when you care enough to spend the very least

i'm a cheapskate.  i scour thrift stores.  ebay is a resource beyond measure.  craigslist is a gods send.  so when it was oh so well past the time to replace the counter tops in the kitchen, i freaked. 

the beginning estimates were at HUNDREDS of dollars.  and that was just for cheap laminate.  granite?  in the thousands.  concrete.....  i didn't even ask.  so i sucked it up.  i told myself that the counters weren't that bad, that they would last.  after all, they weren't falling apart, the were just stained and nasty.  so when hubby and i were walking through the home improvement mega box store, we happened upon this little can of stuff called "counter paint".  *insert angelic choir here* 

at twenty bucks, it was a vast improvement over replacing the counters all together.  so i figured why not.  if it works, great, if it doesn't i'm only out a twenty.  so we brought it home, and this morning, i tried it out. 

IT WORKS!!!  oh my gods it works! the color isn't exactly what i wanted (i was hoping for darker than it turned out), but it's a HELL of a lot cheaper!  hurray for diy!!!  

here are some before and after shots:

wide before shot

nasty stain 1

nasty stain 2

wide after shot

where nasty stain 1 used to be



 it needs another coat, and like i said, i wish it was darker, but to be honest, i love my counters more now than i did this morning. 

cheapskates FTW!!!!