1st Major House Project.

I'm beginning to realize that home projects take a lot of time, not to mention money, especially if you're an amateur! My list is a mile long, but there is only so much you can complete on the weekends. I get home at 5:30 during the week, and the first thing I do NOT want to to is work on a project. Then, I have my homework during the weekend, which usually takes precedent over any projects.

I watch HGTV and long for my home to be one of their shows so ALL the projects can be completed in the span of a 3 day weekend!!! But, we all know, that is so not realistic!
Besides painting, I wanted to update what "project" we've been working on. We've been slowly working on our kitchen and have been making some progress. We decided to strip the white paint off our cabinets, sand those suckers down, and re-stain the original cabinets. Let me just say...easier said than done! It was a lot of work, but I think definitely worth it in the end!

Now, the Corian countertops were a GREAT deal! We picked those babies up at Habitat for Humanity ReStore for about $350 and had to find a countertop guy to cut, seam and install them. While I'm not going to mention the cost of the labor, mainly because I'm still not sure if we got a good deal or not, the whole project cost about $1200 less than what we were quoted at HD. I think they turned out pretty nice!

{before}

{after}

We bought the hinges on ebay for 2/$1.18 and the handles at Costco for 6/$10.
The faucet also came from Costco for $75 and it has a pull out sprayer.

{you can see that the windowsill has begun it's transformation...}

{before}

{after}

We took the microwave down to work on the cabinets and countertops. Since it hung so low to the stovetop, we can't decide if we want to re-install it or get a smaller one. I think we'd need to move up the cabinets a little bit....

{okay, the coloring of the cabinets is more accurate in the picture below...I'm still learning how to use the camera!!}

Now, it's time to paint, strip the window, work on a backsplash, and ditch the fluorescent lighting mounted underneath the cabinets, above the sink, and on the ceiling! Not too much more to do, right? YEAH RIGHT! Hopefully it'll be done by Christmas!