House tour: kitchen & dining area.

I’ve done a lot of posts lately about my kitchen update, so this part of the “virtual tour” might be a bit redundant. {You can see the first post – the living room – here.}

Let’s take in the awesome before shots…

This duck head with the red eyes freaked me out so much…even worse than the rusted sink!

And now for the after shots with all the updates we’ve made including: removing cabinets for new appliances, enlarging the doorway, buying stainless steel appliances, painting cabinets, leaving some cabinets as open shelving, painting & stenciling the floor, cutting/sealing/installing Ikea butcher block countertops, buying low-divide undermount sink, creating a glass mosaic backsplash, sewing some curtains, and putting up a vintage plate wall. {Whew!} That all brings us to what our kitchen and dining area looks like now…

I love this sink. It’s so easy to wash big pans and cookie sheets. Love it.

{We still have to figure out the best way to fill in the missing floor boards from when we opened doorway. We’ll probably get new floors for the kitchen someday and carry it a bit into the doorway.}

And two comparison shots to conclude…

Lots of hard work went into this space & I’m really please with the end result. :)

Better after.

Oh boy do I love me some good before & after photos. One of my favorite blogs for eye-candy is www.betterafter.net. So you can imagine how fun it is for me to see my own kitchen re-do on Lindsey’s website! :)

Thanks for the feature, Lindsey!  I’m proud to be among the awesomely awful before pics! ;)

Our kitchen update was featured.

The national marketing manager for Woodcraft {the store where I purchased my butcher block sealer} contacted me a couple days ago to ask if he could feature our kitchen update on his Woodcraft blog.

Long story short, here it is – Woodcraft Blog: Kitchen remodeling Butcher Block Counters with General Finishes

Fun stuff. :)

Installed butcher block countertop.

Okay, here’s a quick recap of the past three posts if you’ve missed something:

• removing old awesomely ugly bowling alley countertops
• cutting Ikea’s Numerar Oak butcher block counters
• sealing butcher block countertop

Next was the install. I wasn’t home for this part, but I know my neighbor/kitchen contractor used “L” brackets for the countertops and silicone seal for the faucet hole and the sink. Oh, and he commented on the sealer on the counters, saying they would make a great boat they’re sealed so well. :)

P.S. sorry the pictures are low quality. By the time I got home and able to take pics of the kitchen, it was getting dark outside so the photos are pretty dark too.

As I mentioned, I already love my sink! It’s an undermount, low divide stainless steel sink from MR Direct that I snagged for $188.89 with the drain baskets and shipping. The low divide makes it ridiculously easy to wash large pans and big items {like high chair trays.} ;)

My neighbor’s going to come back and fill in our cabinets where the stove is and also raise up the stove to countertop height.

So far I really like our faucet {bought it at Menards for under $50 if I remember correctly.}

It has two different pressure options and it pulls out to spray…

Next is our backsplash…yay!

Sealing butcher block counters.

Moving on with the butcher block countertop process {see how we removed our old boomerang counters & cut the Ikea Numerar Oak butcher block here}, I stopped by a local woodworking store {Woodcraft of Dayton} to purchase Waterlox sealer for the butcher block. While I was there, a super helpful & knowledgeable employee explained a different option to me. Every blog I’ve read about DIY butcher block used Waterlox, and I haven’t read of a different option anywhere; however, the employee explained that General Finishes Enduro-Var was a better option. It’s water-based and gives the same result that Waterlox would, except it dries in just 2 hours for re-coating, as opposed to Waterlox’s 24 hours. Also, it has less toxic fumes. With my short timeline and little one breathing in the kitchen, using General Finishes’ product was a risk I was willing to take.

That risk paid off. So far I absolutely love the Enduro-Var sealer. I finished 9 coats {four on the bottom, five on the top, and 9 total on all edges} in just two days. That would have taken me over 4 times as long with Waterlox. Plus, it didn’t smell toxic at all. I felt completely safe letting the little one play in the next room while I was sealing the counters. It went on very smooth and left no streaks. {Love it.}

I used three different sand papers, with that blue sheet being barely rough at all. I would just rub over the counters between every coat except the first {I used the rougher sandpaper after the first coat.}

Also, the brushes I bought at Woodcraft were fabulous.

I picked the “Gloss,” and I love the shine. :)

Next is the install. So close!

Cutting the butcher block.

Let me start by saying I have a really awesome neighbor. He owns “Cabinet Transformations of Ohio” and so when I invited him to look at our kitchen and hear our plans, he jumped on board! He took the lead with helping us remove our boomerang counters, cut and fit our new counters, and he’s coming back to connect our sink and install the new counters soon.

Eugene and his sister took a trip to Ikea and bought two 96” pieces of Numerar Oak butcher block countertops for $169 each. {We actually bought another smaller piece just in case, but we didn’t end up needing it.} We left the wood slabs in our kitchen for a week or so to adjust to the temperature/humidity of our room.

Once our counters were gone {hallelujah!}, our neighbor laid the butcher block on the cabinets, measured, lined them up, and traced the sink template onto the wood…

And just for kicks, here’s a sneak peak at my beloved sink…

I’ve never been so excited over a sink! It’s an undermount, low divide stainless steel sink from MR Direct that I snagged for $188.89 with the drain baskets and shipping. Oooh, aaaah. :)

Once my neighbor drew his template line for the sink, he drilled starter holes in each corner…

Next, he carefully cut slightly inside the line…

Once he got close to completing the round sink cut, he got really smart and screwed on this small board onto the piece of butcher block that would be falling inside the cabinet…

So when he finished the last cut, the board kept all in place so he could easily remove it without a big crash. {So smart!}

The only thing I would have done differently in this whole process would be to remove everything from under my sink. Sawdust mess!

Next up, he used this handy-dandy sander to patiently sand the slightly jagged edges back to the line he drew using the template…

{How sweet is this dusty action shot!}

It took him a little while to get it all sanded evenly and to the line, but when he finished, it looked fabulous!

After that, his next step {along with help from his son} was to cut & piece together the remaining pieces of counters…

You can see the pieces joined with screws and wood glue here. I didn’t go with a diagonal cut after some recommendations from other contractors. they all said it was nearly impossible to get it to fit perfectly and sealed well. The kitchen {and it’s existing cabinets} are far from perfect, so the straight cuts were just fine for us.

My neighbor also rounded the edges on the sink hole and sides of the counters…

Next up, sanding & sealing!