If you’ve been following the adventures of House*Tweaking, you already know that we painted our builder grade oak cabinets white and added modern hardware in an effort to shake off the builder blahs.
You may also know that we’ve been saving to switch out our laminate countertops for something more durable and appealing. Well, after months of saving up the cash and even more months of making up my mind, we have new granite countertops!
They’re Absolute Black, polished. I went back and forth so many times between getting honed or polished. In the end, I decided on polished. I really don’t know what the big deal was now! I love the polished finish. I love to run my palms across the smooth, cool stone. I love the way our plates and glasses clink when you set them down. I love the natural variations within the stone…more of that imperfect perfection that makes me breathe easy. I love how easy it is to clean. I have 2 lil’ boys and a Handy Hubby who’s messy in the kitchen (at least, he’s in the kitchen, right?)…it is sooooo easy to wipe up at the end of the day. Especially with an undermount sink to catch all the crumbs.
That’s right, folks. We upgraded our sink and faucet too. They’re both by Kraus and we purchased them from Overstock. They weren’t cheap but since we gave our kitchen cabinets a facelift for less than $400, we had more money to spend on the plumbing fixtures. We decided it would be money well spent. We seldom eat out and instead cook nearly all of our meals at home (even though I detest cooking).
The depth of that sink is RIDICULOUS. I could take a bath in it. I especially like that it hides a tall pile of dirty dishes.
My nightly routine is to clean up the dishes, run the dishwasher and wipe down the countertops before going to bed. This new faucet makes all that easier…and more fun! It’s a single lever with a pull-out sprayer.
Obviously, that’s not our kitchen. But the picture demonstrates how the sprayer pulls out. When you hit the black button on the sprayer’s head, the water sprays instead of flowing in a dense stream. There’s a learning curve involved after having used only standard faucets and sprayers all my life. Sometimes, I found myself looking for the sprayer and wondering where the heck it went. “Oh! Duh! There you are, right on the faucet!” It may take me a while.
We still have a little work to do in the kitchen before it’s “done”. For one, we need a backsplash.
We’ve got a few samples up but I’m not crazy about them no matter how far I tilt my head and look at them. I need more time. Handy Hubby must be itching to do a tiling project because he’s been hounding me all week to pick something. Here’s what I’m looking at… (The plastic wrapper is still on them; they actually have a matte finish.)
I kinda like the one in the middle but I’m afraid it may look too brown once it’s sealed.
Besides the backsplash, our island requires some TLC. Handy Hubby has already made a 9-inch extension that needs primed, painted and installed. Once that’s complete, we can grab up our new butcher block countertop to slap on. OH. And the glass front cabinet still needs addressed.
It just needs some primer and paint inside but somehow I find a daily excuse for putting it off ’til tomorrow. If only there were more hours in my day.
inspiration