Because cruises are for sissies

At my last doctor’s appointment my OB informed Mike and I that our job right now is to have tons of fun as a couple before Baby Butch joins our clan. He then started talking about how long I can safely fly, travel on cruise ships, etc. And since neither Mike nor I are particularly great at following orders, we were like “Meh, that sounds great and all, but I think we’d rather demolish our whole kitchen instead.”

Apparently our idea of fun consists of pricing out cabinets and tile, debating over paint colors, and stressing out over the state of our savings account. Throw the constant hum of power tools and a very cluttered living room into the mix and the party really gets started.

In all seriousness though, it might not be the smartest idea to take on this project at a time when we should probably just be soaking up the luxuries of kid-free life, but we both figured that if living without a kitchen for a month and doing all this work feels kind of overwhelming right now, it definitely won’t be any easier when we add an infant to the equation. Plus this is something that we have been wanting to do since we first moved into our place, and we are really excited to enjoy the finished product.

So instead of spending a week lounging on the beach in Aruba, we’re going to commemorate the final months of our pre-parenthood era by transforming our outdated, inefficient kitchen into something that looks more like this (although obviously a much smaller, budget-friendly version):

We’re going for a clean, airy, modern look with a bit of fun color. Cabinets, flooring, and countertops are taken care of—now I just need to decide on the backsplash. At first I was quite taken with that glass tile in the first photo, but now I’m gravitating toward something a little more subtle, like this:

But so far I've had a hard time tracking down something similar. Anyone know of any good tile resources?

P.S.- It really needs to be said that, although I throw the term "we" around a lot in this post, Butch is the one taking on the brunt of this task. In fact, he is spending his spring break working tirelessly on it while I scamper around trying to do the stuff that doesn't require inhaling dangerous chemicals, doing any heavy lifting, or using construction skills of any kind. Which means I am pretty much in charge of running the Shop-Vac while he takes care of the important stuff. My husband's legit.