Not finished... but progress

First, cabinets.

So my other brother in law, Chris, as you can see we have a lot of family, works with his family in a kitchen/bath remodeling business. They are really awesome and have been in business for a long time. I highly recommend them. (You can check out their website here)

He called and said he was tearing out a kitchen and the home owner no longer wanted the old cabinets. He said we could have them for free if we could haul them off. We jumped on it!

My other brother in law, Brent, used his trailer and he went and picked them up and dropped them off on the front lawn.

So we tore out the ugly blue beasts in the kitchen, revealing all kinds of unsavory surprises (ie. a few "nests" of unknown origin), Simple Greened the walls, and began re-constructing the kitchen.

It was harder than I was expecting it to be. There was a lot of math involved. We tried piecing it together like a puzzle, but nailing down upper cabinets is HARD... and after putting them up and taking them down several times, I told Newell he needed to go to bed, and I spent the next two hours drawing the kitchen out according to the measurements I had and the cabinets we had.

It paid off. The next night we began work and it went together much easier, with a little problem solving in between.

So the cabinets went in, and they are not perfect, but the kitchen looks alot better.

So here is before, just as a reminder:

Here is a progress shot, before countertops:

I am going to paint the cabinets an aged white and the hardware ORB.

So since the cabinets, and eventually, the wood floors, will be quaint and country, I wanted a contrasting countertop, something sleek and industrial. I also have an aversion for all the "fake" granite out there. I used to have some, and I always got asked what it was, and I had to sheepishly admit that it was just laminate, with an etched finish and a bullnose edge, to LOOK like granite. And, for that matter, I rarely meet a granite that I like. There are a few variations that I would use, but for the most part, I just have never been too fond of it.

So i decided I either wanted a butcher block surface, or a laminate that says, "Heck yes I'm laminate, and not ashamed to admit it!"

We had a prior quote from a contractor to install laminate countertops for $500.

I browsed the Ikea website and feel deeply in love.

These people get it. They just do.

Every surface I saw there was unusual. I settled on a gray top with stainless steel edges, no bullnose, just straight up square.

We raced down to the Ikea in Tempe and got there 30 minutes before closing. Our total ended up being $195... what a deal.

Here is a sneak peak