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!

 

Switchin' it up!

So, we've had the same gross ceiling fans in our house since we moved in 2.5 years ago. They are the same ones that were put in when the house was built in 1993. They're gross. Just gross. Old "oak" blades with 4 weird arms coming out of the center with really outdated and gross light fixtures attached {I wonder how many times I can use the word "gross" in this post?}

Anyway....a while back I was reading an article in Better Homes and Gardens about how you shouldn't have ceiling fans with light fixtures attached and I've been daydreaming about replacing our gross ones ever since.

Cause if a designer from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine says it, it's the law people. The law.

Well....we finally replaced them this week! Like a genius, I forgot to take a before picture until the hubs was already in the process of dismantling the old gross one, so you'll have to trust me on the grossness:

Before.....kind of.....

After!

I LOVE it! It give the room a completely different feel, for reals. 

Alright, I need to go eat some corned beef and cabbage now. Have a great weekend!!!