Pink Countertops, Begone!!!

I can't be more excited than to share how well the countertop transformation came out. When we bought the house, it had a lot of pink. We were able to get rid of a lot, but the rest is stuff that could cost us a lot of money to replace - i.e. our pink counters. For our kitchen we need to remove the linoleum floor, remove the wallpaper, paint and tile the backsplash. We had talked about getting granite now, but we eventually want to redo the kitchen and just don't have the funds for an entire new kitchen right now. I came across Countertop Transformation which is available at Lowes for $250. It comes with a lot stuff, but you will need to buy other things such as specific paint rollers, painter's tape, paint trays, etc. You must watch the DVD that comes with it to really understand the work that goes into it. I did our counters the day before we left for a week's vacation because you need a full 7 days for it to cure. Here are pics of our kitchen before.

The first night, I had to sand down the countertops with a diamond embeded sanding tool, basically scrapping off all the gloss. After that I painted each section with the black bonding paint, followed by the wetting agent, which was pretty much a glue. After the glue came the decorative chips that you spray all over (with a special contraption) covering all the black. This needs to sit for 12 hours/overnight to set/dry. This is what it looked like that night.

The next morning I had to sand down the decorative chips again, vaccuum everything up, then applied the gloss. After this we left for vacation and came home to brand new countertops!! They look amazing. I'm so happy with how they came out and can't wait to do the rest of the kitchen.

Next up is adding drywall to the holes in our walls that was covered by pink formica, followed by glass tile backsplash.

April, already!

I can't believe it's been so long since I've last posted. I guess mostly it's because I didn't know what to write about and now today I realized how much I could have written! So, this might be a long post.

Within the last 2 weekends we removed all the shrubs and bushes from the front and side of the house. I was in a lot of pain for about 4 days, which was a bit odd to me especially since it was my hamstrings. I didn't have this pain last year when we ripped out the entire backyard! Here is the house with full bushes (and snow).

Here is the house with no bushes!Here is the beginning of the retaining wall

The retaining wall is all done and we filled it with dirt. Now we just have to get some flowers and plants to fill it in. I'm excited to have Spring and Summer colors in front of the house! I just need to find nice ones that are shade only since the front of our house gets no sun.

After the retaining wall was finished, we cut off two large branches from the tree in our backyard. It's a dying tree that doesn't offer any type of shade. It's really an eyesore more than anything and we plan to have it taken down completely. By removing these two branches we will have less mess and bird poop on our furniture.

I love doing this house work. Next up is doing the countertop transformation in our kitchen and refinishing the tub in the bathroom upstairs. No more pink is on the horizon!

Jets lose :(

Well, the Jets aren't the AFC Champions, the Colts took it this year. It was a great season for the Jets and it's a shame they weren't able to go on. I'm not much of a football fan, but love when a NY team gets into the playoffs.

Last night we headed to Bar Americain (one of Bobby Flay's restaurants) and OMG it was absolutely delicious. I have been to a few other well known chef restaurants and haven't been impressed at all. Totally overrated which is why I've been hesitant to try others. We ventured last night and we were very impressed. I shared the dish of the day (cheesesteak minus the bread) with my sister and had the hot potato chips with blue cheese. YUM! She had the crab cake for an appetizer and the cauliflower as a side. Ken had oysters for an appetizer and the southern baked chicken. Rachele had the red snapper. Everyone loved their dishes. We all had room for dessert and I had the apple tart, Ken had the pistachio soufle and Rachele and Danielle had the crepes with nutella and bananas. WOW. The food really was just out of this world. I can't wait to try his Mesa Grill when we go toVegas!

We started to really plan what we want to do with the house this year and we'll be making final decisions on everything within the next month. I just really want to get our kitchen in order! I need more counter space!

Last week I had my second IDGA conference, which was a great success. We had an issue with the room since we had more people than we expected so it was a tight squeeze. People were very happy with the speakers and content so overall it was a great success. Looking forward to my next one next month!

Tomorrow marks halfway through the month!

I can't believe how good I've been with my eating. It's like I used to be and I'm so happy! Looks like I'm back to the old me of good food! I mean, it did help that I made a lot of soup too, but anyway. I'm glad I got the grossness out of my system and started eating better again. I did miss it!

I got my last grade for class this past semester and I ended up with two A-s. Not a bad semester in my book. I would have prefered As but I'm not going to complain.

So far with my 8 hours of sleep a night, I haven't done well except on weekends. I'm close to it so I can't be to harsh on myself.

Tuesday I celebrated 8 years (being boyfriend/girlfriend) with my husband. We don't do anything now since we celebrate our wedding anniversary but it was a real surprise when Ken came home from work with a dozen red roses! I was shocked and so thrilled! It was really a nice surprise. In exchange, I heated him up a bowl of homemade minestrone!

I think I've read about 3 books this year so far. I'm excited that Heather has started up bookclub again because I feel many of the books I read for pleasure are all about murder mystery and you don't really need to think about them much after. The next book we'll be reading is The Age of Innocence. I'm excited about it because I had to read it in high school, but I never really focused on it. It was made into a movie, which I saw, but I just didn't care about it. Now I'd like to read the book and watch the movie again. I know at this age I'd appreciate it more.

Today I made a donation to the Red Cross to the Haiti earthquake relief. It's absolutely devastating to see what happened there. I had emailed our local Red Cross to see if there was a collection being done in terms of food, water and clothing but haven't heard back yet. One of our neighboring towns is a heavily Haitian populated area so I'm aware of churches collecting donations. There are plenty of things I know we can purchase for these people who have seen too much devastation and destruction. Buying things like water and canned soup is the least I can be doing for them.

Week one in 2010 complete!

This week flew by, but it dragged on. I didn't even know something like this could happen but it did. The first week of 2010 wasn't too bad. My goals for the year are well under way. Obviously I'm not jumping into all at once, but have started working on a few.

Work this week was definitely a struggle. Not so much that I had just come back from vacation, but I felt as though this should have been a productive week, making my deadline Friday and I am currently nowhere near it. I feel like I did so much for this week and accomplished nothing. I'm hoping Monday is much better than this past week. I definitely need it!

I made so much food this weekend - chili and 2 soups - I have no more containers left to store anything! Anyone have any spares or want to come over for dinner?

I have a lot to look forward too this month and I'm excited about it. Tuesday marks 8 years with my husband. Not as husband and wife but since the day we were exclusive. I can't believe it's been 8 years already! I'll also be back in DC for a big conference in which I'm very excited about. I'll also get to see Kristi again! (Now that I'm in the new division, I get to see her at least once a month since I'm in DC which is fabulous!) We have our work team build at Medieval Times at the end of the month, a baby shower, a day in the city seeing the Museum of Natural History. Lots of things to look forward too!

Until next time.

Just about done with day 4 of 2010

Tomorrow marks three months since my 30th birthday. Holy crap that went fast! I still can't believe how fast 30 got here, not that I have an issue with getting older but that life is flashing by in a blink. I've decided I wanted a way to record my thoughts and memories so that I can reflect back on them 10 years down the road. So with my first post, I plan on listing out what I would like to accomplish in 2010 since there are only 360 days left!

1. Cook with fresh herbs. I've done a lot with dried herbs, but know that fresh herbs are so different so I'm excited to starting including them in my dishes.
2. Be more patient. I am one of the most impatient people and it's really not a good quality to have; so I've decided to work on that quality.
3. Make on new soup each month.
4. Spend more time with my husband. We have time together while we're at home, but never enough us time whether it's because one of us are on the computer or something else. I'm going to make the effort to spend more time focused to him (as I sit here typing and he just got home from work).
5. Get 8 or more hours of sleep a night. I think I might keep a running tally of how many days a week I go to bed at an hour that will give me 8 hours. Mostly during the week it's hard to keep up, but I know it's something I can do. I've done it before!
6. Get active again! I had a personal trainer for a few months and while he did help me become stronger I laxed on days I didn't meet with him and get so winded lately.
7. Take a cake decorating class.

I think a list of 7 is a great number to start with. I'm sure I'll add more as the year goes on. Til next time folks!