New Granite Counter Tops

I have one word of advice for anyone who has every thought of installing granite counter tops in their home. Don't buy from Lowe's or Home Depot. The prices that can be found at your local shops iare much better and the selection of Stones are infinite.

We used Angie's list to find our fabricator (Queen City Kitchen and Bath) . They are a family owned and operated business that is very knowledgeable and friendly. By using a fabricator you have the option of visiting the local Granite distribution warehouse. This place has hundreds of slabs of granite to choice from. You can't buy from them but the will let you know the range that you are looking at. Once you find a slab you like the will hold it and the fabricator can then buy the slab for your project. We visited Granite Depot, one of our local warehouses a number of times until we found the slab we liked.

Our Selected Slab

 Once the slab was purchased we made an appointment with the fabricator to template our kitchen for the counter tops. This took a full day as his computer was running a bit slow. That following Saturday Kristin and I went to Queen City to lay out the counter top. They have the lay out done up in plastic sheets that they can overlay on the stone so you can pick which parts of the slab you want in each part of the counter top. Very nice option.

One week later the counter tops were fab'd and the installation was on its way.

 The fit was a bit tight so they had to cut into the wall a bit to get the counter tops to fit. The back splash will hide all of that.

The Finished Product!!!!!!!!!!

Our Island

The Main Counter Space

 You will definitely not find any stones that look like that at your big box store.

Family Room Drywall

Now that the wood paneling is down and the wiring for the Internet and cable TV has been run it is time to button this room up. It my favorite part of the reno process Drywall!!!!!!. I really don't like hanging drywall. I don't like cutting it. I don't like Mudding it and I sure don't like sanding it.

Safety First

Ben Helping Tape (thanks Ben)

Dry wall Up and Tapped

 

The New Couch

Kristin has decided that a nice leather sectional couch would be the perfect piece of Furniture for the new living room. Problem is we don't have a leather sectional couch to go there. Luck for us that a local high end Furniture store is going out of business. Boyles sold all your really nice furniture here in Charlotte, so this was a prime opportunity to look for the couch we wanted.

 Kristin head to the store on the first day and found a sectional she really liked. A guy at the store started describing the couch to her and she asked him if he worked there. He said no but he made the couch. The guy was Buddy Sherril of Sherril Furniture and this was one of their couches. Kristin asked him how much it was and he gave her a price which I guess was much below what the close out company was going to ask for it. The honored the price though and we ended up with a really sweet couch at a really sweet price.

Our New Couch

This thing is crazy comfortable, and it is the perfect height. You sit on it not in it.

starting to feel like a home

Now that we have appliances in the kitchen and the work. The end is in sight. It is starting to come together and feel like a home.

Now we're cooking with Gas

The Gas man finally came and hooked up the gas line and gas range. Talk about a process. First we had to have them come by and quote the work. This took forever through the natural gas company. Then you have to actual schedule the work. Well the work was scheduled and the guys came in to install the line on Jan 6th. The inspector was in later that day and passed the work with a big check mark. The gas company was supposed to come back to connect the line to the stove (it is part of the service) in the Monday. So I had the weekend to finish the island so it was ready to have the range installed.

I can't wait to start cooking on this

the new Range Hood

Since we moved the  location of the stove to the middle of the room (The Island) the old venting will not work. So I had to move the vent.

With the duct work moved next was to install an electrical outlet to plug th event in with. Finally after many weeks with this hole in the ceiling the insulation is finally in and all the attic wiring is done so I can close up this big hole.

Hole Closed now install ceiling vent.

oooooo Cool Blue Light

front island Cabinet installed

The front island cabinets were a bit tricky. Since the wall is 42" high the 36" cabinets would need to be on 6" stands. That means ripping down 2x10s for the stands. Also it would happen that one of the air vents is right under where we have the left Cabinet. So I will have to incorporate an air vent in the base of the cabinet. Should look cool and work great.

The New Rugs

With a home full of Hardwood floors some area rugs were definitly needed. Welcome to Boyles Close Out sale. After a night of hard deal making we have three new area rugs.