Taking on a major renovation can cause an immense amount of stress on a family. There are countless decisions involved, so many different moving parts (and people!), not to mention the mess. Having tackled every renovation you can imagine in a home, I firmly believe the kitchen is the hardest of all. It’s the heart of the home, and when the heart is having, well, open heart surgery, let’s say, it’s life or death.

Okay, maybe I’m being a bit dramatic. Can you tell we’re in the middle of one right now? The surgeon contractor (Jon) has his hands on the heart tile saw, it’s pumping, but barely taking forever and there’s blood disaster everywhere. I mentioned before that moving is a trigger for divorce. You know what else is? Remodeling. Seriously. It’s hard to agree on all of the design decisions, find room in the budget for the big ticket items (what you planned for and worse, unexpected costs) and the displacement that comes with it, too. So many moving parts. As we tackle our own kitchen reno, I thought it might be helpful for us to share some big decisions we made and why, the hard parts along with tips to get you through it, and some before and afters for you to pick apart, see what you’d do differently, enjoy. Today we’re tackling the top(s)!

In our last post we went through all of the different materials we’ve used for countertops in the past. ICYMI: we’ve tried everything from granite to marble, even quartz. Our last home had quartz counters and I was so unhappy with them I vowed I’d never go with quartz again. Thank goodness I found out more about Cambria. Many of you have asked us about it since I’ve been sharing some behind the scenes videos on social media. Here are some fun facts:

*Cambria quartz is made right here in the USA – a huge bonus for Jon and me and to be honest, one of the biggest motivators of our decision. They’re also a family owned business, as is Busch Products, the distributor. As a member of a family-owned business myself, I love supporting people like us with good values, strong work ethic, and truly knowledgeable and nice. It’s rare you get that combo and a great product to boot.

*Non-porous and non-absorbent. Here’s where quartz lost me at the last house. As it turns out, our non-Cambria quartz was sub-par (we didn’t know there was a difference, we thought quartz was quartz. Not the case.) and it was made with a bad blend of materials. Our island sucked up every stray blueberry from our morning smoothie and was laden with permanent splashes of oil from my poor attempts at playing Barefoot Contessa in the kitchen. We tried to go with the cheaper option and it burned us in the long run. Cambria counters resist stains and actually beat out granite in every category. Speaking of granite – not knocking it for people who have it. We’ve used it and it’s something you’ll find in a lot of homes. But that’s the thing, if you’re looking to give your kitchen a refresh, it will pay dividends to go with the what’s next, rather than the expected. Buyers want to see value and this is a product that carries the name recognition and is synonymous with quality. You get what you pay for and for something that gets so much use all day every day (especially as a new mama), it’s worth it to make it count in the biggest room that sells your house. We are always for putting stock in your home – the biggest investment most people have in a lifetime!

*Designs. Our clients often comment on how decisive Jon and I are and how much we are on the same page with choices from paint colors to placement of outlets, tile and hardwood stains. We’re in sync, which is pretty good for business and even better for our marriage ;). But for some reason, when we went to Busch Products to choose our countertop design, we could not decide. We literally had to go back three times. So unlike us! Why? Too many good choices. We ultimately landed on something brand spanking new that will be the first to be installed in CNY – it’s the Berwyn matte design. Hello, pretty. It marries our painted grey cabinets with champagne bronze hardware and with swirls of that beautiful taupey blend, it will draw in our dark wood craftsman molding. Perfection. I liked that it doesn’t have a wet sheen, it’s something totally unique and very us. Our design philosophy is to find the you in your home and sprinkle it everywhere. With all of these choices, there truly is a you in this warehouse too.

Tomorrow is a day I’ve been dreaming of for weeks – it’s countertops install day! Follow along on our Insta stories and stay tuned for a time-lapse of the whole install process! What material did you use for your counters? Share with the Pack below!