Kitchen- before and after

I'm still not 100% happy with the way our kitchen has turned out (I could go on forever), but here are some before and after pics:

Kitchen at move-in:

Now:We changed out the appliances two years ago, shortly after moving in (we chose black to match our refrigerator, and I actually think black looks better than stainless in our kitchen...even though stainless is all the rage right now!).

Last spring, we got a big tax refund and decided to use the money towards new countertops and backsplash. I'm not a big fan of the light wood cabinets, but we didn't want to spend money on refacing (or buying new ones). We decided on the black galaxy countertops (black with some copper flecks)....and I love it (except that water stains show up easily!). Then it came time to figure out a backsplash. At first I wanted to go bold, and I wanted to cover it entirely in glass mosaic (I asked opinions on our blog). But my friend Erin put a photoshop picture together of what it might look like, and I was surprised how "busy" it looked. I also liked the idea of using 3X6 travertine (natural stone) laid out like bricks. So with the help from a lady at Daltile, I decided to do the subway tile travertine, with a strip of glass mosaic just along the middle.

So we had the backsplash installed four months ago, and I've been frustrated ever since! When I saw it completed, I didn't like it. The travertine wasn't as dark as I expected, making the glass stand out too much. But when the travertine was wiped with a wet washcloth, it instantly became darker. The installer agreed, and told me that DE Flooring (where we purchased the countertops/backsplash) could seal it, to give it that "wet" look. So I called our salesman Ricardo and told him I wanted the tiles to look darker, and he told me that it's very expensive for them to seal it, but that I should just go to Lowe's and pick up some sealer and do it ourselves.

So this is what I did (not realizing that there are a million different sealers out there).....and we put five coats of sealer on the backsplash, just like the instructions said. I noticed that it wasn't instantly getting darker, but I thought that would happen as you apply more coats. But after it was done, it was obvious that it didn't make it much darker (maybe a tiny bit).

A couple of months ago I was just frustrated and went back to DE Flooring to see if there was anything else that could be done. When I showed pictures to Ricardo, his response was, "you should have used an enhancer to make the tiles darker." Sure enough, they carry this "enhancer" product that's designed specifically to make natural stone have that "wet" look. Why in the world didn't he tell me this to begin with?!

I could go on and on about that place, but I will stop. We learned about a product that can strip the current sealer off, and I got a small sample. It doesn't seem to be working, but we haven't tried it exactly as the instructions say. Hopefully we'll do that this week. If it doesn't work, Dean is going to try to make an appointment to speak with Ricardo and Abdul (the owner of the place) to see about having them do it for us. This is a (supposedly) reputable place in our area, but we've had nothing but trouble with them.

I took these pictures at night, and the travertine does look darker at night. It mainly looks bad in the daytime, and especially when the sun is shining directly on it. I know that our kitchen looks leaps and bounds better than when we started, but it's just frustrating to spend the money and not get the exact result you want (especially when I was given wrong information and all of this could have been easily avoided!).

Chee!

Drew will be 17 months old tomorrow....and despite our best efforts, he's still not wanting to speak very much! He says mama and dada, and "baba" (referring to Ba Ba Black Sheep, one of his favorite songs) and "teeee!" (referring to the kitties), and "down" (meaning "down" and "up" and "all done" when he's done with a book), and "chee!" when I take his picture. And that's about it! Grant was this exact age when he started saying his first words aside from mama and dada. I was really worried about Grant.....I'm not so worried this time. Drew obviously understands almost everything we tell him, and he communicates with us in lots of ways.....so I'm just hoping the words will start coming soon.

It's funny because Grant's first word (just a few days before 17 months) was "cheese," but he said it in reference to the yellow stuff. That was (and still is) his favorite food....and I remember like it was yesterday the day that I gave him a piece of cheese and said, "cheeeeese" to him as I always did (like I said, by this point, I was getting worried!). And he said a very timid "cheese" back to me. It was such an exhilarating moment for me, and such a relief to see that he could actually say a word (aside from all of his babbling, of course).

So it's funny because Drew is NOT a cheese eater.....he doesn't usually care for it. But he's learned from Grant how to say "chee" when I take his picture. Last night he was putting on a show for me. He's gotten very interested in my camera and always wants to see the picture I've just taken. Last night he had fun saying "chee!" for the camera, then grabbing the camera to look at his pictures (he also grabs the camera and tries to press every button....I'm thankful we haven't deleted pictures yet). Here are a few of the smiley faces:


Success! Both boys are smiling and facing the camera for a picture! I never realized how difficult it would be to capture a good picture of two little kids together.....

Aarrghh!

Grant is totally into pirates now. I wish this had happened two months ago so we could've gotten him pirate gifts for his birthday and Christmas.....he always seems to discover a new favorite thing in January, just after Christmas and ten months before his next birthday!

Anyway, I think the pirate fascination comes from his love of Peter Pan; for a while now he's had a lot of pretend conversations with (or about) Captain Hook. I changed out the shower curtain in the boys' bathroom, and he likes to use the old curtain hangers as "captain hooks." And he always wants to have sword/hook fights with anyone available. Since now he's getting more into the pretend-play stage, I figured he would enjoy a pirate ship. We bought one last week (Craigslist), and he loves it! It comes with some additional boats, sea creatures, and Hook's Island (with a place to hide a treasure chest). And of course a lot of pirates. He'll grab two pirates and create a conversation between them: "Oh no, I'm falling!" "Wait for me, I'll save you!" "I'm going to hit you with my sword and knock you off the ship!"

And even though I explained to him that this is Drew's toy too, he just isn't too excited about Drew playing with it. Many times I've found it in the bathroom.....he sees Drew going near it and he'll pick it up and carry it off. He knows Drew can't get into the bathroom to find it!

A few funnies.....

I hardly post anything funny that Grant says.....he's constantly saying things that either surprise me ("how did he know about that?") or make me laugh, and I write them in my little notebook as often as I can. Here are a few just from today that I thought were funny/insightful:

- Dean was off today from work, so we did some errands this morning and stopped to get a pizza from Little Caesars on the way home. Dean went inside to pick up the pizza, and when he came out, Grant said, "when I'm a daddy, I can go in there." Dean replied back something like, "don't let that be your motivation!"

- He's been on this "when I'm a daddy" kick lately......this afternoon we were playing at the house and Grant said, "when I'm a daddy, I can teach Drew how to give big spankins." (And by the way, Grant sees me slap Drew on the hand when he hits or throws something. So now Grant takes it upon himself to discipline Drew....slapping his hand, counting to three and threatening Drew with spankings when he misbehaves. He's trying to be helpful and he thinks he's a big boy....and the funny thing is that Drew actually seems to enjoy being disciplined by his big brother!).

- Lately Drew has been acting silly.....making funny noises at the table, dancing to every song he hears, etc. He was acting funny upstairs tonight and Grant was laughing at him like he typically does. Then Grant looked at me and said, "Drew makes me smile."

Three, going on twenty-three

A few weeks ago Grant would resist if/when I tried to get him to wear his backpack into or out of school. "No! It's too heavy, Mommy! You carry it!" But he must have noticed some big kids wearing backpacks, and now all of a sudden he thinks it's really cool. I'm so accustomed to carrying it now that I usually never even ask him....but today we were halfway to the door of his school when he said, "I want to wear my backpack!"

And my goodness....he's still completely obsessed with my iPod, constantly asking me where it is and asking if he can bring it to me (even after I tell him it's in my pocket). I mean, this lasts all day long....he asks about it probably, on average, once every hour while he's awake (and while we're at home).

I bought some iPod protectors at WalMart recently, and the package came with a little piece of paper that looks just like an iPod. He stuck it inside one of my extra protectors, and wow....I had visions of what to expect my little boy to look like in 12 years! He wanted to wear his backpack, and he walked around pretending to type and push buttons. He was so very proud of himself! He referred to it as "my iPod" and it was perfect because it took his attention away from mine. Unfortunately, one day he really made me mad when we were in the car, and later that day I found his iPod on the floor of the van. Still angry from earlier in the day, I threw it in the trash! But its original thrill must have worn out anyway (he's usually obsessed with something like this for a few days, then he's on to something else), because he has never mentioned anything about it since.



And by the way, he is always clarifying to me that he's a big boy (when I mention something to him about being a sweet little boy, or something like that). He'll correct me and tell me that Drew's little, but "I'm the big brother." When we pass elementary schools, he'll say "I'm gonna go to a school like that when I'm bigger." It's interesting seeing him develop a sense of where he belongs....he's definitely bigger than Drew, but he's not as big as those kids at the "big kid" school!