Valentine's Day 2015

Valentine's Day 2015---I gotta say, it was the MOST romantic Valentine's Day I've ever had.

.................Riiiiiight.....................

Ok, so we were lacking a little in the romance department this Valentine's Day. BUT, my man was definitely speaking my love language!

When we moved into our house, our kitchen........well....let's just say it wasn't desirable. The counter tops were really old--white formica with gold flecks (you can kind of see it in the picture on the right). There's paneling on the walls that's faux brick. The 'bricks' were tan with white 'mortar.' And there was a LOT of it, so the walls were very.....busy. And there was a little nook with green and white tile (the rest of the floor was wood) that wasn't really big enough to put anything in. When we moved in, we were broke because we'd just spent a lot of money on a house! So I slapped some random curtains on the windows, threw a random side table in the nook and tried to ignore that my counter tops were from the 70's. It worked for a few years. And then I started getting the itch. Ladies, you know what I'm talking about. When you get to the point where you just can't STAND to look at those gold-flecked counter tops for ONE MORE SECOND!!!

But we were still broke. Well, not broke, but frugal. Sure, we could've spent thousands of dollars buying granite counter tops and tearing down the brick paneling and installing drywall. But there are definitely other ways we wanted to spend our money--like paying off baby bills and buying diapers for tiny tooshies. So I painted. When all else fails, I paint. I wasn't sure how the paneling would handle paint, but I have no fear when it comes to slapping paint on something. And it handled it just fine! I went with a neutral gray and put up white curtains and hung some turquoise/minty colored decorations on the wall. Nick put in some shelves in the nook and we covered the floor with some peel and stick tile (trust me, it's better than what was there).

And it worked to appease my anger at the counters. For awhile.

But I recently read on somebody's blog that they bought prefabricated counter tops at Ikea. Our closest Ikea is almost 3 hours away and I looked online and shipping was ridiculous (like 3 times the cost of the counter). I did a little online shopping, but then my family got hit with the death plague, so EVERYTHING was on hold for a few weeks. But last weekend, they started feeling better, so on Saturday, Nick and I ran to Menards to get a few things for the barn and you'll never believe what I just happened to walk past that made me stop in my tracks.

PREFABRICATED COUNTER TOPS!!! Woo-hoo! I didn't even THINK about looking locally at hardware stores (duh). As soon as Nick saw the look in my eye, I think he saw his next few weekends waving goodbye. I was SO excited to see that it was only going to be about $80 for the size we needed and they are laminate, but MAN--laminate counters have come a looooooong way since they were made to be white and gold-flecked! They were so nice! And being the SUPER patient person that I was, I insisted we go back with the truck and get them the next day.....and install them the next day(Sunday).

And being the wonderful, generous, amazing, kind, loving, sweet and SUPER understanding man that my husband is (have to do a little buttering up for the next project!), he obliged. We decided on a tan color with brownish/blackish flecks (that I'm sure in 40 years somebody will be saying is SOOOO ugly!) and it looks very similar to the pattern of granite without the MONEY for granite! So last weekend, we installed the counter tops.......and then I decided we needed a backsplash. Happy Valentine's Day to me!

Isn't it crazy how when you start doing one thing, eeeeeverything else in your house starts to look so crappy? We didn't really ever have a backsplash. We just had the brick paneling behind the counters.

So THIS weekend, my hubby made my 'shiny, white subway tiles' dreams come true! I helped by using the tile saw to cut them all down and wiping the grout off after Nick put it in. Nick did everything else. He's such a handy fella. I'm so grateful he knows what he's doing when it comes to most home renovations!

 And of course, once I had my beautiful backsplash up with the tan counters, I no longer felt the gray walls matched. So I stayed up until 2:30am painting my kitchen white! And I LOVE it! I bought some really bright fabric to make curtains so it wouldn't be too white (white walls, white cabinets, white trim). And then kept the turquoise/minty decorations I had up and added a few more small things.

So for under $200, it feels like we have a whole new kitchen!

And THAT is my kind of Valentine's Day. He may not be full of poetry and mushy-gushy feelings, but man, he knows how to love me (and he DID get me flowers:)! Thanks, babe!