Drum Roll Please!

I love my new kitchen tile.  It looks incredible.  I know it won't be everyone's taste, but I am 100% sure that it is mine.  Nothing feels better than trying something new and different and having it come together with such a happy conclusion.

OK, so we aren't quite done yet.  We ran out of grout, but it's on the way and the tile should be finished soon.  And talk about the most awesome grout ever.  This stuff (Quartz Lock) is new, scary and bonds like cement!  It isn't cheap either.  But it was so worth it.  The bonding agent is a urethane, so the grout does not need to be sealed and it is highly stain resistant.  Very important in kitchen use.

Terrific woods view out of my 5' x 4' kitchen window.

So tell me what you think.  Which basically doesn't matter because we aren't gonna change it and we absolutely love the way it turned out.  By the time Don gets finished trimming out the windows and the kick plate and trim on the cabinets, you'll never know we bought them second hand.  The double oven and the dishwasher are second hand too, but the dishwasher was never used and the ovens were barely used.

Something else different is that we are going to use the tile for the cabinet kick plate.  We figure cleaning and mopping will be easier because we won't have to worry about getting the wood cabinets wet.  Water and wood do not mix.  We decided to use the same tile (Korel from Costco) for the kick plate that we used on the counter tops.

Another first for us is the kitchen island.  It is five feet long and four feet wide with electrical outlets!  The previous cabinet owners had a wine fridge in the island, but since they wanted to keep it, we adjusted the cabinets so that we can have a stool at each end of the island.

Don still has some wood work to do, but the wood he ordered from Woodworker's Network for the cabinets and the window trim matches perfectly.  He really knows how to take something that you would not expect to be able to reuse and make it look beautiful.  Don is a perfectionist.  He wouldn't have tried it if it wasn't going to end up perfect.

The back splash is slate.  It is made by Surface Art.  It has several colors in it and also has a coppery hue.  When I told Don I wanted this tile and that I wanted it installed 'randomly', he thought I was nuts.  He pictured just throwing it up on the wall and trying to figure out how to make it work.  What I meant was, no pattern.  I wanted to take the different styles they offered and mix them up, cutting the big 'sheets' of tile into smaller units and applying them randomly.  Once he caught on, he really got into it and I think he likes the way it turned out better than I do.

I hope it inspires him to cook!

Now for the best part of all . . . drum roll please!  Don added it up.  We have invested (complete kitchen before a new fridge, but including faucet & disposal ordered) a grand total of $4800 in our kitchen!  YEA!  That also includes the four cabinets in our laundry room and the laundry sink!  Big pat on the back for us!