DIY Monday: Our new kitchen backsplash

This is a little late but since yesterday was a holiday for me, I am posting this today.

We had an extremely busy weekend. In addition to interviewing potential candidates to be JOE's nanny, we decided to tackle the task of doing our kitchen back-splash. 

We bought the materials a few months ago and its been sitting in our basement. We figured it was an easy enough task to do. That proved to be a bit of a challenge. The actual task took about 8-hours on Saturday. Then on Sunday, it took another 3-hours to grout and clean the tiles. On Monday, we decided to tackle around the outlets and that took another 2-hours. 

Overall, we love the way it turned out and it adds a little more character to our kitchen. We are happy we did it and even though we encountered some challenges along the way, it was well worth the money we saved if we had hired someone to do it. 

So here's the before picture. We took out the outlet covers and covered up the gas range.

Materials for the backsplash.

Yay!!! We're half way there...yay!!! living on a prayer! At this point, we were praying we would be able to figure out how to tackle around the outlets.

Mostly done.

All done.

YIKES! We have to cut glass tiles to put around those areas. I feel like even the outlets are saying "oh oh!"

JOE letting us know she likes the new kitchen backsplash.

Expertise needed: Well, seeing as how we have never done anything like this before, I guess ANYONE can do it.
Total Approximate Time: 13-hours. I thought it'll take us no more than 4-6 hours for such a small space. Boy, was I wrong!
Total spent on materials: These are glass tiles and were being discontinued by Home Depot so it was deeply discounted. We took everything they had just incase we needed more than we measured...we accounted for mistakes. With materials and everything, it cost approximately $260 for everything.
Feedback: J & I are starting to catch our strides as far as doing more DIY together. It used to be that we'd argue the entire way through about how to do it but now, we each let each other work based on their strengths and we agree to work as a team. We really love the way it turned out and are now thinking about doing around our fireplace. I think we just might. I am scouting Pinterest for ideas.

Current fireplace:

Possible fireplaces:

I like this but the tiles look a little too similar to our kitchen tiles. I would love to paint the mantle a darker color but I am afraid it might darken the room. 

Using stones for the fireplace as opposed to tiles. If we do this, we'll have to get it professionally done. I don't think J & I can tackle the task of cutting the stones to precision. I do like stone fireplaces though. Originally, we were going to stone it all up but we are not sure we want that.

Another idea. I liked the additional accent stones around the fireplace. It kinda frames it. 

We are still undecided on this task and will likely paint some more around the house before we come back to this one. I'll post an update when we make a decision. 

Update on nanny search:

We are still looking for a nanny. We were hoping to make an offer to someone today but so far, she's been MIA and hasn't been able to provide her references. That's a concern for J & I so we're back to the drawing board. 

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers. It is VERY MUCH appreciated.