kitchen countertops

Our existing red formica countertops were cute, but there just wasn't enough room for what we needed in the kitchen and we really had our hearts set on warm wood counters. First was the big trip up to Ikea (twice) to purchase the Numerar counters in Oak. Then cut the notch that would sit around the existing 2x4 that we were leaving in place as a threshold into the new space and then many coats of tung oil....4 I believe.Once the long piece was in and secure, we had to tackle the removal of the orignal formica on the other side. We really held off on this because it meant no sink while we made the cuts, applied the coats of tung oil and moved it into place. While we had the countertop out we could finally take off the fake plastic tile backsplash and install the tin pieces we had salvaged out of the basement. A previous owner had put tin ceiling up in the basement and when we rebuilt the basement stairs we had to tear down the tin....so we flattened it out, sanded it, primed it and painted it white for our backsplash.