Kitchen Update 4: Functioning Again!!

It’s official – we have a functioning kitchen!

On Wednesday, our counters were installed; on Thursday our sink was hooked up; on Friday our dishwasher was also hooked up.

Let’s backtrack. The granite installers sent a guy to our house on the 11^th to measure for our countertops. I think he must’ve done a really good job because the installers had no problem fitting any of the pieces, and everything is snug where it needs to be, even though our walls are very much NOT square. The measuring guy warned me that we would need supports for the overhang part of the counter though, especially the end where the sink is located, because there’s very little that the counter would be attached to on that side.  So I quickly bought four countertop plates, which would extend 10” past the cabinets, in order to support 14” of overhang. Carpenter Dan installed them on Sunday.

Mango gives his nod of approval

Two counter guys --Josh and Andrew-- showed up Wednesday afternoon with four pieces of granite: one between the refrigerator and the stove, two make up the corner on the other side of the stove, and a behemoth of a piece for the island. My eyes bugged out when I saw how big that piece was and I was seriously concerned about them installing it all in one piece (without breaking it), but they managed.

At this point, I'm inwardly jumping up and down with glee (outwardly running around trying to help, but basically useless)

The next day, 56 days after we sold off our old sink, I put the faucet together while Marcel the plumber hooked up the water and the drain, which came with the sink. I really like the Grohe faucet; it's sleek in design while not being too modern (I like modern design, it just doesn't fit the rest of the kitchen, sadly) and also is a pull down with a shower spray function. The shower spray doesn't go very wide - I guess it's pretty limited by the thin spout - but that's just the price that you pay for style♪♫.

It's quite tall. Maybe just a little too tall...

Dan loves the kitchen. Possibly even more than the master suite ::GASP::

As for the sink, the counter installers said, "that's not a sink, that's a tub": it's humongous and really deep. My plumber was a little unimpressed with the drain (which is plastic) but it's probably not that big of a deal, and you can always buy and install a different stainless drain if you should so choose. It came with a mesh grid which you lay on the bottom: it keeps dishes off the bottom and can also serve as a drying rack. Verdict is still out as to its functionality.

Ahh, the dishwasher. We handwashed many many dishes the past year and a half. I never minded that much - or so I thought - but now that we have one, I'm realizing how loath we were to dirty dishes unnecessarily, and how that aversion sometimes cramped our style...as in, sometimes we wouldn't eat at the same time, so that one person could use the same dish after the other was done with it.

 But no longer. Even barely dirty dishes are put into this pretty, gleaming, quiet, trusty machine to be cleaned at a convenient time - in the middle of the night when electricity rates are the lowest, of course.

 I was able to sell our old fridge on Craig's List, so that's a load off our shoulders/out of the dining room.

Turns out this guy was manufactured in 2011 - so pretty new. Somebody got a good deal.

And this morning, I made some buns (nikuman) at the counter while Dan watched his soccer game at the counter. It was a blast and we got to enjoy levels of comfort and convenience heretofore unknown, nay, un-dreamed of in our old house.

Carpenter Dan dropped by yesterday with these stools one of his other clients was about to throw away (Hi Sarah!). They're bar height, so a little too tall for our counters, but perfect (free) for now until I find the right stools, hopefully on Black Friday.

Still some odds and ends to finish up in here (like paint EVERYTHING) but I'm starting to think about the foyer...