When we bought our fabulous house, unfortunately it came with a truly unfabulous kitchen! (is unfabulous a word?!? well if it isn't it should be!) and it was one of the things we had promised each other we would fix right away! So here is the story of that...
First, let's give you a visual of the problem
First things first... it's ALL BROWN!!! who does that?!?!? Second, I know it's kind of hard to tell, but the tiles are not flat, they are a bumpy mess! Third, that, ladies and gentlemen, is a one bowl sink, that is rusted with a leaky faucet!!
THE PLAN:
Replace counter tops with granite tile, replace back splash, install new double bowl granite composite sink and new faucet.
TIME ALLOTTED:
2-3 days
BUDGET:
As little as possible!!
So Friday morning the demolition begins!!
Got my tools ready
With an "able" assist from the kitten
Ugly back splash down!
So, the back splash is down. At this point I stopped and waited for Dana to get home from work to help with the removal of the actual counter tops.
When he got home we decided to go get the materials first and finish the demo later so we could beat rush hour traffic. Off we went, to a granite tile store to pick up/ pick out the tile! We figured it would be pretty quick as we had been looking at their website and thought we knew what we wanted! Wrong.. it took us about 1hr to find one we liked that also had chair rails. We then spent about another 40min or so trying to find a back splash that we liked and that matched. We finally found one we absolutely loved only to realize that they had none in stock and it would take 7-10 days to get it in... also it was $75.00 per sq./ft ouch! So we said goodbye to our dream back splash and figured we would find something at Home Depot.
Armed with our tiles, chair rails and the tools and mixes necessary, we left the store and headed home. While in the car battling Seattle traffic, I was double checking the receipt to make sure we had gotten everything, when I realize they had forgotten to give us the thin set! thankfully we had only managed to get 2 block down the road, so we turned around and went back. Crisis adverted!
When we got home, we got to it. Operation counter top removal included a lot of grunting and brute force (all coming from Dana) as I stood by the sidelines and watched him manhandle the counter tops off!
The kitten always so helpful!
Counter tops, sink and backing off
It is good to note here that at this point we had gone out to stores 3 times:
1. Lowe's the night before to buy the sink and faucet
2. Earlier in the day to pick up the tiles
3. Late that day to pick up the oscillating saw to take down the backing.
Once we finished the demo, we decided to call it a night and start fresh in the morning.
At this point, we sat down and tried to make a list of all we would need to pick up tomorrow at the store. Once we got that done Dana called up his dad to get some pointers and clarifications. It was good that he did as his dad gave him the best advice we had ever gotten "buy pre-mixed thin set and grout" Let me just say that I will be eternally grateful for those 5 words, as I can honestly say I am not sure we would have finished the job had we had to mix the thin set and grout... it was that bad!
Saturday morning plan:
Go to Home Depot and purchase all materials needed including a back splash, rent tile wet saw and rent Home Depot truck to haul everything back home.
Install counter tops and Sheetrock
So off we went, with our list, a granite tile for matching, and the firm belief that today would be a great day!
We spent 3hrs at Home depot, gathering materials, debating on back splashes and filling out rental agreements! By the time we got home, after having returned the rental truck, we were so tired and hungry that we decided to take a quick lunch break, sure that we had gotten everything we needed and could relax a bit.
Energized by the food and excited to get this done we started with the sheet rock... now it is important to point out here that Dana is the most even-tempered, laid back person I know, he is always cool, calm and collected, so you can imagine my surprise when, within 2 minutes of working with sheet rock, he was swearing at it and cursing the heavens! Apparently he HATES sheet rock!! Good to know for future projects....
After many threats, bribes and turmoil the sheet rock was finally up.
Next step was installing the 3/4" plywood. That seemed to go pretty quickly until we went to grab the sink template and found out that the sink was broken in two pieces, cracked straight down the middle. So we stopped everything, packed up the sink and ran back to Lowe's to exchange it. It took us about 1 hour and a half as we found all the replacements sinks were broken as well, and had to pick a different sink all together. By the time we got home it was almost 8pm. It is good to say at this point that we had gone back to Home Depot about 3 times throughout the day for little things we had forgotten/ didn't know we needed. So we got some dinner and then resumed. (dinner was mostly reheated items in the microwave, which was currently residing on the floor of our living room!)
I have to admit at this point that it looked like we were going to be in for a really long night. Also, I need to give credit where credit is due, Dana did most of the work, I was just his "fetch this" girl!
So moving on. Plywood down, with appropriate sink hole cut out
Onto the cement board! Now this was truly nasty work, the cement board stinks like nothing else I have ever smelled... also it crumbled everywhere when we cut it...yuck! the worst part of the process in my opinion. And this is also where we ran into problems... the screws we bought were too short! And because of the sink fiasco by the time we realized this all the hardware stores were closed! NO!! we now had to run to the store on Sunday morning in order to be able to return the tile saw in time!
Let's just say we went to bed on Saturday night feeling a little defeated and very sore.
Sunday morning came and we ran to the store, bought the screws and a few other things we thought we would need and ran back home, we knew we were going to have to work like crazy to be able to return the tile saw on time! We secured the cement board and got down to the business of installing the granite tiles... once again, I have never been so grateful for any advice as much as "buy pre-mixed thin set and grout!" Installing the granite tiles actually went a lot quicker than I thought
When we went to install the nosing we ran into a bit of a problem as it wouldn't stay put long enough for the thin set to dry and hold it in place... we tried taping it with little success and in fact broke one piece all together when it just fell off! Finally we just used screws under it to hold it up. at this point we were about 2 hrs late on returning the tile saw but at least it was done. As Dana ran it back to Home Depot, I snapped a few more pictures.
At that point I felt like we were finally on the home stretch! We would install the back splash that afternoon, get it all sealed and then on Monday we would just have to grout, install the sink and we would be home free!
So Dana got back home and we decided to take a much deserved break. Oh did I forget to mention that I had the flu this whole time? And Dana wasn't feeling all that great either as he was fighting a bug as well.. So we took a nap and got up around 5pm.
Back to work! Let's get this done! We got the back splash out and went about figuring out the layout we wanted since we had bought an accent border. While we were laying it all out we realize that we hadn't bought enough of the accent border as it wasn't 1foot in length, so Dana ran back to Home Depot to buy more. Thankfully we had realized this before the store closed!! Another disaster adverted! Phew!
So we are installing the back splash and we feel pretty good, we are almost done and doesn't this look pretty awesome?!?!? So we are patting ourselves on the back and figuring, well it will take us an extra day to finish it all than we wanted but that's not too bad! so we get to the last foot and I reach down to grab the last piece.... where is it?!??!
Apparently we can't count, and were one piece short! NOOOO!!!!! the store is closed!!
How does this happen?!??!
So Day 3 ended not as well as we had hoped. Having mis-counted meant that everything would be pushed back 12-24hrs because of drying time!!
Day 4. One more trip to the Home Depot. Install the last of the back splash, wait several hrs for the thin set to dry. The seal everything... wait a few more hours for that to dry. It's now Monday evening when we can finally grout everything. Grouting the back splash was pretty awful... it took us forever, both Dana and I were sweating profusely, Dana more than me ;) , but we got it done! But wait... do we have enough grout left over for the counter tops?!? Of course not! And obviously with all the time we had to wait the store was closed by the time we realized it!!! So Day 4 ends and we have yet to finish the grouting or install the sink and faucet!
Day 5. Run back to Home Depot.. at this point we are on a first name basis with all of their employees... they thought it was hilarious! Got grout! woot, let's get this done. So we finish grouting and move on to installing the sink. Our sink came with one hole already punched out and three more available for you to punch out if you so needed, which we did. So we go about poking out one more hole for the soap dispenser.... we follow the instructions and the hole that comes out is WAY too small..... we go back to the instructions and it says to file the hole to the desired size... and we are thinking this is going to take forever... also do we have a file?!?!? nope, once more into the breach...err, Home Depot I mean. So there we are, filing away at this little 1/4" hole that needed to be about 2".... 1hr passes and we are still filing away... at that point, I KNOW we are doing something wrong, I mean, how could this possibly be the right way to do this, so I turn to the trusted Internet and what do you know, we managed to turn a 5 minute project into 1hr and 5 minutes!!! Moving right along... hole punched, let's get this show on the road. We install the sink and realize that since our drain is in a stupid place, we don't have the right PVC fittings!! GRRRRRRR. Once more to Home Depot. Come home, install PVC fitting, turn water back on.... it works!!!
We look up and realize that we still need to mud the sheet rock above the sink and paint it... Dana and I looked at each other and figured no one would care if it wasn't painted... that's a project for a different day!!
So we installed the outlet covers, awesome ones we found that match our faucet.
Cleaned up and put away our tools, removed the screws from under the chair rail and we were DONE!!!
One week later we got around to painting, and I really love this color!!
Now I'll admit we are not 100% done yet, we still need to get some trim for under the cabinets and under the counter top but it's finished for all intense and purposes and it's amazing!! We absolutely love it!!! But to be honest with you, if I had to do it again, I would just pay somebody to do it!! just kidding, we would be so pro the second time around!
When we rounded up all the receipt to get the final number, I was very surprised at the number of receipts..... I had 25 of them!!... I guess that's where we spent half of our time, at the store!!! lol
Till next time...
