It's been a year already?!??

Aside from the fact that I remembered I had a blog, I also remembered the password. 

Much has happened this past year.   The completion of student teaching resulted in my long-awaited, well-deserved, and most definitely hard-earned Bachelor of Science degree in Elementary Education.  Whoot! Whoot! And so now... I am officially licensed to teach in my home state of Pennsylvania.

 I did alot of DIY projects during the past year.  One that I'm particularly pleased with is our kitchen counter re-do.  Our kitchen counters were a dark green color with swirls intended to make them look like marble (not so much):

And while in hindsight, that photo doesn't look terrible, I really, REALLY hated them.  I felt like it made the whole kitchen so...dark.  After reading (stalking) many other blogs on the process of redoing countertops, I set out to do my own. 

First, I took our hand sander and sanded the entire surface of the counters.  My main goal during this process was to take away the shine. 

Second, I primed the countertops using a paintbrush.  I gave the countertops three coats, allowing for 24 hours drying time between each. 

Third, I wasn't brave enough to paint the countetops with several different colors/coats to mimic a marble finish.  So, I opted to use a stone finished spray paint. I used American Accents in a tan color with black, white, and brown speckles.  I really LOVED how this turned out.  If I have any regrets, it's that I didn't go with a darker brown.  The cap on my spraypaint (I used 4 cans) indicated a tan color, however, the end result is more of a gray. Nevertheless, it's a 100% improvement over the green, so I'll take it!  Of course, I taped plastic around my basecabinets and backsplash (probably the biggest pain in the process):

 Then I put 3 good coats of pain on top of my primer, again allowing 24 hours between coats. 

Fourth, I used a clear polyacrylic in a semi-gloss finish to seal and protect my counters.  Otherwise, you would be unable to wipe them or get water on them.  I went through 1 quart: painting, drying 24 hours (with fan blowing directly on them), until my polyacrylic was gone.  I gave it another 48 hours (to be safe) before I placed any of my items back on my counters.  I placed felt on some of the larger items that I was afraid might scratch or adhere to the tops the first week (microwave, coffee pot, plate holder).  

Close ups of the color:

Final product.  Wish the lighting was better

 in the picture, because it truly looks great in person!