Well our son’s birthday came and went and unfortunately we had to host his party at our new house. I say “unfortunately” because we had planned for it be outside, and had hoped that the first time people saw our new place things would be more in order. I had to let go of all my perfectionist tendencies to enjoy the party but when weather doesn’t cooperate what can you do? He still needed a party!
Sometime after that the hubby had mercy on me (or got tired of listening to me talk about it) and began tearing out the dirty white tile back splash in our kitchen one random weekend day. I say the tile was “dirty” not because I didn’t clean it, but because no amount of cleaning could make it look clean. With each tile that popped off I became more and more excited.
(Do you see how dirty that grout is?!)
It became a larger project than either of us thought, but I was sustained by the feeling that things were about to get a whole lot better in my dated kitchen.
*Someone* got frustrated when he hit his thumb with a tool and I had to take over for a couple of hours but hey, it’s only fair that I chipped in on a project I had wanted done, right?
Here is a picture in progress (notice also that sweet blue countertop?!):
The tile removal effort was ripping the drywall off, so we finally figured out that we could just cut out sections of the drywall between the counter and cabinets since it would have to be replaced anyway due to extensive damage. My darling husband first cut the countertop back down so the future mud and tape line would be beneath the new countertop we were eventually going to get. (Smart. He went to college folks.)
In this project we, for the first time ever, bought materials to put up a wall. We measured, cut, screwed in dry wall over the now-bare (and now tile free!) studs. Then, my husband watched a You Tube video and taught himself how to mud and tape the seams. My dad came over to help measure, cut and place dry wall too, which helped a lot. It’s hard to do a project like this with a little one getting into everything and it definitely was helpful to have a second person for it.
After the final coat of mud and final sand, I primed and painted using paint leftover from when we first moved in and painted the main space a uniform, neutral color. It felt SO good to look at a freshly painted wall instead of the dirty bathroom-looking white tiles.
A few people asked why we didn’t put up new backsplash. Because it’s our goal to eventually redo the whole kitchen, new cabinets and everything, I didn’t want to put up anything that I would have to plan around or worse, tear down, later. Fresh clean walls are just perfect for this space right now!
Now about that blue counter top…
Not Tomorrow 