Kitchen counters . . . done (mostly)!

We finally, finally, finally got our laminate countertops installed today. Do I need to tell you how happy I am about this? Probably not!

As this picture illustrates, we do not know how to do this. We’ve never installed laminate countertops before. We are very handy though and we figured it out with only one brief foray onto the Internets for advice. (Yes, we did glue the joints together as well as bolting them together). This was a difficult job but we got both countertops done in one day. I’m blown away with joy!

Ruth took the above picture of us. Aren’t I glamorous in my “working on the house” gear? Believe it or not, that sweatshirt used to be one I wore like out in public — rather than only with my painting overalls. Amazing, huh?

We dry fit them together.

Adjustments had to be made — this was somewhat heartbreaking but we managed to do a pretty good job cutting them. Although, I will admit that we’ll be adding more tile backsplash than we had planned. Much as I’d like to blame this problem on Home Depot, I can’t really. Home Depot cut them to our measurements quite well. However, the cabinet that the oven is in doesn’t have consistent measurements — or the wall is crooked or something. But, we fixed it.

Aren’t they lovely? That is the tile that we’ll use for the backsplash. They are 12″x12″ and I’ll cut them in half to install. They will fit perfectly under the window sill. Don’t they match beautifully? Wow oh wow oh wow! At some point tomorrow, Greg will cut a big hole in this beautiful expanse so that I can have hot and cold running water in my kitchen. Sigh.

We had to get silly and celebrate the counters finally being in! Nothing like 8 and nearly 10 year olds for silly celebrations!

This is the other countertop — no holes go in here. Other than the tile backsplash, it’s done! Hurray! I love the pools of light the undercounter lights put on it.

Next steps:

• installing backsplash tiles
• Butcher block counter
• Cutting holes for sink and cooktop
• installing sink and cooktop
• reconnecting all plumbing
• doing dance of joy that my sink and dishwasher are operable again!

Update:

Well, we had a slow Sunday — I got a little bit of glass tile installed. And, Greg got the cooktop installed! We’re happy with what we did but, my goodness, we had some delays!

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