Counters part deux

We redid them and they worked! Whoo hoo, they worked.

Eric and I did them together this time and we were very particular during the process. I painted them myself and then together we measured and timed and mixed and mixed and mixed.

It's amazing what following the directions will accomplish!

Here are a few before pics... Boring white counters, they had lots of stains. I bleached them all the time and still some stains remained. After Sara did her counters I knew that it was the solution for us.


All told my kitchen makeover is about $78. I have a few other things planned but you can see a sneak peek of how it is all coming along.

I have a window treatment in the works, as well as a bar stool update (long story as to why one is white and the others arent) and a wall treatment in mind. Those are in the works and I will show you those when I get them done.

Here is a break-down of costs (I am not counting the first screw up $, becasue well that would stink).

$60 gallon of Enviro-tex at Menard's
$4 fabric at Hobby Lobby (for window treatment)
$6 in paint (for counters as well as sprinkle rack, knife block, canister lids, salt and pepper shakers)
$5 flower pot for utensils (it matches my Kitchenaid perfectly).
$3 new black paper towel holder (originally $13 at Wal-mart... who pays $13 for a paper towel holder?)

Here is an overall shot. ( I do have plans for the 3000 kitchen magnets)



Here is the corner where out little TV goes as well as the black painted knife block.


The other corner, home of my third child, my Kitchenaid, as well as the aforementioned flower pot, my canisters with newly painted black lids and my sprinkle rack.


One of my favorite things... My sprinkle rack. It makes me smile!

Here is a close up of the counters. Amazingly this section of counter worked the first time. Who knows why.

And finally another whole kitchen view.

Link to Sara's blog with FAQ...

http://whimsies-whatnots.blogspot.com/2009/04/faq-about-counters.html

My mom rocks!

She doesn't even read this blog, but I thought I'd post about her for the 10's of people that do read the blog.

I am just amazed at her awesomeness. She is an amazing person and a fantastic grandma, my kids (and neices/nephews) are so lucky.


My mom always steps in to help others when they need it, she volunteers for those less fortunate and she is just an all together great person.


What prompted this post you might ask?


Backstory... every week she watches American Idol and immediately following my niece, Jessica, calls grandma up and they chit chat about the preformances, that all by itself is neat, but not the coolest part.

I talk to my mom a handful of times each day (so does my brother... I hope my kids want to talk to me that much) Anyway, during a recent coversation she was telling me how she bought my neice (9) a surprise.


She ordered American Idol Live Tour tickets for just she and my neice. What a fan-freakin-tastic grandma memory is that going to be. The funny part is, she isnt telling Jessica just yet, she is mailing her a copy of the seating chart for the concert and putting little {you are here} {grandma is here} arrows.


I hope my kids realize how amazingly lucky they are that their grandma loves them so much and does so much for them.


One funny thing she does for my kids is mails them garage sale money. They love garage sales and we head out every Friday or Saturday morning with me on my bike and them in their burley for good deals!


So here's to you mom, I love you and you ROCK!

Here is a pic for you of her with 4 of her 6 grandkids. Jessica, the recipent of the ticket, is holding Linds!

Little Graduate

Lindsay is done with preschool. Honestly, the only thing that I thing keeps me from being totally heartbroken is that Lydia goes in 2010! She sang several songs with her classmates and they rocked the house (well as much as songs about letter sounds, vowels, Bible Verses and colors can rock)
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Once the class was done singing each child went up front and signed their name and recieved a special book from Mrs. N! Lindsay had to have a little help from Mrs. Niebrugge, her fingers just don't obey!



The kids sangs several songs and after that we headed across the hall for lots of yummy sweet treats! To end the special day Lindsay picked her fav place for dinner, McDonalds!


And because a post wouldn't be complete without a small dose of Lyds, her she is enjoying a yummy ice cream cone cupcake!

I am so proud of her, I am still coming to terms with her going to kindergarten and being away from me for 7 hours a day... why do they have to grow up so fast!

Counter Update...

Sorry it's been so long. May is just pure chaos with soccer and the end of school and the girls wanting to be outside on bike rides or in the sandbox or in the water table.

Anyway, here is the update I was dreading posting. I was dreading it for 2 reasons. The first being that I didnt want to admit that I screwed up and second because I dont want to deter you.

So I painted my counters, just like my friend Sara, and they were gorgeous, I loved them.

Here is the bad part, I, unlike Sara, didnt mix the envirotex well enough. It is a chemical reaction so you have to have equal parts of the 2 containers that come in the box.

I waited and waited and they never set fully. The lady at Envirotex said I had to scrape and start over. At that point I was crushed, now I am ready to tackle it again.

My hubby wasn't too thrilled that they didnt work in the first place, mainly becasue he wasn't sold on the idea to start. He did his husbandly duty and helped scrape off the unset goo, which I might say was absolutely NO FREAKIN' FUN at all.

The counters are part-way back to normal, and I am ready to tackle it again. I asked for a Menard's Gift Card for Mother's Day (So romantic huh?) and now I am awaiting Menard's to have a bag sale where you get 10% or 15% off of what fits in the bag. I am hoping they have this sale next weekend for Memorial Day and if not I will probably just go ahead and do it.

So here is my advice to you.... MIX THE STUFF UNTIL YOU CANT MIX ANYMORE. Also I'd suggest measuring into a set of throw away containers before mixing together. The company says not to pour from the bottles because they might not be 100% equal, I know that Sara did dump from the bottle, because honestly that is what makes sense. But next time I am going to be hyper vigilante and measure the crap out of the stuff.

So I am hoping and praying that some heavy duty stirring & some Sara supervision will spell success in a few weeks.

I do have a some pics of the counters while wet and they sure were pretty.