Kitchen's Done

Actually the guys were finished yesterday but I wanted to make my herb clock that I've dreamed up the day I bought the place. There's a couple little pieces of tile with herbs on them in the kitchen and so I thought, since I have this nickel colored clock I should embroider a clock with herbs in it. I searched around and the only design I could find that I liked in this larger than the usual embroidered clock was at Embroidery Library (www.emblibrary.com) Also it was the only clock design that was big enough to fit inside my clock. Unfortunately its bigger than my embroidery hoop so I spent 3 days working on how I was going to split the doggone design up and sew it out. I've only split a couple designs and really hesitate to do it for fear I'll screw it up. There are excellent directions in the Yahoo Group (MKEmbroidery) that our friend Sheila wrote for us, I highly suggest using her directions, they aren't complicated and long winded as some directions are. I also read the directions on Embroidery Library's project pages about hooping clocks and used parts of both directions. Anyway, that's neither here nor there, I finally got the nerve up to do it last night. This morning I took the clock apart, put the newly embroidered face in it and it turned out even better than I hoped. So here's the final kitchen with the new granite counters, new faucet, new sink and of course, the clock.

Counters Are Here!!!

What a mess, the guy called and told me to empty the cupboards because they didn't want to mess anything up when they came. So--I used plastic totes and my sewing cases and hauled the food and dishes out of the kitchen to the dining room. I even took the drawers out and hauled them over to the corner of the DR. I put the quilt over the table so I wouldn't scratch it with all the stuff. Keep in mind I haven't finished unpacking the stuff for the kitchen because I knew this day was coming. I may never unpack the rest of the stuff.....
THEN the destruction guy came. His job was to remove all the original counters.

Turns out the disposal needs to be replaced so he's bringing me a new one and will install it when he comes back. Meanwhile, Sears installer had screwed up the installation of the dishwasher, it was a little wonkey and this guy fixed that since he had to side mount the washer--it was top mounted before. Yaaay for him for fixing the messy installation. My impression of this whole company has gone up already.

After he got the counters and sink and disposal and junk out of the house, the granite guys came over. They had the granite, already cut and ready to install with them. I hid out in the back room because I heard them saying something about one piece was very big and they needed another person to help them get it into the house. Turns out they don't like carrying these big pieces of granite flat, they prefer to turn them on the side to carry in but because of the little galley kitchen, apparently it was a problem...but I was hiding out trying not to listen. This whole job started at 8:15 a.m. and ended around 4 p.m. Yaaay for them, they got it done. New sink is installed, the granite is in place and now for the back splashes. Yes, I had to get granite back splashes because the original tiles don't go down below the original backsplashes of course...and I really didn't want to get new tiles although in retrospect, I wonder if it would have been cheaper to get new kitchen tiles or even just wallpaper rather than granite back splashes. Oh well, too late to think of that now. So--here's the picture of what was done yesterday.
The messy spot on the right corner is where the kitchen garage thingy goes, I think they are going to put the backsplash on first and then reinstall that. (whoops, I just put the stuff back in the cupboard...guess it needs to come back out...)
Once these guys left the owner of the company came back over and remeasured everything for the backsplashes. Apparently the backsplashes are cut and polished but he makes sure that they will fit now that the counters are on since the new counters are probably a different height than the old ones. This morning they are fine-tuning them and will be bringing them over some time today.
Meanwhile, the owner told me the new faucet hasn't come in yet, it may be here today or tomorrow. Phooey! I really would like a finished sink--with faucets-- since its impossible to cook anything without a sink to toss crumbs in (so I found out last night when I fixed Biscuit's supper---he can't eat a TV dinner, after all.

The counters are beautiful. Here's a close-up...if you look into the depths of the granite you can see fabulous colors. One way you look you see shiny spots of silver and another way you see sapphire. WOW! So pretty!!

Next post will hopefully be the finished deal. I'm really glad I went with this granite company rather than with Lowes or Home Depot. The price was a little more but obviously worth it. I don't think they would have taken all the time to measure and re-measure and make absolutely sure things were right. I KNOW they wouldn't have repositioned my dishwasher so the door wasn't wonkey anymore.