HomeMade Tales: Kitchen 1.4

It's been over two months since I last blogged about the kitchen and that's because John wanted me to wait until the kitchen was complete, with both the cabinets AND the countertops installed...hence if you have spoken with either of us in the last two months, you will understand why it's taken so long for me to get to this blog....

My last blog was the middle of May, where we had just finished the kitchen floor, which looks great. The long weekend in May, we had the contractor come in and install the cabinets, which turned out amazingly! We were both a little worried though because we had been at the farm that weekend and the contractor called us to let us know that the countertops were cut wrong so at that point we were both fearing the worst, however we we got back we were both VERY pleased with the end result with the cabinets. They looked great and gave us so much extra room.

The following week/weekend, John got the kitchen light and under cabinet lighting installed and I started cleaning the cabinets and moving things back into place - I loved this! It is so much fun to get to reorganize, or at least I enjoy it! John also got the new range hood installed once it arrived (I forget the exact date, but it also looked 100x better than our old one!).

Now for the countertops. The contractor was able able to get the smaller countertop installed for us, however the measurements for the large L-shaped one were so off that we had to order a new one. Besides having to order a new one and wait for it, what sucked was that it wasn't obvious whether it was the countertop place or the kitchen place's fault, therefore we had to shell out the money for another countertop...

The contractor came over the Monday of the long weekend, once we were back, and showed us what was wrong and gave us the proper measurements. John then drew it out on the computer and very specifically gave all the dimensions for each side, including where we wanted and the shape of the backsplash. He sent it to them that week and assumed that they had placed the order....

WRONG! 9 days later we receive a call...while John was out of the country...saying that they could not cut the countertop with the backsplash the way we wanted, which I immediately questioned since they had already done it...John ended up being able to call before he came back home and sorted it out, specifically stating that we already had an L-shaped countertop with a square backsplash, which, surprise surprise, they were able to do all of a sudden! (Nevermind the fact that John had put that on the order he sent AND the countertop we already had installed had a square backsplash, but this is a moot point...).

Once the countertop was ordered, we waited another week before it was in and ready, then had to wait for the following week for John to pick it up - we are now at the second week of June, 3 weeks after the cabinets have been installed.

During the 2nd week of June, John took a day off of work and rented a Uhaul and headed to pick up the countertop. When he got there though, he was informed that the backsplash had NOT been installed on the countertop, but if he could come back in an hour they would have it on. This made the time tight for him to get the Uhaul back, but was still able to do it, provided that everything was in order when he came back the second time. So he left and went back after an hour to pick it up. However, when he got there the backsplash was put on so horribly that in the end he told them to forget it and that he wanted his money back (which he got).

At this point we are sitting with two countertops at home, one installed and the other cut wrong which we can no longer use because we need to find a new place to buy countertops. In one sense this was okay, because neither of us were happy with the countertops when John picked the first set up (not the colour we remembered, not the best quality etc.), but really sucked because we have to spend more than we were anticipating on countertops - Ah home renos...

The Friday before Father's Day, we were able to stop into a new countertop place and ordered new counterops. We were VERY impressed with the type of service and overall knowledge and quality of product that they had. The woman even took us into the back to show us a full sheet of the countertop pattern we were looking at so that we could get a sense of what it looked like on a full sheet, rather than a cut little board. We were able to pick a new one countertop really quickly and get it ordered and were told it would take a few weeks to get it ordered in. More waiting, however we were feeling better about this place over the other one.

Finally, the second week of July we received that call that they were ready and John arranged for delivery that Friday. Of course John was going to be away that following week, however it was nice to be able to get the countertops before he left. That Saturday we were able to get the old countertops out and John installed the smaller countertop himself. Unfortunately because he had already sealed the previous countertop, it was a pain to get out and we (John) now have some patch work and painting to do to fix the dry wall, however he was able to get the new countertop in with minimal issues. The next morning, while I was dropping off John to the airport, the contractor was able to pop by and install the L-shaped countertop. When I came home I was SO happy! The countertops looked great, definitely much much better than the original ones we purchased.

The following weekend, July 19th, John spent almost the entire day, after getting in at 2am due to United delaying all his flights from Denver, installing the dishwasher and the sink with all the plumbing so that the kitchen was more or less completed! And the whole thing looks amazing! There are a few little touch-ups and finishing touches we need to do, as well we are debating putting in a ceramic backsplash, but for all intense purposes, it is completed! Here are the pictures of the final product: