Kitchen - Phase One Complete

Updating our kitchen has been on our to do list since we bought our home a few years ago, so a few months ago Chris and I found a good deal on some solid surface counter tops. We decided to buy the material and Chris wanted to try and do the project himself. After reviewing exactly all that goes into installing new counter tops he thought it might be best to get some assistance. We found a guy named Jim, that does this kind of work and he came out to help us out. A little over 4 weeks ago the project started. I had no idea I would be without my kitchen for 4 weeks, but in all fairness they only worked on Friday and Saturdays so I guess 4 weeks is not too bad, but you have no idea how much your kitchen is the central part of your house until you don't have it. I had no running water in the kitchen. I had to use our bathroom to wash any dishes or if I needed water to make tea or lemonade. It was crazy. We started using all paper products just so I didn't have to wash dishes everyday in our bathroom, we ate out a lot which sounds nice at first but then it just becomes old and having to think of places to go and eat. So needless to say I am ecstatic that my kitchen is back to normal, this was the biggest part of our kitchen renovation, everything else we are going to do is minor and won't require loosing my running water. :)

So here are some kind of before pics, I was out of town when Chris and Jim started on the kitchen so I don't have an actual before pic, but I do have pics of what I came home to.

We had a cream color lament type counter top and as you can see it is all gone. My lovely new sink was put in on the first day. So I got to look at each day dreaming of the day I would be able to use it again.

Here are the after pics. The color of the solid surface is about the same of our old. We wanted to stay neutral. I have to say I absolutely love the new counter tops. It makes the kitchen look so much different to us.

We still have a few things we want to do in the kitchen, we are going to put a tile back splash, add some hardware and trim to the cabinets and paint. We hope to get all this done by end of the year but we will see. For now I am just enjoying the fact that for the first time in 4 weeks I cooked dinner in my kitchen. I definitely will not take for granted the usefulness of my kitchen and running water.