Colored Walls and Dishwashers

I got home Thursday night feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work we have to do until our little kitchen party in two weeks, so I pulled a very consultant-y move and made a to do list with owner and priority. Since a lot of the jobs are big, poor Andrew has to own most of them.

All my backsplash samples were delivered while I was out of town so I finally made a decision! We are going to go with the American Olean Vaughn Gloss tiles from Lowe's, which are only $7/sq ft, keeping the total for the backsplash under $200.

On the right!

If we had Best Buy install the dishwasher it would have cost $200 so we decided to save the money and do it ourselves. We needed some help, so we bribed Claire and Cody with dinner on Friday night in return for help with the installation. 

It felt good to check one big thing off the to-do list so I was up early Saturday morning to keep the progress rolling. Since I decided on the backsplash, I headed to my favorite supplies store to pick out a paint color. My mom sent me recommendations so I had an idea of what I wanted before going to the store.

I have learned my lesson from too many painting disasters so I played it safe and bought samples of Lido Green and Bath Salts to bring home and test on the wall.

Lido Green on the left, Bath Salts on the right

Andrew and I both really liked Bath Salts (cool name, right?) so we headed back to the store and bought a gallon so I could start painting. While we were there, we also bought a gallon of paint stain for the outdoor patio furniture. Although I would love to buy a new patio set, our bank account needs a rest so a new coat of paint will have to work.

Before

Test!

It was a quick job to paint the table and chairs, so while I did that Andrew ripped out the chain linked fence. We will eventually replace the fence as well, but removing it completely makes the yard one step closer to not being so depressing.

After - better, right?

We spent Saturday night completing the trim in the kitchen to guarantee we could finish the kitchen painting on Sunday afternoon.

We were up early Sunday morning to run the Philly Rock & Roll Half marathon. This was our second year running it but the first time we had ever run a longer race together. Andrew pushed me the whole run so it was a great training run for the November Philly Marathon.

After the race.. I was feeling rough

We headed home from the race ready to finish up the kitchen (yes, we are insane). While I painted, Andrew installed our under cabinet lighting - one more big item on our to do list.

Painting in my JT shirt, obvi

It was a really productive afternoon, ending with a colorful kitchen! I was afraid of breaking away from my fifty shades of gray but I think it will be really beautiful with the backsplash (we are installing it next weekend!).