Kitchen Renovation - Day 28: The Day of Granite

It has arrived.  And it's pretty awesome, and actually exactly what I imagined... which never happens.  I was pretty nervous about it, and I'm still adjusting to the counter with the floor, but I think it looks good.  I'll have to sleep on it.

The installers working hard....

I guess it took them about 2.5 hours to install it.  It was three separate pieces, plus the pieces for the back splash.  So we only have one seam on the actual counter, which isn't too bad.

Yea, we still need the dishwasher in. Don't judge us, if you miss it you can see it here, almost in the living room.

Huge peninsula. And you can see the TV from the end of it. You couldnt' see the TV from any of the counters. I can't wait to use it.

Oh and check out the breakfast bar.  It's little, but its all we need and I'm psyched to go on the search for the perfect stools!

And a full(ish) view of the kitchen.

Oh, and maybe a gratuitous shot of the sweet new sink, just for kicks.

Not sure what's next, but you may have noticed the pile of paint swatches on the counter... so yea, we're in the process of trying to figure out what to do there... :)

Kitchen Renovation - Counter Template

The counter has been templated. Or however you want to say it.  I wasn't home, but B informed me they brought in a LASER to template it.  A little more high tech than the pieces of wood glued together that we saw in the video when we went to pick out our slab, that's for sure.

So here's the laser:

Apparently he shot to laser each direction, and everything is computerized.  We're getting about 47 feet of granite.  B was talking to the guy that was doing the measuring, and apparently he just came from a house where he measured 100 feet of granite! And get this... the granite the woman was having installed, $183 a square foot!  Yea, I think you can all handle the math on that one.  It sure makes our 47 square feet, at $50 something a square foot seem cheap!!

And I guess this is what M did all day...

Yea, she's lazy.

B is going to call tomorrow to ask when they will be installing the counters, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for a surprise quick turnaround!  But not too quick...since I still need to get around to priming the walls...

Kitchen Renovation - Picking Granite

I'm a bad blogger.

I remembered the camera, but not the memory card.  Oops.

But trust me, its for the best.  Today, was not our finest moment.  Everything started off okay, we got up on time, were out the door on time.  The GPS wanted us to go a silly way that didn't make sense after what we had looked at online, so we ignored it until it agreed with us.  We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts (cause what is a morning road trip with some ice coffee?), we felt like we were making good time.

The warehouse we had to go to is about an hour and fifteen minuets from our house in the next state, so a little bit of a hike, but we weren't too worried about it.  That is, until the GPS went into a crazy vortex of mind-messing hell.  Telling me to exit the highway when there's no where to go, saying to turn left when the image is showing right, recalculating the route every two seconds, after it tells me to take a non-existent exit.  I couldn't figure out where it thought we were, or where it wanted to us to go.  Stupid technology.

Then, B made that face.  Yea, for the first time since I've met him, he got a little car sick.  Thank goodness for a messy car, as he was able to grab a bag.

We arrived, about 20 minutes late.  Walking in, the "warehouse" was really nice, with a front reception area that rivals that of a high end hotel.  Taking a seat to wait for our opportunity to head out back, we checked out a video on the flat screen TV that shows the processes the granite slabs go through before they reach your kitchen/bathroom, etc. which was pretty neat.  The walls were covered in about 3 foot samples of the variety of different granite varieties the company has.

Shortly, we were taken out back to the actual warehouse, by a girl in high heels...ooookay.  We found the type we had chosen, known as Ubatuba (which is just fun to say).  The high heel girl went to grab a cloth to wipe the slab down.  We looked at the slab.  We looked at each. We both sort of shrugged, and B said, "Yea, that's fine."

High heel girl was all, that's it? that's the one you want? WOW, some people take hours!

She slapped a sticker on it to reserve it for us, B confirmed it was big enough for the crazy amount that we need for our counters, we went back out front, signed some forms, and were out the door.  In less than 10 minutes.

Maybe we should have looked at some more slabs, but really, it was fine.  Was there something else we should have been looking for?  Should we have asked to see endless samples? (Our designer at Lowe's said she had gone back THREE TIMES to pick out the perfect one.)  Maybe we should have seen more, but frankly, we're not picky, and it looked good to us.  Hopefully we won't regret our quick decision.  We're just glad to be one step closer.

Also, am I the only one who finds it ironic that we had to leave our state, The Granite State, and travel so far to pick out our granite?