Kitchen Makeover Week 4 -One Room Challenge

It’s week four of the One Room Challenge, and I’m happy to report that it feels like we’ve made lots of progress.  I’m taking part in a Challenge hosted by Calling it Home where bloggers take six weeks to makeover one room of their homes and share their weekly progress.  Be sure to check out everyone else’s progress too at Calling It Home.
If you missed any of my updates you can catch up here:

Week One -The Kitchen Before and Inspiration

Week Two -Demo and Preparation

Week Three -Prepping for Tile

Week Four -Tile and Grout

Week Five -Kitchen Cabinet Makeover

Week Six -Affordable DIY Large Floating Shelves for the Kitchen

Black Dipped Paint Brass Candlesticks

The Tile

This past weekend we installed all the tile.  A special thanks to Home Depot Canada this week for supplying all the materials for the tile and grout.

My sweet brother-in-law Shaun from Benjamin Woodworks, came for the weekend along with my sister and their two dachshunds.  I have to say that the tile was harder than I expected.  That seems to be the trend here.  I’m all for trying new things, but if Shaun hadn’t been here, I know it won’t have come out looking this good, and I don’t think it would be done yet.  I did learn a ton -but we joked that if he hired me as his new apprentice, he won’t want to pay me by the hour, haha.

We started over by the sink, and we’re lucky enough to be working with granite counters so they were perfectly level. There was an outlet, and some tricky corners to work around, where Shaun used the angle grinder for the tricky cuts.  I did manage to learn how to do the straight cuts with the tile cutter…my measuring though…still needs some work. 😉

The big wall was just a whole lot of tile, and I basically worked away on the straight runs and straight cuts, and Shaun was busy drilling the holes for the shelf supports to come through, cutting the tiles for around the outlets, and doing the tricky corner.  It was a bigger job than I realized and it took us all day long.  I think we knocked off around 8:30  My shoulders were definitely feeling it.  The next day Shaun finished up some tricky spots along the cupboards.

It looked pretty amazing, in fact I couldn’t stop staring at it.  What an improvement.  And, what a difference to the rest of the kitchen.  With this makeover I wanted to take something that wasn’t really my taste and update it to something I liked better.  It still wasn’t ever going to be my dream kitchen, but it was a fairly inexpensive way to make it a whole lot better.  I didn’t think I’d love it.  But seeing the tile up, I was starting to love it.  I never would have chosen the dark black counters, but they were actually starting to look good.  What a difference the tile made!

The Grout

This week it was my job to do the grout.  I’ve never done grout before.  Shaun talked me through it and I read the directions.  I started with the little area behind the sink and it went well.  I moved on to the small area under the cabinets next -it also went well.  My confidence was up,  and I thought I was ready to tackle the big wall.

You know what’s coming don’t you?  It didn’t go quite as well as I hoped.  There were a few factors -I didn’t sponge off  (step two) as well as I should have.  Then I was working on the next section and by the time I came back to the first section it was already set pretty well.  Then I ran out of time and had to run the girls to the dentist.  By the time we were back it was even more set and the problem was that the seams in this section weren’t nice and crisp like they should have been.  They had to be edged back with a fingernail and the buffing cheese cloth…but they were really set already.  I’m not going to lie I basically had a melt down.  I cried.  And I chipped away at it for hours.  My girls tried to help, my husband tried to help, but I had to basically just work away at it.  It’s still not perfect and I’m pretty disappointed in myself.  I under estimated how much bigger this area was -even working in sections.  I didn’t give myself enough time to get it perfect at step 2 and that made step 3 really hard.  What can I say -live and learn.  It’s not a lesson I’ll soon forget.

I think it looks okay now -I’ve worked away at it, and for the most part it’s looking pretty good now.  It’s really only one area, and I think that once the shelves are up and styled with stuff it won’t even really be noticeable.  I almost didn’t want to mention it here -in fact that’s why my update is a bit late this week.  I didn’t want to say it wasn’t perfect.  But the fact is I’m just a girl trying to be brave enough to try and learn new things, and sometimes first timers get it wrong.  It’s not ruined, it’s just not perfect.  It’s pretty unfortunate that it was one of the finishing details that went wrong after so, so much work to get to that stage, but it is what it is.  It still looks pretty amazing considering what was there before.  And from the living room it looks perfect. 😉

I’d like to think that if I didn’t mention it to you, you wouldn’t even notice -so in the final reveal post let’s jut pretend this never happened, ok?  I have to say I have a few good take aways from it -of course I learned how to grout, and I’ll never make that mistake again. But on a deeper level, it had me pondering my desire to always have everything perfect, and my own self doubt about taking on a job like this.  I also was struggling with feeling alone, and like I had nowhere to turn to for help.  I’ve worked it through over the last few days and I’m feeling a lot better.  I want to be brave and not afraid to try new things, and I want to give myself permission to not always be perfect, and to not get things perfect on my first try.  I also needed to remind myself that I’m not in this alone, and that I can ask for help when I’m overwhelmed and don’t know what to do.  And, that I can keep working away at things and not give up on myself.  All good lessons to learn -or relearn.

The To Do List

This week it felt like we made some great progress -even with my set back.  The end really is in sight, but there’s still a fair bit on the to do list.

• caulk around the tile and sink
• install new faucet and soap dispenser
• have gas installer hook up new stove
• stain, seal, and install floating shelves
• touch up paint
• have cupboard doors reinstalled, final coat on the base cabinets, and new hardware installed
• install new light fixture
• clean floor grout
• clean
• make it pretty

I’m working with some amazing brands on this project, and I’m so grateful.  I’ve received products or discounts, but as always, all opinions are my own. I’m so happy to be partnering with Home Depot, Wayfair Canada, GE Canada, Benjamin Woodworks, Lagostina, Smith Sprayers, Lee Valley Tools, Delta Faucet, Krylon, Minwax, and Hamilton Beach.

With a kitchen makeover that’s making progress, life really is a party!