Ardex countertop...my kitchen remodel on a budget...

I've been so busy the last couple of weeks, so much is going on in our family life right now. And in the middle of it I'm trying to tackle a budget (very tight budget) kitchen remodel and doing all the work myself because hubby is working 60 hours a week in the next state over. So here we are at the before photo. I have removed the rotten warped back splash and replaced it with wood boards screwed to the wall. I also removed the two strips of vinyl from the front edges of the counter since they were peeling off anyway. 

This is where I used to have three broken drawers that had been repaired over and over only to rebreak shortly after because of the practical board poor quality of the surrounding wood. Well I ripped those out in favor of a tilt out trash bin, which I adore (and wich will look better when I get finished painting everything) It is so handy right next to the sink and stove and the trash can is no longer out on the kitchen floor where it was almost always overflowing cause no one would empty the darn thing. Now it always gets emptied because it won't close when it's too full, lol.

You can see a tiny shot of what my drawers looked like before in the circled area above. I didn't go by any specific plan for building the tilt out bin, I just looked at how they were made and made my own to fit the space with hinges at the bottom.

But enough of that, back to the ardex countertop...

Next I removed the old drains from the sink and replaced them since they were old and leaking under the sink, not good.

This is the area to the right of the stove. See that long counter to the far right, it is also our bar and we have room on the other side to place our bar stools. There used to be another set of cabinets above that bar. We ripped those out because they blocked everything, they had ugly mirrored doors wich allowed anyone in the living room to see all the foods in those cabinets and just generally were ugly and in the way, say bye bye, and I haven't regretted that one for a second.

Ok, ok, I'll get back to the Ardex...

So I've seen so many tutorials online and they are all so helpful and exciting to see. I was so inspired I went looking for Ardex and as luck would have it there was actually an Ardex dealer in my town! Score! I bought it for $22 a bag and bought two bags cause I have a lot of counter to cover. A mixing bowl, some glove, Ardex, and water are pretty much all you need to get started...

Mixed to pancake batter like consistency. Really glad I made it like this cause it did set up pretty good by the time I finished the counters to the left of the stove around the sink.

One coat down and I can't wait to see how this turns out...

I chose to do the trowel in different directions and didn't concentrate too much on making perfectly flat layer. I'm going to the more artistic textural style even though it will be fairly smooth when I'm done. 

The edges are a bit tricky we shall see how this goes.

This is the counter bar to the right of the stove. I also have a smaller counter on the other side of the room that I'm doing as well.

I did all this yesterday and this morning they are dry and ready to sand, though I'm not going crazy on the sanding, just enough to knock down the highest ridges

Today is the second coat...I'll update when I'm done.