{ Marble or is it... }

Guess what? The counter tops are IN!! 

My dad and Mark worked on these all day on Saturday. I was painting so every once in awhile I would sneak in for a peak at the progress and snap a picture and probably annoyed them with my freak out every time I walked in. Not a bad freak out, like a OH MY GOSH I AM IN LOVE freak out haha! I know I get a little too excited when it comes to things getting finished over here but hey that's just how I am!

Don't they look great?! I call this my faux-marble counter tops. Did it fool you? Were you thinking it looks like marble? It's actually laminate. Maybe you know your marble better than me but I could be fooled, I think they look like the real deal. 

Here's a close up of the finish

When I started looking at counter top choices I happened to see this website and I really liked the look of the Calacatta Marble. I googled it to see if anyone had it in their kitchen out on the internet so I could see what it would look like and came upon this girls kitchen and I was sold. I loved it. I was really happy with my laminate counter tops at our previous house so I know I will love these ones. 

We ordered ours from Lowe's. We were in luck that day too because they quoted us a much cheaper price than what it actually was so when we went to pay for it we asked why it was so much more expensive than what they had quoted us. It ended up being a mistake on their part but they gave us the quoted price which saved a lot of money for us. Thank you Lowe's! We are really loving Lowe's right now. Of all the home improvement stores that we've dealt with through this whole renovation, I have to say that Lowe's has been the best to deal with when it comes to ordering, pick up, and returns. They are not paying me to say that either, I really just like that store!

We ordered two sheets because it only comes in certain sizes so we have enough left over to do some counter tops down in the basement laundry room eventually.

It comes all rolled up

Here it is after Mark unrolled it

Even though we did laminate counter tops in our first house, I don't remember being there when they were installed. It was actually a pretty interesting process to watch. I thought it looked really difficult but Mark said it was really easy. From what I saw, it didn't look easy but I guess when you know what you're doing then it's not as hard as it appears. 

My dad is an amazing carpenter and does this kind of stuff for a living so it's always great to have him around to help out when he can. First Mark cut out all the pieces. They do the side pieces first and then the tops so here are the sides all cut out and ready to go. 

They used a sprayer to apply the adhesive glue. It gets really tacky after only a few minutes so they have to work quick while being extremely precise.

When they did the top piece they placed small pieces of wood a few inches apart down first. Then they placed the large piece of laminate on top of that. They started at one end and slowly took out a piece at a time while making sure the laminate was placed where it needed to be. 

The whole space around the counter and the island were covered with that red resin paper to prevent any of the glue from getting on it. 

I couldn't rip that red paper off quick enough so I could see it all put together with the white cabinets. The island still needs paint but I would say it's looking amazing so far!

Up next was cutting out the piece for the kitchen sink. We got this sink for a crazy discount. It was right time, right place kinda thing. Lowe's clearanced this sink out because it was the last one on the shelf literally seconds prior to us looking down that aisle. The salesman told us about it and we snagged it. 

So in it went

It looks really great. We still need to pick out a faucet yet. Hopefully I can make it into the store tomorrow sometime and then we will finally have a working kitchen sink! 

The changes in this room are amazing and it really is starting to feel like home. 

We are really hoping to have the appliances moved in over the weekend too so stay tuned for that. What do you guys think about the counters?!