My Kitchen Reveal

When Ryan and I bought our house one year ago, our kitchen looked like this:

And now it looks like this:

Although I'd still love to replace the counter tops with Misty Carerra Ceaserstone, and get a stainless steel stove...I think it's looking AWESOME!

Here is the history of my kitchen:

September 2009:

October 2009: Painted our kitchen cabinets Benjamin Moore's Chantilly Lace paint with chrome hardware from Lowes.

December 2009: We replaced our dishwasher with a new stainless steel Maytag diswasher

March 2010: We replaced our awful wooden ceiling fan with this cool, all chrome Hunter ceiling fan from Loews. 

Last week, our contractor pulled up 4 layers of linoleum tile (baby blue/cream, white/tan, gross, and grosser) leaving our kitchen looking like this:

Then he layed Duron to waterproof and level off so my Dad and I could lay the porcelain tile:

Tuesday 27th: 

Ryan and I went and purchased the Cityscape Porcelain Tile from Home Depot. Of course the style I picked was discontinued. Luckily, I was able to get 4 boxes from 1 location, and then I found 4 more at another location...thank goodness. This was the only style I totally loved.

After picking up the tile, we ran over to Sears and bought a new mattress (my favorite!!!) which was to be delivered on Saturday between 330-530...yes just 30 minutes before our party was set to start :)

And then I went back home, and was up to the wee hours painting my basement bathroom (I'll post these pics later)

Wednesday 28th:

My Dad came over around 7am. First we picked up the most important tool to any good home reno project: COFFEE!!!

Then we got down to business...

Best invention for any home project...knee pads. I also used them to paint the base moulding!

I don't have any large measuring tools...so we used an empty bottle of Sprite to measure the water for the mixture!

First, we had to hand pick the perfect tiles to start with:

Then we got started laying the mortar and tile...

We finished laying the tile and wrapped up around 11pm.

Thursday 29th:

My Dad came over after work and we started grouting the tile.

Ryan and my Dad

We finished grouting around 1am...and then it was almost 20 rounds of washing the floor to make sure all of the grout was gone.

It was such a hard but rewarding job. I had the best time working with my Dad. But this project is not for amateurs. First, it was so hepful having the contractors pulling up the old floors and leveling for us. Next, my Dad has awesome tools that cut the tile, and lots of experience with laying tile. All in all, we saved over $1,000 doing this ourselves.

Do you love the rug? I got it for $19.95 at Williams Sonoma Home. It totally reminds me of a Dash & Albert!