by the end of the month! 

Overall, I'm super happy about how the kitchen looks.  

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On to crazier things, we're also putting new carpet in all the bedrooms (yay!).  It happened to work out that they can come out this week, so I'm trying to keep the chaos to a minimum by having them do the rooms on separate days.  

The carpet installer will be here tomorrow to do the bonus room/boys' bedroom and the stairs, so today I we have to get all the furniture out of there.  Next Tuesday, they'll be back to do the 3 main floor bedrooms and closets.   My life will be nuts until next weekend, but my house is going to feel so awesome when it's done that I don't care about the crazy!  Bring it on!!

So, my schedule -

This week -   Countertops and boys room carpeting

Next week -   Main floor bedroom carpeting, kitchen electrical projects (new garbage disposal and undercabinet lighting),  and paint Elsa's bedroom to prepare for a redecorating project

Next weekend - finish Elsa's redecorated room

The week after - Tile backsplash in kitchen

The week after that?  Start preparing for salmon fishing season.

I've got this under control...right?

I'm getting new countertops!

Getting new countertops is HUGE!  It's something I've wanted to do for a while.

  Dave and I decided to invest in a few upgrades on the house this year.  We've been here in Alaska 4 years and will be here at least 3 more, so it is time.  I want to enjoy some of the upgrade time!

I told you about liking the fact that my dishwasher was broken back in February.  That novelty has more than worn off.  I'm sick of doing dishes by hand, haha.

My kitchen has consistently looked like this for the last 5 months.  I obviously hate hand drying my dishes ;)

We currently have formica countertops.  They actually don't look that bad, but there are some ugly flaws.  We also have a leaky sink and broken faucet, as well as not being able to mount our dishwasher in correctly.

 

All that will be fixed tomorrow!

We're putting in a solid surface countertop in Black Pearl by Hi-Macs

Our sink is from the same company.  I would have loved a farmhouse sink like our old house had, but I don't want to cut into these hickory cabinets.  We went with a single bowl undermount sink (the one on the right).

 

Our new faucet is from Moen and is an attractive price with beautiful styling.  We got ours from Lowe's.

The new dishwasher is also from Lowe's.  We went with a mid-range, supposed-to-be-quiet Samsung dishwasher.  I got black instead of stainless steel to save a little $$ and that savings paid for the extended warranty so that I can get it repaired if it breaks after 15 months like our last one did.

 

For the backsplash...I want tile.  But I also want to save money, so that is something I'm planning to tackle myself.  I'll chat more about that huge project later.  For now, by tomorrow night, I will have a working sink, dishwasher and gorgeous countertops!  I am SO excited!  

(I want to apologize for being MIA for so long.  Things have been busy around here AND my computer was in the shop for 4 weeks.  I hope to be back in the swing of blogging so I can share our fun summer adventures!)