The Granite is in!!!!!!

Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays Granite layers from the swift completion of their appointed duties! Despite the looming storm touted to be of "Historic" proportions up to 20” were predicted, our Granite professionals appeared. They spent almost 6 hours placing and fabricating huge pieces of granite into their appropriate locations.



What you see in this first photo is our (and in their words, “very unique”) sink! You may or may not notice that the sink is elevated from the height of the general countertop. This sink is 36” wide and about 9” deep, if we were to install it in a “traditional” manor, I would be bent in half trying to do the dishes. So to avoid the need of an on-site chiropractor, we have it installed a bit taller than usual. Now to all of you less than “tall” folks, this doesn’t mean that when you are at our house you will not be put on dish duty! This height is actually a comfortable height for all! Not everyone that has come to the house and seen this are “tall”. In order to accommodate the height and the front farm house look, the granite folks had to fabricate a raised platform that is about 3- 4” tall and spans about 6 inches behind the faucet back to the Log wall. The craftsmanship is really amazing! You have to see it to really appreciate it.
Now, I will draw your attention to the faucet. Isn’t it gorgeous!! Yes you guessed it, I picked it out. I absolutely love this look.



Here in this second photo you see the cook top. Isn’t that nice and “MANLY”! Kenny picked it out. The archway that you see is going to be the stone hearth. I love the gloss and shine of this stone; it is more like a mirror than anything else. Remember this is a bump out. No matter how hard I tried these photos don’t show it but it is incredible.

Here is the Bar sink, isn't it pretty? I love the faucet. Do you see a theme here? I picked the faucets and put a lot of effort into them.

This is the corner between the stove area and the sink. Notice the bump out in the granite. They really did a great job with those.






This is an up-close view of the granite. I love the variations in the stone. There are more interesting sections as well. It is all the same stone and yet so different in some spots.

These photos really don't do the stone justice, you have to come out and see it to really appreciate what a difference it makes in the space. Most of all this stone is a whisper when you look at the kitchen space as a whole but once you are right up on any section, it speaks to you. It truly enhances the space without distracting you from the overall beauty of the kitchen. Can't wait for all of you to come out and see it in person.

Kitchn In progress

Photos, Photos and More Photos of the Kitchen in progress. I know that last photos I loaded was an overall shot of the kitchen. I am going to be loading individual photos of various elements/areas of the kitchen for a better view.

This is the overall view of kitchen from the dinning room. As you can see there are 4 cabinet doors facing the dinning room. Great for Storage things for entertaining and setting the table i.e. good silverware, plates, platters, glasses, table clothes and napkins, as well as napkin rings an other "pretty" things.

If you enter the house through the Garage, which for the record Kenny is convinced will not happen in our house (LOL), you will pass through the Mud room and into the kitchen through the arch door way from the prior photo to your left will be the Refrigerator

Here is a photo that gives you look at that section of the room including the corner that is a "created" pillar. Our Stainless Refrigerator is a GE profile, French Doors with a bottom 2 drawer freezer. We love it and it has a nice compact door water and ice maker that give us the most space inside of the ones we looked at. Typically I don't like the bottom freezers because I think there isn't enough and/or efficient storage space, however, because we will have a full standing freezer in the Garage, I felt this would provide us with enough space for our day-to-day freezer needs.

Moving right along the outside line of the kitchen, you would find the Sink area. The sink area is the only outside wall of the kitchen proper.

Here is a great shot of the Sink and the sink cabinet. First you can see we have a bay style window facing out to the front of the house. Don't think that if I am in the kitchen cooking that you will be able to sneak up on me. Second thing you might notice is that this cabinet seems to be another color, well aren't you perceptive! This is a pewter glazing finish and the Sink, stove area and bar area sport this finish. The idea is for these piece to take on a furniture style. You can see in this photo that there is a bare wood spindle attached (not really but currently just positioned) to the side of the cabinet. This is a furniture spindle that will be glazed also. Now for the big item that has me so excited. This is a Hand Hammered, Copper Farmhouse (apron) sink. It adds just the right amount of rustic to this otherwise modern kitchen. If it seems to be sitting a bit higher than most sinks (wow if you can tell that from this picture you are AMAZING) you are right. We have chosen to not cut out the sink cabinet and leave it elevated about 3 -4 inches. As you know both Kenny and I are not short people so we often find sinks uncomfortable to work at for any length of time so this accommodates that issue. Also this sink is very deep so lowering it would really have an impact on my back so there you have it, it is a tall sink! also where you see the empty space above the cabinet doors, that will have a faux drawer cover. It looks amazing.

Now, for the Stove area, this is opposite the Refrigerator area, thus creating that kitchen work triangle. These ovens area amazing! We did get two, Bosh convection ovens. I wanted double gas ovens but it worked out even better with electric because now we have convection options too. Sitting above (which you can't see in this photo) the two ovens is an amazing cook top. Kenny picked it out, it has 5 burners but the center one is massive (great for that pasta pot or a wok). The grates on this thing are very manly. what you cannot see from this photo but can from the photo that gives the overall view is that we will be having the ovens/stove top topped by a full stone hearth that will match the stonework with the fireplace in the living room. I can't tell you the amount of work this has taken Kenny but you will see, when you come to the house, how amazing this house is but specifically the kitchen.

What you see here is the rest of that counter/cabinet space down to the connected Island. Pictured here is also the Microwave. Also from this view you can see how open the kitchen is to the rest of the house. That bare wood you see with the windows in the background is the living room windows/french doors to the back deck. where you see that red/yellow/blue folding chair is the dining room.

This photo shows the Bar area. As you can see the cabinets are that pewter glazed finish. Also you can see the MDF built above the bar that will be covered with stone veneers that will mimic the hearth and the stonework around the fireplace. Additionally you can see the small sink and you might even notice that that sink is also a hand hammered copper vessel sink. This tiny little sink set the tone for the rustic farm sink that is the main sink of the kitchen. What is not pictured in this one or the main sink photos is the amazing faucets that are rustic and mimic the look of an outdoor water pump. They have not been installed so you can't see them yet but trust me they are incredible too!

Here are two over all views of the kitchen. You will note that all of the lights are on and you can better see the effect of all the elements we have worked so hard to get us a functional yet rustic feeling kitchen

This concludes the photos of the appliances and the cabinetry. There is one element that I didn't showcase as yet and that is the floor.

This is a photo of the flooring. All of the colors in the kitchen are represented in the flooring. It is a porcelain tile with very thin grout lines

As you can well imagine, we are very proud of the final product (even if it isn't completed). Also not pictured is the Granite that we have chosen. It is a great addition to the kitchen and we a very hotly debated decision. We will be ordering that soon and I will load photos of it when completed. Understand that at that point the faucets will all be in place and all but the stone work will be completed. Anticipation is ever so HIGH at this point.

I have to comment on our design helper, Mark! We had not seen Mark since our wedding almost 7 years ago but he came back into our lives and has been invaluable to the design and implementation of our kitchen and we just can't thank him enough! Thank you soooo much Mark!