Holy re-do the kitchen batman!

Wow.
When I woke up Monday morning, I wasn't even thinking about painting my kitchen counter.
or the walls in the kitchen.
or the kitchen cabinets.....
yet here we are, Wednesday, and the countertop is a beautiful shade of cobblestone {care of Rust-oleum Countertop coating...no they are not paying me to say that}and I have now taped up the kitchen in order to paint the walls a light blue {since the brown we painted on the wall 2 years ago now looks absolutely horrid next to the new cobblestone countertop}.
Tonight after the monsters children go to sleep, the hubs and I will be tackling the wall. And by tackling, I mean painting. You can't really tackle a wall........{cornball, I know}

So, I'm sure you're dying, just DYING, to know what I thought of the Rust-oleum Countertop Coating. Here's my thoughts:
PROS
1. It goes on super easy, the only prep work you have to do is clean the counter off 
2. It is cheap. $20 a can, and it put 3 coats on my countertop {I didn't really need 3 coats, but we'll get to that later}
3. It is a big step up from the ugly yellowish-brown countertops that have been in this house since it was born {1993} {yes, I said born}

CONS
1. It stinks Bad. Really strong odor. We had to leave the house and crash my in-laws for a surprise dinner visit {thanks in-laws!}
2. They don't tell you that you need a special sponge roller, so I used a regular roller the first 2 coats and kept getting little roller-fuzz all over the counter. After sanding it down and getting expert advice from a lady at Sherwin-Williams, we used a sponge roller and it looked much better. But I wish I had known about the roller before I started....so now you know if you ever decide to do it!
3. After the 3rd coat, I noticed cracks in the paint. I'm guessing this is from not waiting the 3 days to let it cure {oh yeah, you have to let it dry for 3 days....} before I did the last coat. Now that it is more dry, the cracks are still there, but it's not horrid. It's still a huge step up from what we had.
4. The texture of the paint is different on my countertop in certain places. I read up on this and others had this problem too. For some people it's an absolute deal breaker, but like I said, it's still a step up from what we had before.

Let me guess, you want to see pictures now? Well, I don't have the most amazing light in my kitchen so the pictures don't do it justice, but I'll post them anyway. Just know, it's much nicer than the picture =)

the top 2 are before, the bottom 2 are after

Like I said, the pictures don't do it justice. But pictures are important, so there you go. You are all invited over to come see for yourself if you'd like =)

And here are a couple more pictures of why I hate doing anything to my kitchen that doesn't involve cooking:

Clutter.
Mess.
Things that are supposed to be in the kitchen but are on my dining table and the stove top.
Ugh. It stresses me out.
But I do see the bright side in all of this: that I own a house. I live in a safe, clean, happy house where I have the ability to make changes as I see fit.
That is a blessing.
All of the mess and clutter and stress are worth it, fo' shizzle my nizzle.

Thanks for stopping by! Soon, I'll post pictures of the COMPLETED kitchen, YAY!