This past week my husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Looking back, it is hard to believe so much time has passed by so quickly. To celebrate our 20 years together my wonderful husband bought me a big rock!
No, no, not this kind of rock:
If you have been following this blog for a while, you will no doubt understand how excited I was/am. I much prefer “house things” to clothes, shoes, jewelry, etc. This was the absolutely perfect gift!
Here is our kitchen before. We had speckled green/gray/black granite tiles with a very dated wooden edging.
Here is the kitchen now.
Keeping it Real with a Few Things to Think About
I can’t say enough about how much I love my new countertops. (I don’t want you to think I am complaining!) Like every project, however, it was not without its issues. I am hoping by sharing a few of the things which occurred during our renovation, it may help you if/when you decide to tackle a similar project.
Countertops
As I said earlier, the original countertops in my kitchen were granite tiles with a wooden edge. This meant two things. First, the new granite countertops would not be as thick as the original. Not really an issue unless you already have a tile backsplash in place like we did.
In order for the new countertops to be the correct height in relation to the existing backsplash, a ¼” piece of wood had to be installed to increase the height of the granite. This means we will have to put a ½” quarter round piece of cherry molding along the underneath side of the granite to hide the exposed edge of the added wood. We have not done this yet, but in all honesty, you can’t see this extra piece of wood unless you are sitting on the floor.
Faucet
An unexpected problem occurred when we were attempting to reinstall the faucet. My previous sink had been a top mounted model on which the faucet was placed. The new sink is an under the counter mounted model.
Finally after a long discussion, I came up with an idea – switch the faucet handles to lever style. Not knowing if this was even an option, I made some phone calls. As luck would have it, lever style handles are made for my faucet model. We ordered the handles and they should be here within two weeks. Problem solved. In the mean time, the faucet is set in place but not mounted to the countertop. This allows me to use the faucet and sink until the new handles arrive.
Sink
After resolving the faucet issue, next up was attaching the sink to the garbage disposal and water supply. My new sink is larger and deeper than the original sink (hurray!) which, of course, caused more problems.
Wall Damage
In order to install the granite on the right of the refrigerator, a piece of the door molding needed to be removed. Nail holes will now need to be patched and the molding repainted.
I hope my experience will help you to think about some of the issues we had with our project should you decide to do something similar. The reality is all of these surprises were easily dealt with. It was more frustrating than anything else when you think you would be finished and then something else would delay progress. The biggest issue was really the faucet. We were extremely lucky that Rohl makes an alternative style handle.
Linking to some of my favorite parties HERE
Sources:
Granite – Absolute Black
Sink – Blanco Super Single Bowl Silgranit in Biscuit
Faucet – Rohl Country Kitchen
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