And last, but equally exciting

Today I found the ULTIMATE find.
As many of you know, I'm redoing our kitchen myself, on a shoestring.

It all started with replacing a window with a larger window

Followed by creating an island

and finally painting our cabinets (which I just realized I forgot to post about, so I guess I will post that tomorrow) and adding hardware.

I had priced a butcher block counter top for the island.

Home Depot: $2,500 minimum
The Butcher Block Company: About $300, but free shipping

Today I went to Ikea and checked out their wood counter tops.

It was going to be around $195.00 for a bigger piece than we needed. We'd have to cut it down, then stain it if we wanted to. Score... saving over $100! Nice.

Then I walked in the next room and saw it... a display of table tops... and right in the middle, a butcher block style table top. for... get this... $79. No joke.
I measured it and it was a little bigger than we needed, but would work in the kitchen (or we could cut it down if we wanted to). So tonight JR and I headed out to Ikea to pick that bad boy up! And it's AWESOME.

Right now it's just sitting on the island, b/c the island is nowhere near done (I thought I had $300 to budget for, so i stopped working on it!), but here's an idea of what it looks like... on my cell phone... in the dark LOL







And if you recall, the paint for the island was free, as was the primer. The base was free on the side of the road. The hardware was around $12, the top was $86 with tax, and the beadboard was about $19.00, So that makes the grand total of our island
somewhere around $120.00. Not too shabby for an entire island!