subway

once avery was born, we felt ready to begin tackling the kitchen once again.

the cabinets desperately needed some sanding + a new paint job, and as i said before, i hated the fluorescent light fixture above the sink.

so, we ripped it all out and started from scratch!

(don't mind the incredibly cluttered kitchen!!  i can't stand messes...ask danny :)

after sanding and painting, we started to tile the backsplash.  thanks to youtube, we were able to get it up quickly and without any major complications!  thank goodness for technology.  we used a simple white subway tile and i couldn't be happier with the finished result:

another one of danny's friends lent us his tile cutter!!

i'm not sure we could ever fix up a house on our own... 

the process was relatively easy...

except the tile spacers kept falling out so we kind of just had to eyeball it in some places.

during the tiling process, another one of danny's talented friends installed the perfect lights i found for our cabinets:

and once the tiles were set, we were able to grout and finish it completely.  we were a little worried, since we've never grouted anything before...but miraculously it turned out!!

one of the hardest parts for us was finding the balance between waiting long enough for it to dry...but not too long that it wouldn't come off.  luckily, we found it! it took a little bit of arm strength to wipe it clean (our my arms were definitely sore the next day...) 

but i must say, it was worth it.

glistening clean.  isn't it lovely??

next up: the first faucet installation + the cabinet renovation