This is how our kitchen island has looked for the last 3 years. 

Even though we upgraded our builder laminate countertops along the perimeter, the island sat untouched. 

Over the course of the summer (in between vacations, Kindergarten preparations, swim lessons, soccer practices…and not to mention 2 ‘real’ jobs), we sporadically worked at bringing the island up to par with the rest of the kitchen.  I wanted something a little more substantial with open shelving and a butcher block countertop.  Like this…minus the TV…

Thanks to Handy Hubby and his generous woodworking friend, I scored a handmade extension for the island.  It only took them a few hours, $30 and a large pizza to finish the job.  Then the 9″ island extension sat in our basement awaiting caulk, primer and paint before being installed.  Handy Hubby caulked the seams a few weeks ago…

 …and I finally got around to priming and painting the darn thing last week.  I picked up a slab of  IKEA’s Numerar oak butcher block.  And by ‘picked up’ I mean I dragged my 2 lil’ guys to the Swedish superstore, artfully rearranged all the car seats in the Trailblazer, guilted some big-boned stranger lady into helping me lift the heavy wood slab and somehow managed to slide it across the tops of all the seats’ headrests.  (IKEA may be the reason why I drive an SUV.)  Which means last weekend Handy Hubby installed the extension AND countertop onto our builder grade kitchen island.  Man, I love that man.  Here’s what he did:

Removed the island drawers…

Removed the builder grade laminate countertop…

Scraped off some random dried paint drips from the bottom of the extension (I’m not a professional painter)…

Placed the open shelving extension…

Clamped it to the existing island…

Pre-drilled holes and screwed the extension into the existing island frame and into the floor…

Once the island was secure and checked for level height all the way around, Handy Hubby laid the butcher block on top of the island.

Luckily, the width was just right but the overhang was a bit much lengthwise.  It was about 10″ too long as-is, so out came the circular saw.

Once the countertop was cut to size, Handy Hubby sanded it then screwed it onto the island and added trim along the back side of the extension where the island meets to hide a seam…

I primed and painted the trim, screw holes and a corner piece that I missed the first time I painted the extension before it was put in place.  (When the task of finding and applying painter’s tape to the floor loomed ominously, I went with the old standby…one of my kids’ coloring books.)

And after all that, we finally have ourselves a larger, less builder-ish kitchen island!  Yippee!!

To obtain a near *waterproof* surface, I’ve been applying mineral oil in quantities larger than Betty White has ever dreamed of.  (That’s a little pharmacist humor.)

(My left hand kinda looks like E.T.’s??!)  The 10″ section of butcher block that we cut off got cut in half and sanded to make 2 custom cutting boards.  We like that we were able to use every last piece of the butcher block.  Some may find it ironic that we painted our oak cabinets white and then added an oak countertop to our island.  In fact, the oak stain of our builder cabinets was so awful that the doors didn’t match the frame and many of the doors didn’t even match each other…and they were all very orange.  Plus, 2 walls of oak cabinets was just too much for us.  The more natural wood tone of the butcher block is the small dose of warmth that we were looking for in an otherwise all white kitchen.  We’re absolutely in love with it and the price tag.  Our island upgrade came in under $250!

Check back to see the final product in its surroundings tomorrow!

If you’ve been following the adventures of House*Tweaking, you already know that we painted our builder grade oak cabinets white and added modern hardware in an effort to shake off the builder blahs.

You may also know that we’ve been saving to switch out our laminate countertops for something more durable and appealing.  Well, after months of saving up the cash and even more months of making up my mind, we have new granite countertops!

They’re Absolute Black, polished.  I went back and forth so many times between getting honed or polished.  In the end, I decided on polished.  I really don’t know what the big deal was now!  I love the polished finish.  I love to run my palms across the smooth, cool stone.  I love the way our plates and glasses clink when you set them down.  I love the natural variations within the stone…more of that imperfect perfection that makes me breathe easy.  I love how easy it is to clean.  I have 2 lil’ boys and a Handy Hubby who’s messy in the kitchen (at least, he’s in the kitchen, right?)…it is sooooo easy to wipe up at the end of the day.  Especially with an undermount sink to catch all the crumbs. 

That’s right, folks.  We upgraded our sink and faucet too.  They’re both by Kraus and we purchased them from Overstock.  They weren’t cheap but since we gave our kitchen cabinets a facelift for less than $400, we had more money to spend on the plumbing fixtures.  We decided it would be money well spent.  We seldom eat out and instead cook nearly all of our meals at home (even though I detest cooking). 

The depth of that sink is RIDICULOUS.  I could take a bath in it.  I especially like that it hides a tall pile of dirty dishes.

My nightly routine is to clean up the dishes, run the dishwasher and wipe down the countertops before going to bed.  This new faucet makes all that easier…and more fun!  It’s a single lever with a pull-out sprayer. 

Obviously, that’s not our kitchen.  But the picture demonstrates how the sprayer pulls out.  When you hit the black button on the sprayer’s head, the water sprays instead of flowing in a dense stream.  There’s a learning curve involved after having used only standard faucets and sprayers all my life.  Sometimes, I found myself looking for the sprayer and wondering where the heck it went.  “Oh!  Duh!  There you are, right on the faucet!”  It may take me a while.

We still have a little work to do in the kitchen before it’s “done”.  For one, we need a backsplash. 

We’ve got a few samples up but I’m not crazy about them no matter how far I tilt my head and look at them.  I need more time.  Handy Hubby must be itching to do a tiling project because he’s been hounding me all week to pick something.  Here’s what I’m looking at…  (The plastic wrapper is still on them; they actually have a matte finish.)

I kinda like the one in the middle but I’m afraid it may look too brown once it’s sealed.

Besides the backsplash, our island requires some TLC.  Handy Hubby has already made a 9-inch extension that needs primed, painted and installed.  Once that’s complete, we can grab up our new butcher block countertop to slap on.  OH.  And the glass front cabinet still needs addressed. 

It just needs some primer and paint inside but somehow I find a daily excuse for putting it off ’til tomorrow.  If only there were more hours in my day.

Since phase 1 of our kitchen upgrade is well under way, it’s time to start thinking about the next step.  With all the DIY and thrifting that we do around here (not to mention working), we’ve saved enough cash to replace our builder basic kitchen countertops, sink and faucet.  We’re 90% sure that the perimeter countertops (which support the sink) will get switched out to granite.  So, we also want to upgrade the sink and faucet. 

I’m really digging the undermount sinks.  They look so easy to swipe crumbs and messes into because they’re flush with the counter unlike our current top-mounted sink. 

I also like the look of a single basin (with no divider) but that wouldn’t be practical for our household.  Since we have 2 kiddos, a lot of daily dishware requires handwashing and air-drying.  I let those things air-dry in the second basin.  So, two basins it is; although they need not be the same size. 

And as for the sink material, I think a high quality, thick gauge stainless steel would suit our needs best.  (Those copper sinks are way cool but totally out of our price range!)

Here are some sinks that float my boat. 

And since we’re talkin’ sinks, how does your sink look or function?  Do you work left-to-right or right-to-left?  For those inquiring minds, I wash in the right basin, air-dry in the left basin and load my dishwasher to the right of the sink.