The light at the end of the tunnel

we are in the midst of tiling our floor, something I said I would never, ever, ever, ever do again. But here we are laying tile AGAIN. I will be glad when we are done. It looks good so far. We are still within budget, we saved 1200 dollars by doing it ourselves. We are going on day 3 of just laying the tile and cutting the pieces, I guess that's the 1200 dollar difference!

Within budget

I set out determined to do a kitchen remodel for 10k. We are doing it!

When the tile is all done, we will hit about 8500. That doesn't leave a whole lot for appliances, but that's not really the "kitchen",plus the only appliance we need are a fridge and stove. We kept our Bosch dishwasher and got a cool LG microhood for only $200. We will be fine though. So much for thinking I might have any money left over....

Granite, anyone?

So, we've got this big ol' slab left over. We had to buy more than we needed in order to get the island countertop. So now we have this big, 50 x36 inch remnant leftover of granite! Oh, and here's also a closeup of the countertop, it's hard to see in the other photos.



I tried "Craigslisting" it for about 250 I think, but no one's been interested so far. I don't really blame them, what's someone going to do with some random piece of granite? I should actually just lower the price--it could be a cool bathroom vanity or something....

The faucet is in!

Omg, I never realized how much thought would go into choosing a kitchen sind FAUCET. There are so many choices out there! I mean, we went back and forth and forth and back trying to decide how much money to spend on one. Finally, we settled on this one:


It was a little bit on the pricier side, but it's fantastic. I really like it. It really makes a difference in washing big items such as pots and pans, etc.

Next, we have the floor. and wouldn't you know it----another snafu-the installer we're going with will only install on the subfloor, and guess what, we don't know if the bajillion layers of linoleum have any asbestos, so to the lab I'll be going this week. The sooner we get our floor done, the sooner I can get my appliances. Which means we'll be just in time for the labor day appliance sales.

Finally coming together

BEFORE:




AFTER:






I have so much counterspace!! we still have a little ways to go, hooking up the plumbing, the flooring, and then finally the appliances. By then, we should be pretty tapped out of our budget. but we did it on our small budget!

I am still also planning on doing a backsplash but that will have to wait. If there's any possibility of any money being leftover (highly doubt it, but maybe...), I will use that. I don't think it should cost very much anyway, so even if there's no "kitchen budget" money left, I still should be able to do it within the next couple of months.

I am so excited to have a new kitchen. I have waited so long! Cocktail parties this fall are going to be even better than ever.