New Kitchen, Spindles and Patio

In April we decided to splurge and update or kitchen...a little. I've been wanting new counter tops since we bought the house. You can't tel from the pics, but the counters are a light brown with a dried leaf pattern all over. I didn't notice it when we looked at the house, it wasn't until after we moved that I realized I had leaves all over the place; from then on it really annoyed me.
Brandon finally agreed that it was time to get rid of the lovely leaves and go for granite. WE found a great contractor who originally came out to do our patio only, but ended up doing the patio, counter tops, back splash, and replaced our stair spindles.
When the day arrived for our granite to be installed the contractor's guys came early in the morning to rip out the old Formica. Then a couple hours later the Granite arrived. I was up stairs keeping the boys and the dog out of the way when it came in, but soon ventured down to check it out. Lucky I did because they had brought the wrong granite color! I couldn't believe it. Everything had been pre-cut to fit our kitchen, but not in Tropical Brown like I wanted. They brought Baltic Brown instead!
I tried to keep my cool as I explained the these guys (who spoke limited English) that the counters they were installing were not the counters I wanted.
After getting a hold of my contractor (he had stepped out for a minute) We went round and round for an hour. He knew it was not the color I chose and some how there had been a mix up at the granite place. They really wanted me to keep the counters they brought and offered us $500 off (obviously it was an expensive mistake). I liked the Baltic Brown, but I did not like the way it looked with our white tile back splash. Since Brandon and I were sticking to a budget we had decided not to replace the back splash yet.
When I explained the situation the contractor said we could have the Tropical Brown but it would take 2 weeks before the could have it ready to be installed. Yeah right! I could not live with no counter tops for 2 weeks! Finally he agreed give us a new back splash for "free" if we kept the Baltic Brown counter tops. The whole thing ened up being a mistake in our favor. I got the back splash I wanted and didn't have to go over our budget. We love our new back splash and counter tops!



Before


After
On a funnier note. Through out the whole process the tile guy was at our house for 3 days installing our back splash. Tyler had been calling all male that he didn't know "scary guy". One day the UPS man brought a package to the door and he politely yelled "thank you scary guy!" I burst out laughing. From then on of course he thought it was funny to call all guys that. When Jose, the tile guy, came to our house Tyler said "hi scary guy". I explained to Jose that Tyler calls everyone scary guy. He thought it was cute. On the first day Tyler kept saying scary guy this, scary guy that. I finally convinced him that his name was Jose.
A week or so later they came to start our patio. Tyler looked out the window and saw the Hispanic men in the yard. He came out side with me and promptly greeted them by saying "Hi Jose!". I just about died! Thank goodness the "Scary Guy" phase is over.


Before

After

Sorry this patio picture isn't a very good representation of the whole thing. I thought I had a better picture, but could not find it. When I figure out this Mac and can find my pictures I will post what the whole patio looks like.