I never showed you guys how our kitchen turned out. It had the original 1994 Magic Chef appliances and I hated the old two compartment chipped white sink and 4 inch ceramic tile counter tops.

I decided to put in laminate counter tops instead of granite or Corian etc. to save money. It cost $3000, and good thing we saved that $3000 - $5000 over the expensive choices because then Mr. Troutbend lost $4000 gambling on the 'free' Mexican cruise.

I love my 'new' kitchen. The laminate has a texture like stone and picks up the color of the paint on the walls very nicely. We matched it to what was already on the walls because we didn't want to make it more of a project than it needed to be.

After:


During with Buddy the Handy Man Cat:



Before:


Mr. Troutbend did most of the work - ripping out, installing the new sink and dishwasher, so we saved a lot there, plus not having to deal with handymen. The whole project took about four weeks, and 3 of that was waiting for the counter top installers to come and do the installation once we had the appointment.

The only thing I might have done different would be to get a white sink instead of stainless because the minerals in the tap water leave a lot of spots if we don't wipe down the surfaces all the time.