Making our house a home - Kitchen Reno

We bought our new house in September 2011 but where not able to get together (both me and Josh permanently) until February 2012. Since then, we've been working hard to make this house a home. Selling the NC house in May really helped with that and now more than ever, we want to get settled in. We've done a few things to get started such as some landscaping, painting, buying furniture, etc but we are just now starting to really "complete" rooms in the house. The first room we have "completed" is the kitchen. It didn't need much in our opinion but we wanted to spruce it up a little bit. We thought new counter tops and a little back splash would do it. I am so not good at visualizing! When we went to the store to pick out the stone, I was totally lost. So, we picked one we thought would look good and went from there.

A big unexpected thanks to Amber R for her help! Thankfully, she got a concussion and had to drink from a straw. When she posted a picture of this, I noticed her counter tops in the background and realized that our kitchens (cabinets and granite) were very similar and since it looked good in her house, it would look good in mine. All my fears eased up then, so Amber, your concussion had a great outcome! I hope that makes you feel better :) I know that probably makes no sense, but in my weird thinking, it's perfect - sorry it was painful for you Amber. Just know your pain was not in vain!

Ok, I know, enough already! Here are the pictures:

Before

Originally, the house was regular builder grade paint - you know the slightly off white paint - everywhere. We picked a neutral tan color. For the life of me, I can't remember the name but you'll clearly see that's tan (how exciting, I know! I promise as these "Making our house a home" sessions continue, you'll see pops of color!)

It wasn't a bad kitchen. We just weren't excited about the dark counter tops. They weren't dark enough to pull off the dark look so we changed it ... I think this stone we picked out looks like cookies and cream. There are several different specs of color in it: browns, blacks, purple/reds, golds/silvers, etc. It's so cool what people are digging up these days! If you have never walked through a "stone yard," it's very interesting.

Josh added the back splash himself. He did a great job! The title is a brown glass tile. It looks darker/lighter depending on the lighting.

After

So, what have I been running for this summer? It's so hot! But I did just discover this delish treat that might make me run a bit more ... Magnum ice cream bars ... below is a picture of the Carmel one. It's a an expensive treat but well worth it (I found mine on sale at Kroger for $2.99 for 3 bars). It's a layer chocolate, then a layer of caramel, then another layer of chocolate, then vanilla bean ice cream in the middle - pretty ridic!