Friday, June 25, 2010

Kitchen Updating / White Tile=BAD






Our Kitchen was not in terrible shape by any means, but we did think it needed some freshening up. White Tile counters, white tile backsplash, white, microwave, white cabinets, and old white dishwasher. You get the picture, too much white! This was a fun project, we found ways to save some money, and also ended up with a new and comfortable kitchen. We like to think that in our house we will be spending a lot of time in the kitchen, so we want it to feel good. Here are some before pictures:

I hope my description of the white out makes sense when you see these pictures; no character in the kitchen, and nothing unique. This picture to the left shows where I have begun to tear off the countertop tile. This was a great way to save some money. Most people charged around $300 to tear off the old countertops before replacing them, so $300 saved in my book. The blacksplash tiles were a bit more difficult and we ended up having to cut the drywall out and replace it with cement board. Those tiles on the back were stubborn. It ended up being easier to cut the drywall out instead of trying to pick off each individual tile. More $$ saved.



Here on the right the countertops are off, bar is off, and the kitchen is a mess. Progress!












Old sink = not very attractive. This thing was a mess all the time. We decided to get a new under-mounted sink to replace this one. With it mounted under the counters it is a lot easy to clean around the sink. And it just looks better. I will show a picture of the new sink below.




A guy come out to make a template out of thin cedar planks in order to get all the right measurements for the new granite. I did not know this is how they measured things out, but it was neat to see the guy tacking all these planks together and hauling them back to the shop. The picture below on the right is at the granite yard. Kim could not come with me that day, so I was praying that I picked out the right slabs. It was awesome to be able to go pick out a huge slab of rock thinking that it was going to be turned into our kitchen counters. We selected a granite called yellow river that has some natural gray streakiness to it.










So now its time for some after pictures. Granite installed, new Island delivered, some furniture added, new stainless steel microwave and dishwasher, and things are looking up. We stripped the kitchen down, okay I stripped the kitchen down; I think Kim pulled 2 tiles off total, but she did really well with those two tiles, and we built the kitchen back up. In fact, I was able to get a photo of Kim in action: (thanks for the help Kimmy)


















We also got a new light fixture above the island which we thought was cool. Kim admiring her new purchase:


Awesome antique French cupboard that we had to have. The red color is beautiful and the inside is a smokey gray color we love.

We added a tumble stone backsplash and pulls and knobs to all the drawers and cabinets. The stone on the back makes a great contrast against the new stainless steel appliances.
Pink Hydrangeas that popped up on the side of the house. nice surprise.
We feel very satisfied with the work we did on our kitchen now its time to enjoy. If anyone wants to come have dinner, or breakfast or lunch for that matter, you are more than welcome. We added some things we wanted: granite, new light fixture, knobs, new sink, new stainless dishwasher and microwave, a big island, and stone backsplash. And, we were able to save on somethings too. Our biggest savings came on the cabinets. We were getting estimates for cabinet glazing ranging from $1300 to $2400. I thought to myself, no way! So I was able to get two bottles of charcoal/black antique glaze for $14 and over a saturday and sunday glazed all of our kitchen cabinets. Lets see $2400 or $14? Easy decision there! Below are two good before and after pictures that kind of sum up the whole process, and you can see the cabinet glazing too:
Cluttered and White!
Same corner, updated cabinets and clean:

Thanks for Reading,

NICK

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

HBH

HEY HOLLIE, LOOK, I BLOGGED....

I'm Taking OVER !!!

Kim, my wonderful wife, doesn't seem to have quite enough time to truly immerse herself into this blogging lifestyle, so I (Nick) am taking it upon myself to pick up the slack. I AM TAKING OVER!!! I mean, thats what any loving husband would do, right? (Wesley and Dave, keep jokes to a minimum please). Kim started a new job earlier this year and has been working extra hard to get ahead and put herself in the best possible position to do well. I am very proud to say the least. So with that hard work she doesn't have much time to read other blogs, much less post on her own. I am now the official blog voice of the Campbell family. I am excited to be able to show everyone who reads just how wonderful our life is, including updates of what we are doing and where we are going. I will also give some needed updates on our home, seeing as how Kim left that task unfinished in her earlier posts.

We have thoroughly enjoyed making our home. This is something we have dreamed about doing for a few years now, and are pleased that our hard work has given us the opportunity to play house! We started with some necessities, tables chairs, a BED, things of that sort. Then we started adding some fun things that make our house unique to us. It truly feels like home and I realized this at the end of this past weekend driving home. I joined my 3 brothers, and 9 other trouble makers, for my brother Alex's bachelor party in Savannah, GA this past weekend. Though we had a great time, fishing, drinking, and watching Alex run beside a car full of black guys with gold grilles while rapping Kilo Ali, it was nice to be headed back to home. I'm serious, Alex trotted for about a 1/2 mile down River st. slapping hands with these guys through the car windows and rapping every line of the Kilo Ali song. It was an impressive effort. The guys in the car were probably thinking 'who the hell is this crazy white boy'? Oh Yeah, did I mention we had been drinking, a lot?

Point of the story is, after all the fun was had I was eagerly driving home because I knew I got to come home to Kim and this place we call home. While driving I had the realization that we had in fact created a nice comfortable place to call home, and it was a proving point to me that so far we have made a satisfying life for ourselves, leaving me even more excited for what's to come in life. And, this is somewhat of a relief compared to the last couple places we have lived together. Apartment life, it gets old! Apartment life, it doesn't really say "home." In my next post I will put up some pictures of the progress we've made playing house, once I figure out how to get those pictures on here. Then I will continue post in order to let the blog world know what I am thinking, uh oh!!!

Nick