Granite Installed!

We had our granite installed this past Friday! I couldn’t be more pleased with how it looks.

The granite color is Kashmir White. I was so anxious because once it’s done, there’s no turning back. That’s part of the reason it took us awhile to choose one. Everything else we have done in the kitchen I’ve always known we could change it or modify it it we hated it, but with the granite, it was choose it and hope we like it. I’m so glad I like it.

The colors are perfect. There are subtle swirls of gray and tan.

The sink we chose is huge. Seriously, HUGE.

I mentioned in my previous granite post that we were going with the Ticor Zero Radius, but when it arrived I was really disappointed in the workmanship. There were small welding drips and one of the inside corner seams was a little jagged. These things weren’t hugely obvious, but this sink is fairly permanent once the counters are in, so I didn’t want to put something in we weren’t completely satisfied with. I called Overstock and the customer service rep was fantastic. They paid for return shipping and did free expedited shipping on this Kraus 32″ Single Bowl.

The Ikea 36″ sink base cabinet allows for a large sink. This is a 32″ sink which makes the interior dimension about 30″ wide. If you’re looking for a large sink to fit the Ikea 36″ base cabinet, this one really maximized the space. The granite installers did have to cut into the front and back support beams of the cabinets just a little bit to make room for the faucet.

The sink came with a rinse grid which was something I really wanted to try. It turns out our granite installers did a slight overhang for the sink cutout, so the sink grid gets caught on it when I lift it in and out. This is kind of a pain because I like to wipe out the bowl after doing dishes, so taking out the grid is like twirling giant 30×17″ baton. It requires a bit of maneuvering. Wet, drippy maneuvering. I do like that water runs under dishes in the sink and that it’s flat which keeps things like glasses from toppling over as easily. It also makes a nice resting place for the colander so the water you just poured in the sink doesn’t bubble back up into the colander. For now we’re going to keep using the rinse grid and see how we feel about it after using it a bit longer. If we get better at our grid twirling I could see it staying.

This is my first time living with a single bowl sink, and it is amazing. Life changing. Washing dishes is so much easier, and at 10″ deep hardly any water splashes out. This is a tight radius sink, so it is square with slightly rounded corners. I’m really glad we ended up going with the tight radius over zero radius (which has very square corners) because it is so much easier to clean. The zero radius does look more modern, but I think I would have eventually gotten frustrated by having a harder to clean sink.

We are planning on a light backsplash and spent some time last weekend going around and getting samples. I would love to incorporate some marble into the kitchen so I picked up a couple samples from The Tile Shop. One thing I like about them is that you can buy extra tile and return whatever you don’t use. Sheets can be returned individually and individual tiles can be returned by the box. With a natural stone tile, I like that I could buy extra and pick and choose the ones I like best.

This is the Lansdale Carrara 2×4. I’d like to thank the toaster oven and knife block for doing a fabulous job holding it up for me. It has more tans in it than the other Carrara options. I like the tan tones but this one has a few yellows and almost pinkish tiles which I’m not so crazy about. I like it a lot in certain lighting and in other lighting I’m not so sure. I do like that it doesn’t have much in the way of veining. I love veining on marble, but I think it would compete to much with the granite, so looking for a subtle marble.

I tried to position the camera so you could see the white cabinet right above the tile which is why these are at a bit of an odd angle.

This is the Hampton Carrara subway tile. I bought 5 of the honed 3×6 and 5 of the pillowed 3×6. I ended up smooshing all of them together to get a better idea of coloring. The pillowed tiles don’t like to stack for me, or even stand up on their own for that matter, that’s why there are a couple of flat tiles on the counter pushed up against them (which are samples of thassos marble from a local shop, but I need to get more to properly represent the coloring, so no pics of that one yet). The Hampton Carrara is much grayer and has some slight veining. I am worried the Hampton is too gray and would make the kitchen feel cold, but on the other hand the gray sure is pretty. It has a little veining which is pretty, but might compete with the granite. Hi, my name is Jena, and I’m indecisive.

These aren’t technically samples, but what The Tile Shop recommends you do is just buy a few of whatever you’re interested in and then return it, so that’s what I did. I am not sold on either of these yet and need to do a bit more stand-and-stare-at-the-kitchen-for-fun to figure out what I like. Staring at the kitchen and envisioning different tile options has turned into a full time hobby.

Another thing I’ve been working on is the peninsula trim. This here is a mock up I did with my dad to make sure we like the look and test out different paint.

He’s got all the right tools and know-how, so I can’t really take much credit for making it, but the design was my idea. We’re going to run it from the side all the way around the back. I had a scrap piece of baseboard that is propped up against it. It’s the same as the baseboards used on rest of our first floor.

We also still need to install crown molding around the top of the soffit and the eat in kitchen, change out the light fixtures, and move a few outlets. I don’t want to say we’re in the home stretch, but if I squint I can see the home stretch :).

See all of my kitchen renovation posts, and while you’re here make sure to check out my paint color galleries!

Linking up to: Fingerprints on the Fridge, Just a Girl, Tatertots and Jello, Funky Junk Interiors, Green Door Designs, Boogieboard Cottage, Dittle Dattle, Keeping it Simple, Between Naps on the Porch, The DIY Show Off, The Girl Creative, A Bowl Full of Lemons, Home Stories A2Z, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, A Diamond in the Stuff, DIY by Design, Savvy Southern Style, Domestically Speaking,  Somewhat Simple, House of Hepworths, At the Picket Fence, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, Remodelaholic, Thrifty Decor Chick