Enter Sandmen

 

 

Here are a few pictures to show off the start of our latest home project, our kitchen renovations. First, we had new countertops installed. The pictures make it difficult to see the true colors but it is a really nice swirl of deep brown, cream and bits of black. We also got a new faucet and deeper sink! We knew we wanted to do something with the cabinets but as soon as the countertop installation was completed, they started to look more orange and outdated.  We decided to sand and stain the cabinets darker (rosewood) to better compliment our new countertops. When we were halfway through I decided to take a few pictures to show the contrast between the old and new cabinet color.

 

It was the weekend of Father’s Day when we decided to start the kitchen and we put my dad to work! Mom couldn’t make it this time, so my dad came up to help us get started on this big project. My brother, Dad, Daniel and I started sanding at 3pm on Saturday and decided to take a break over hamburgers and beer late that evening. Steven, Jerome and Laura came over to visit that night and we were exhausted. It was so hot and we all wondered aloud why we didn’t tackle this project in the winter. Do not try this at home (especially in June/July) unless you are prepared to have your kitchen a mess for a few weeks, like to sweat, and enjoy eating sawdust!! I’ll admit it is more work than we thought.

 

 

 

With all of our weekend travel I am not sure how long it will take us to finish the top half. Once the staining is completed we will be learning how to install a tiled backsplash. Any tips you have, Internet, on making our next and last project as painless as possible we would appreciate. We just have to learn to be patient with the mess as we are living with our kitchen contents on the dining room table for now. I would say end of July would be our goal. Stay turned to see completed pictures of our kitchen, and once we are finished with that, we’ll be moving on to the master bath for our last big project on this house before we invite our realtor over!