After much debate and discussion we decided to have Home Depot install our counter tops for us. Ben was pretty determined he was going to do it himself but somehow after 6 months of discussion, I wore him down. We decided to install new laminate counter tops; while stone counter tops are lovely we didn't want to invest that much money in this house. We picked out a color right before Thanksgiving, and they came out to measure the next week.
We had been discussing what kind of sink we would like. I did not want stainless because we have terribly hard water and I didn't want to be constantly cleaning up water spots. I really wanted a granite composite sink. I did a bunch of research on them and there were pretty mixed reviews. The sink I was originally going to buy from Home Depot had terrible reviews, so after a lot of researching I found a sink I wanted. It was about $100 more then I wanted to spend. Being the bargain shopper that I am, I ended up finding the sink on Overstock.com, used a day after thanksgiving coupon and gift card, and ended up paying only $10 more than I wanted to spend. Problem solved. I was a little nervous about the sink because we had never seen it in person, I randomly picked a color from the swatches online but when the sink came we both loved it.
The second week of December, the installer called to tell us the counter tops were ready to be installed. Ben and I were both shocked because this was about 3 weeks earlier than we were originally told, but also very excited. This led to me to do some very quick purchasing of a faucet for the sink (water spot and fingerprint resistant), I spent a little more than I wanted to but it was worth it to not have water spots.
The day of install Ben and I both had the day off. We were told that they would be there between 9-11:30 to install the counter tops. We rushed through our workouts at the gym in order to be home and showered prior to the installers arrival. Ben had removed the counter tops and sink the night before so I was really hoping that the installer would show up, as our only sink at this point was the bathroom sink. :) At 9 am I convinced Ben to help me work on our playlist for the wedding dance and for the next 2.5 hours every time Ben or I thought we heard a car, Ben would jump up to look out the window to see if it was the counter top guy. For the record he didn't arrive until 11:27, so Ben spent a lot of time looking out the window. The installer showed up, and spent 3 hours installing the counter tops and cutting the hole for our sink. About half way through the process Ben stated that he was "so glad he was not installing the counter tops". Win for Ali!!
After the counter tops were installed we had the fun 'couples bonding' project of installing the sink, faucet and hooking up the dishwasher. It was so much fun (please sense the sarcasm), Ben did most of the work, thank god and by the next afternoon I had a functioning kitchen again.
The new counter tops are beautiful but I think my favorite part is the new sink. It is larger and deeper than our old sink and it is clean. For those of you that have never been to our house, our old sink was disgusting, it was stained, had huge chips in it and it never looked clean. It drove me crazy. The new sink is a huge improvement. We purchased some bar stools this past weekend, and are loving our new larger island. We had dinner "at the bar" last night. :)
I was going to talk about other improvements but this post is way too long already...onto the pictures!
Before pictures:
In process pictures:
Our first glance at the counter tops!
Counter top installation complete!
All Done:
Huge Improvement!
My favorite part!!
And just for fun- look how far we have come in 2 years:
This is the oldest picture I could find of the kitchen (Before I moved in and Gary painted):
The paint, the doors, the floors, the appliances
And now:
Cheers,
A
