kitchen makeover sooner than expected

When we moved into our home, I had a vision for what changes we could make to up the value of our house and make living in it all the more pleasant. I've always enjoyed seeing the potential in homes and have a lot of fun obsessing over it. Well, for fun, David and I went to Home Depot to price countertops. I knew that replacing our laminate countertops would be wise. However, granite was way out of our price range. We looked at Corian and Dupont and came up with a price of about $2500. Well, we were glad to have an idea of how much it would cost but were not going to be doing it anytime soon. About a week later, David gets a call from a mom whose daughter needed Latin tutoring. In exchange she offered to give us....granite counter tops!! Wow! Her husband owns a local company. We picked our granite and our counter tops have been measured. We purchased a new stainless steel sink and faucet (at Overstock.com--a really REALLY good deal). So, soon we will see a dramatic difference in our kitchen. We would have had to pay around $3 grand for these counter tops. What a deal! I have to thank the Lord who gives good gifts--way bigger and better than we expect or deserve. After the countertops, we (well, me actually) will research some backsplashes and decide whether to paint our cabinets (leaning toward yes). I'm excited to see the changes.