Kitchen Countertops!

I have had an itch for new countertops for about a year. I would want granite - but we are still adjusting to living on one income, so that was out of the question.

I kept putting it off and putting it off.

Our countertops were fine....just a little out dated I guess, but not horrible.

Here is the before:

You can't tell in these pictures, but the countertops were old laminate and the laminate had grooves in it. (like it was bumpy). I watched a lot of youtube videos, and read a lot of blogs on the topic! Everyone said it was easy, pretty painless. Granite for under $100. The you tube videos looked super easy! This was now consuming my bedtime thoughts. Some how that is how my mind works it thinks of all the things yet to do - anyone else do that? Anyway....

So surfing the web until 2 am some mornings was kicking my butt.

Finally I decided to just get BRAVE and JUST DO IT!!

So after much comments on FB, here is what I did. Lots of people have mentioned

DAY 1

(Monday, we worked 8 am- 10 pm only stopping to eat)

Step 1:

Clean the countertops, take off all the junk, wipe them down with a cleaner of your choice.

A vinegar/water solution works well, 409, fantistic, whatever you fancy!

Step 2:

Back splach & taping

Since we had a thin laminate as a backsplash, we decided it would look more 'realistic' if we took that off and put up wood - for the faux granite look. So, we peeled that off and painted to wall.

(Tip: make sure you let it dry for at least 4 hours...don't be impatient like me. We had a lot of touching up the walls when we were all said and done, cause I put the blue tape on so I could get started on the real project prior to having the paint dry....oops).

I don't have a picture of the plain wood, but it was 4" high, 3/4" thick. I just used liquid nails to attach it to the walls. (I love liquid nails). Then because the laminate countertops had like a silver edge up against the wall, the wood and the countertop had a space between it. So I used regular caulk, and silicone caulk to fill in the gap. If you do this part- DO NOT use silicone - it became a serious pain! Some of you genious's might already know this, but the primer and paint wouldn't stay on it. But since we did tons of layers it worked out....eventually.

Tape it up, really well! Even put stuff on your floor and all over. (I usually skip this cause I tell myself I can be careful), but seriously - I am so glad I did a good tape job.

Step 3:

Prime countertops. We used Kilz, 2 coats. 2 hours between coats. (some blogs said to sand prior to this - but I think sanding makes a mess and takes up too much time - just prime).

Step 4:

Base coat. You can look up granite samples online, or swing by Home Depot and grab a few samples. In our case we wanted brown. So our base coat was a dark brown, in some lights it looks brownish/green.

Let the base coat dry over night, or for 6-8 hours.

Day 2

Tuesday (worked from 8 am - 2 am, with eating breaks and the frustrated break)

Okay, so I woke up super excited, knowing today would be the actual fun day. Making the counters look like granite! Piece of cake!! HA!

(During this project, I learned I am much more of a perfectionist than I originally thought)

Warning: If you are a serious perfectionist, reconsider this project! Save your money for the real stuff.

Step 5:

Sponge painting with tole paints - in layers. Using a sea sponge!

We went to Hobby Lobby and got a package of different sizes and shapes of sea sponges for about $6. (Home Depot has a sea sponge in their Martha Stewart line - for 1 sponge it was $10)

Also, while at Hobby Lobby we picked up tole paints...yep, you do the rest of the painting with tole paints. On other blogs/youtube videos, they said they used 4 colors. My thinking is 4 is great, 8 is better....

Really 8 is too much, could have achieved the same thing with 4. And saved a little sanity. (More about that later).

The colors I used: real brown (folkArt), Ebony black (Americana), Magnolia White (Delta), Golden brown (Delta), Sable Brown (Americana), Bronze (Anita's Metallic), Garden Path (Anita's yard & garden), spice brown (Delta).

But really, just go and choose colors that are in your sample or that you like.

So, then you start layering the tole paints: (Sorry I don't have a video, I just put some paint on a paper plate dabbed my sponge in the paint and dabbed it a bit on the plate prior to putting it on the countertops).

I started light and went dark.

Bronze

Sable Brown

At this point Josh left for work...leaving his way over confident wife at home.

When I got to this point, it was starting to look layered and more like granite...but I wasn't in love with it and I couldn't quite put my finger on what was wrong. So I continued.

Step 6: Veining

In all my research (youTube & Blogs) they talked about the vein in granite. I watched it at least 100 times, read all I could find...I tried to be brave.

It looked like this:

YUCK!

It just looks like blotchy paint.

At this point I was mad (those youtube videos made it look too easy!!), overwhelmed (cause I couldn't make it look right, and there was something I hated about them), tired - oh, so tired going off 8 hours sleep in the last 48 hours, my body and mind where loosing it!

So, I threw in the towel, left the scene!

I went to my bedroom and read 'The Hunger Games', took a cat nap - and just took a break for 3 hours.

Later I called over some friends to get their thoughts. I am SO grateful for good, willing, close friends. It so helps to have a fresh eye and some brutal honesty!

Then I decided to figure out what I didn't like, so I broke my countertop down into 4 sections:

Can you see them?

Black veining - Cream veining - Cream veining w/stain over top - black veining w/stain over the top

I decided the 3rd one from the left looked the best, but still the veining wasn't right. A friend had suggested the vein be much smaller, almost unnoticeable and to maybe try a thin watercolor brush. So with my friend's critiques I was able to figure it out.

- the vein was too big

-having black and white was too much of a contrast, I needed one or the other.

So, Josh got home from work about 10 pm, he gave his opinion. And I was off to try to get this veining right. I wanted to finish it tonight, because, Josh had tomorrow (Wednesday)all day off and that was the day I had planned to use him to help me with the varnish finish coat.

Yeaassssss! Looks to me like natural granite and veining! I am finally satisfied!

So how I ended up doing it, was taking the tiniest piece of the sea sponge and making random tiny lines, they disappeared in the middle of the countertop. Some went all the way thru. Then I kinda dabbed some of the base coat on and around the vein (tried to camouflage it) then dabbed a little black around it as well. Josh had the most important part, he would tell me when I was just right and about to ruin it. (If you know me I kinda like to keep going, going, going, until it is ruined. And on this project it was hard to really tell step back and look for yourself). Seriously couldn't have done this without my lookout man!

Veining was so incredibly hard! One of the hardest parts was jumping across the kitchen to the other countertop. It was hard to bring the same pattern and strokes over...weird.

Then to blend it all I used some stain I had out in the garage, just rolled a quick stain over all of it. That really helped! Totally recommend doing that. I thought it just blended all the colors and gave it a seamless look. Also made it darker and lighter in some areas.

Then at 2 am...Josh called it a night.

Best Husband ever!

Day 3

Wednesday (worked 8 am - 12 noon)

Now I am in love with the way the paint and veining looks, now we just have to put the finish on. We went to Hobby Lobby used their 40% off coupons and got 2 boxes of Envirotex Lite High Gloss Finish. During my research, I learned this stuff is the best if you want the 'glass like' look of granite. Originally we had planned to use clear polyurethane - doing the clear coats would take a TON of time, cause we would need to do 12-18 coats). On the box of Envirotex, it said it was equal to 100 coats of the clear poly-stuff. Also, about the Envirotex - read the directions! It is a scary read, but remember you can do it! Be Brave! Also, use the ultra smooth foam rollers. DO NOT USE the regular paint rollers that are kinda furry!

I have a lot to say about this resin stuff!

In the instructions it says to practice on something first to get the feel of the product.

Again, my mind - that is a waste of time! I have to wait for it to cure 24 before I see what it will look like. I am not practicing, I need my kitchen back asap.

Tip: Buy more than you think you will need cause you really can't have enough of this.

Also, be generous when you pour.

I only mixed 1/2 cup resin and 1/2 cup of the other stuff, I wouldn't do more than that, just because you have to spread it out so fast and even.

It talks about air bubbles after 5 minutes of being on the surface. Josh and I didn't really see any air bubbles, until after it dried. They ended up being like pock marks after about 1 hour of being on the surface. I don't know if it was just my counters but, in some places it was worse than others and it didn't matter how much of the epoxy I put down, it would just level that way.

The instructions also talk about using a blow torch after 5 minutes to get the air bubbles out. I was not brave enough, but we called my handy father in law over, and he used the blow torch. Didn't really make a difference to us?...but we may have waited too long?...

Remember to catch the drips I just did that for about 1 hour after putting it on, I ran a popsicle stick along the bottom to smooth them out.... and beleive me, I missed a lot! But that is what a sharp new razor was put to use for!

I would also, maybe do the back splash separately - like do it before you put it up as a backsplash....cause it was so hard to pour that on a vertical surface! But then if you do that how do you get the painting right? (I am still out on that one)

Here it is wet:

After 24 hours it is touch-able and you can feel how fabulous it is.

Now, my countertops, when I woke up had a few of those 'pock' marks on them...so, me being the 'ruiner' that I am decided that one thin layer of the epoxy would level all that out.

Ummm...no it didn't. So, don't make that mistake.

All in all I am in love with my new countertops and they are growing on me more each day.

I was super worried with my grooved countertops you would be able somehow still see them, but this stuff is amazing! And it looks like granite!

The pictures don't do it justice, so if you want you are more than welcome to come by in person and see them! I am more than willing to help you, or give you pointers if you do this huge project....but by the time you pay my, you might as well get new laminate countertops!

And here is the final look, after blue tape was removed and the counters are empty.

Then real life with appliances put back.

So again here is before and after:

TADA!

At first I thought the darkness of the new countertops took away from the 'pop' of my red cabinets, but I am getting used to it now. It is certainly different!

I hope I gave you enough information and mistakes to learn from! If you have questions, don't hesitate!

Mario Kart!

A few weeks ago, Brayden and I had a date night. Josh was working a double, and I was ready to kick back and relax! Brayden suggested he give me lessons on playing Mario Kart.

I had to laugh at his suggestion, cause I absolutely HATE this game....I HATE it because I am ridiculously horrible at it. I always finish last! And it is so frustrating for me, so I refuse to play it. I HATE Mario Kart!

I was interested in what kind of lesson Brayden would give me, so I agreed.

We got in our jammies and played for 2 hours! I couldn't believe how fast the time went!

Brayden was so cute to me, he was very patient and encouraging. And as the night continued I thought I heard Josh talking, cause Brayden would say things that Josh says to Brayden all the time. "Don't give up!" "I can't, is a swear word!" "You just have to practice!"

It was a fun night after all, even though after all his coaching I never finished higher than 12th place!

I love you Brayden!

better blogger?...catching up

One of my resolutions is to blog more, and better! So here I go, trying....

Let me catch you up thru the holidays quickly.

Christmas was nice. Brayden was with Jason for the first half of winter break, so he returned home on Christmas day at 1 pm. Josh and I spent Christmas Eve at his parents house, had dinner and a FHE it is always nice to be around family. Christmas feel on a Sunday this year, and it is the first year I ever remember that happening! So Josh worked the morning, Brayden was gone, so I went to our 9 am sacrament meeting all by myself. Brayden got home at 1 pm, and we opened Santa and gifts from each other. This year we got a family gift - it was an ipad. Brayden gave me some scrapbook paper and he gave Josh a lot of ring pops and some WWE collector cards. He gave Keesha some nail trimmers and a food bowl.

This is the first year Brayden has had to use his own money to buy gifts for the rest of the family. He really had fun picking out gifts and spending his own money, and Josh and felt like it was a good lesson! Although we should have probably started this a while ago! :)

Here is Brayden's favorite picture of himself this Christmas! He is so funny!

New Year's Eve was fun, and low key. We were all partied out over the month of December and Josh had to work the next morning at 4:30 am....so we ordered Chinese and got in our jammies. We played Brayden's favorite games: Candyland and Trouble and watched some movies, Rango and Harry Crowne. Of course we watched the ball drop and enjoyed some apple cider and hugs together.

Our 10 year old is growing up!!!

Brayden and I were having a boys night this week and I started a conversation about girls. Now I wasn't starting THE talk. I was trying to gage if he had a crush on anyone. There is a girl in our neighborhood that I thought he had a thing for.... I started our conversation out like this. "Hey Brayden is there any boys in your class that have girlfriends?" He said, "No". Then I asked him if there is anyone in his grade that have girlfriends? He started counting. I was surprised by how many he was counting. He responded, "There is 5." (That might not be a lot to some people, I thought it was a lot.) I started asking questions about if he has a girlfriend and he said "no" and then I asked if he had a crush on anyone and he told me about two girls. One was in his class last year and one in his class this year. I asked what made him like them so much. "Cause they laugh at all my jokes!!" I started to laugh. I then asked what type of jokes he told them. "Not really jokes but, the noises I do!!" I asked what kind of noises he made. I heard the noise and I'll tell you the noise sounded a lot like in the movie "Dumb and Dumber" where Lloyd is trying share the most annoying sound in the world. IT WAS AWESOME!! I told him not to do too many weird noises so that he doesn't push theses girls away, or annoy them. I tried to tell him to just be nice and don't be mean to them. I then told him that if he ever has a girlfriend that he couldn't kiss or hold hands with them. "DAD I WOULD NEVER DO THAT!" I bet Mel wants him to stay this innocent all his life. I can't tell you how fun it is to see Brayden grow up in front of our eyes. It shocked me (in a good way) that he was so open with me. I couldn't tell my parents about the girls I liked in school...especially in elementary. I could later as I got older.

I'm really grateful that I have a good relationship with Brayden that he will talk to me about these things. One of the coolest nights I have had as a Dad.

Scout Camp!

Josh and Brayden had a fun filled day yesterday. They got to go to scout camp at Camp Keisel.

Brayden was excited because he had so much fun last year. The picture above is them leaving bright and early. They were gone all day, and Brayden had a lot of fun. He loves that his dad is his leader and gets to go with him.

When Brayden returned home I thought he would be on cloud nine, talking and telling me all about his day...he was tired! He also was disappointed. One of Brayden's favorite parts about scout camp is the store. They have all kinds of boy things...pocket knifes, arrowheads, etc.

Brayden decided to spend some of his allowance. He bought yet another pocket knife, an arrowhead necklace and a rabbit skin. He was most excited about the rabbit skin. Right after buying they sat down for lunch. Dad told Brayden several times to put his stuff in his backpack. Well, Brayden put the pocket knife in his pocket and the arrowhead necklace around his neck and he left his new found prized possession on the table to be right by him as he ate....

you got it. The treasured rabbit skin got left after lunch as they moved on to more excited things, and when Brayden realized and headed back...it was gone. Brayden was SO disappointed.

Other than that, they did have a good day and were so tired they went to bed super early.

Excited for this summer!

I am so excited for summer! I think this is the most excited I have been since 8th grade!

I can't wait to enjoy and soak up lazy summer days now that I am not working! YAY!

We made a cute summer 'to do' list:

The list isn't all the way done. I found the idea on this site:

http://thecraftingchicks.com/2011/05/summer-fun-chart-and-photo-journal.html

Brayden was looking at it today and has already picked out the top three things on his list.

Visit Vernal - Uncle Chick's Farm, and 4 wheeler :)

Sleep out on the tramp - always my favorite!

Family date night - yet to be decided if it is basement or theater.

Bring on the fun summer!

Keesha's treat

I came home from a family dinner to this....

GUILTY!

Luckily there were only maybe 4 eggs left in there, I don't even know how she got them down. They were up on a shelf downstairs.

Hopefully a little chocolate won't be too bad for her, and at least she picked the very best kind!

1st week off!

It was so nice! I think it was nice because Brayden was out of school for spring break. So it felt like a mini vacation. Sleeping in, going and doing what we wanted, playing with friends, etc.

So, maybe next week I will start a routine I can feel good about.

We had some of our neices and nephews over during spring break to have a late night!

It was fun! We recently bought 'just dance 2' so after dinner...we played for the rest of the night.

I think Josh and I had just as much fun as the kids!

Then one of my first things on the 'to-do' list was to organize the pantry, cause it was bad!

Before:

Sorry it is a little blury...but just know it was a mess and everything was lost in there!

After:

Tada!

I moved quite a bit around, to make it more accessible.

Also, added a lazy susan - ($5 at Walmart).

Labeled what I could.

Added some organization to the door to free up some more space!

Added some vinyl! Thanks Jill! (utahvinyl.com)

So much better to have less in there and more organized so now we can find what I just went to the grocery store and put in there!

Mindy Gledhill - Whole Wide World (Official Music Video)

So...I love this! This is kinda my theme song as of late.

Today is my last day of State employment.
Some think I am crazy...and I might be.
But let me tell you it is the most freeing feeling feeling to walk away from something that is sucking the life out of you and imagine something else...
Scarey? ABSOLUTELY! But also so peaceful to put your faith in something higher and go with it!

Freedom came early!

YAHOO!
I put my 2 week notice in today at work!
My last day of work is 3/31/11.

Bring on spring, rejuvenation, cleaning, LOVE, cooking, enjoying, less money, learning to RELAX, projects, volunteering, more time, sleep, happiness!

I am so excited.
Thanks to the most amazing, supporting husband. I love you Josh! Wouldn't want to do it with out you honey!

I am pushing through the fear and going with our answer to our prayers.

quitting...part 1

This is going to be a long post...heads up. But I think it is worth it.



I am sure several of you have heard me complain about my job.
(sorry about that! Thanks for listening)
So, Josh and I have been talking about me being able to quit for some time. Ever since my boss transferred me out to West Valley it has been on our mind. (Which was 18 months and 6 days ago...but who's counting?!)

I can't even begin to tell you how much my job has changed over the past 18 months!
I know why, cause I have new management...hence the change. Fine, people choose to retire!
I get it... it is just so frustrating when those that take their places are not as gutsy, and hard working. They choose just to let everything fall to pieces and someone else (not management - why should they get their hands dirty!), eventually will take care of it right?! Meanwhile all their little worker bees under them are carrying this giant load of....CRAP. The crap that has slid off their desk, cause they refuse to deal with it. whatever.
So, that is enough said right? (Well I could go on and on but my blood pressure is rising and I need to get back to the point!)

We started talking about me quitting pretty seriously after we were approved for adoption and our case worker made several comments that birthmoms want to place babies in homes where there is a stay at home mom. At the time she said that, I knew she was right. But I have ALWAYS worked. I have been a hard worker all my life. I got my first real job at the age of 14 over at Lagoon and since then - that is all I have known. And of course by some of my decisions I had to work harder than others. When my caseworker said that about stay at home moms, I had to work through some personal things.... which I will save for another time. But one of them is a paycheck. I have always had a paycheck....always. I have been blessed with awesome jobs and a supportive husband. We have always been able to buy what we needed/wanted. And somehow my life has become attached to a dollar amount that is gone too quickly and is not compensating me as much as I feel it should.
So - how to get away from me being attached to this $ amount...? How am I going to do it?

The original goal to quit was December of 2012...also when the world is suppose to end according to Mayan calendar. My quit date had nothing to do with that- I promise! It just happened to work out that we would have all our 'ducks in a row' and that was the month before my HUGE 3-0 birthday!

So for FHE one night Josh suggested we make a freedom chain. (He is so adorable!) To explain the freedom chain it is a paper chain made of links. The original plan was to take a link off each week. Links of freedom colors, red, white and blue. We calculated the chain and needed to have 227 links, got busy cutting and stapling. Brayden was so excited to label each link from 227-1. We decided that it would hang in the most convienient place for us all to see (we are working on a goal together) the pantry door. So each Friday Brayden and I would be so excited and rip off a link and throw it away...because we made it through another week! A week of mom gone from 7 am-7 pm Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. A week of eating out and breakfasts for dinner and my sweet husband cooking 1 meal a week. A week of me spending long hours with people that aren't living up to their potential (myself included). A week of anger and frustration for me as there is not enough time in the day. A week of not spending enough time with those that are most precious to me...and asking them to put up with a crazy, stressed out woman/mom. This job is sucking the LIFE out of me! and the question is .... is it worth it?

More and more I can feel like someone is strongly pushing me to quit and not work. Which is so weird for me, yea I hate my job, but I have always wanted to work. Lately this feeling is so strong...and I can't even explain it. I know it sounds so weird but I can feel this happening to me. In the beginning I thought it was just my head playing games, and me going crazy...but I can't deny this feeling of someone putting their hands on me and shoving me!

Why can't it be easy for me to live by faith?! I want to be one of those persons, that just can trust and be at peace.

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

I came down stairs the other night and Brayden was watching "How the Grinch Stole Christmas"(the Jim Carry version). I was wondering why he would be watching this show. Its not even Christmas season and he has been watching this show like 2 times a day for four days now. I kinda got a little irritated and said "Why do you keep watching this show"? After the second time its like HOLY CRAP kid come on now!! Some kids have the ability to says things back that puts you in your place. Brayden's response was, "I Like show that there is a CHANGE OF HEART in it" Me after that I just looked at him and stared and couldn't think of a thing to say. Man he right. Those are great movies!!

Happy Valentines Day!

For a FHE in January we each wrote each other 7 love notes.
Then on each day of the first 14 of february we each had a Valentine to open.
It was fun, and Brayden really enjoyed it!
Some were cute, some where coupons for different activity, some were funny.
This is by far the cutest one:

(This one is to Josh, from Brayden. It says:
Free Helper, Me and a cute stick figure.
Good for many times)

Then on each day for the first 14 days, cupid left love notes with different things for Brayden.
This was his favorite:

(One of Brayden's favorite treats - sparkling cider)
He was excited!

thinking out loud....

We have our adoption blog that you can access here:

jandmadoption.blogspot.com

I had an idea...what do you think of this? Please post and tell me what you think.
I was letting my mind zone out the other day and I was thinking about the adoption blog. And how I can feel someone pushing me to work on it more and more.
I also feel someone pushing me to not work - I know it sounds weird and it is bizzare to me, cause I have worked fulltime for 12 years. I have always worked!
Anyway, my idea came to me about the adoption blog...
Josh and I were thinking we should write it and compose it like we have someone in mind...you know? What do you think?

It's my Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to ME! I was too busy yesterday to post on my actual birthday...but here is how my day went:

Josh and Brayden woke up early and suprised me with breakfast in bed!

Handsome husband

Excited Brayden!

Birthday girl!
Good morning sunshine!
Isn't this the best picture of me you have seen! Wow...yes I did just roll out of bed.

The eggs and toast were yummy! I love starting the day out with breakfast in bed!

Thank you to my cute boys who suprised me!

Brayden went to school and Josh and I did our normal birthday celebrating...

Movie and the mall.

We went and saw 'The Fighter' - Awesome show! I thought it was a great show, great actors and it was inspiring of course! I loved it and could have cried at any moment, it is a great show about being victorious with our personal battles. Go see it!

We came home and ran errands and picked up Brayden from school.

Brayden showed us some awesome tricks on his new Wii game Santa brought - Tony Hawk skateboard game and yes...that is my big toe sticking out in the pic...oops.


Then we went to dinner at one of my favorite restaurants, Texas Roadhouse - Yum!
Then we came home for some homemade birthday cake. Yes, I made my own cake, usually I buy them...but this year I wanted a perfect mint chocolate cake.
This was not the perfect cake....I don't know that I will make my own again. But it was delicious for homemade!


Do I feel older?...just a little.
Thanks for all the fun birthday wishes! I am getting use to facebook.
Thanks to my cute boys for making my day so fun! I love you both very much! xoxo

~Mel

Family Pictures

We had a family picture taken down at Wheeler Farm. Our friend Justin did such a great job! I am excited for the proof cd to get them printed out...and don't worry, you will probably have a copy of your own - these might be our Christmas cards this year! You can get a hold of Justin by going through our facebook, or contact him directly at: Phone - 801-810-6760
http://jsmithdigital.wordpress.com/
He is a great guy, super easy to work with, and should be charging more! Can't recommend him enough!