house to home | the kitchen, part 2

If you made it through part 1, congrats! Let's resume where we left off.

Our painter Jene is a good friend of ours from a previous ward. He said he could paint the whole kitchen in 2 days. The situation was ideal. Since we had not moved in yet, he was able to do all the painting right in the kitchen. He taped everything off and went to work. Despite his busy schedule, he was willing to spend the night in our house so he could maximize his work time. We only arrived at the tail end of his work, but we were amazed within seconds of seeing the kitchen. In fact, if we didn't know any better, we could say that he just put in white cupboards because the finish was so smooth. We are so happy with them!

We waited until the cupboards were painted to make a final flooring and backsplash decision. We debated over probably 30 flooring options. We wanted something with low maintenance, durability, but that would also go with the existing counter top. We tried out lots of samples and dragged our kids from store-to-store. They were such troopers. 

The floor took 3 days to install. We were really close to installing it ourselves, but with a reasonable price, we could have someone do it for us. We are glad we could do it that way. After seeing all the cutting and measuring they had to do, I don't think we could have pulled it off. Sure we can paint furniture, but that is about where our handyman skills end. 

After Day 1

We could finally put the dishwasher back in! Thanks Dad for your help. 

This is how we lived until it was all done. We ate on the kitchen floor and our fridge was in the family room. 

Then came time for the backsplash. We thought about this light gray subway tile to add in color and texture, but then decided to go with a classic white. I'm so glad we kept it simple since the granite has some design to it.

The subway tile caused us a little stress, but it all worked out. We bought our tile from Home Depot since it was super cheap there. However, they only sell thin bull-nose pieces for the edges, so that is what we picked up.  We thought we would just do vertical pieces on the very edges. 

But the installer started making a complete border which I hated. It took away from the clean subway tile look we were going for. 

See that angled edge? It was not sitting right with me. 

It was even worse on the windowsill. 

I asked him to change it because I knew I would regret it if I didn't. He explained that since we didn't have the right tiles, he had to do that to keep a nice, clean, finished edge. Luckily, he told us about a different tile we could get that would fix that problem. Brandon was able to pick them up on his way home from work and we fixed that edge right up. Much better. 

Once the floor and backsplash was done, we could choose a paint color. Again, since we weren't sure how everything would look together, we waited to decide. We have a brownish carpet that is only a few years old. Since we aren't going to replace that anytime soon, we needed something that would go with brown tones, but also something really light to brighten things up.

We picked up tons of paint swatches, and then from there bought samples to try out before we bought it. We tried out 6 different colors before we were completely happy. We never realized how hard it is to paint the perfect color because light changes so much throughout the day.

In fact, we picked what we thought was the perfect color, painted one coat of it, and then realized it was way too light and didn't make the cupboards pop. So we went back to the paint store, perused the internet, and found a touch shade darker with a warmer tone to blend the carpet.

We painted the family room and mudroom too since it was all a dark tan color. I'm liking the paint more and more, but still wonder if there is a more perfect shade. Oh well, we aren't repainting for a long time! :) 

I've got to run,  but I'll be back tomorrow to show you the finished (and by finished I mean mostly finished) kitchen. Until then, I'll give you a peek...