Anybody else thinking beveled arabesques again? I am...

I'm so tired, it was a long day.

Bee

Nancy

Take a deserved rest after a long day...maybe a glass of wine...

lavender & flwrs--I really am thinking the arabesques might be perfect. I have one in my bag--I"ll have to go tape it up tomorrow. I think my dh is up for it too.

springroz--yes, I'm so glad it does look good with the gray. I used a SW sample to pull that gray from, and it wasn't a sample from this lot nor this fabricator. whew.

Thanks for the feedback.

I might get bored with doing the same backsplash twice, but sometimes I miss the boat on 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it,'...and for you the beveled arabesque is a nice signature thing.

Could you please give it an extra little love swipe for me?

;-)

You must be so happy with your stones.

It's a different story, but a familiar character, like a sequel. :) And who doesn't love a good sequel??

Do you have 3 sinks in there???

Congratulations to you!

The colors all go together perfectly..

Billy

Um, your stone guys do know there is a dolly for granite...don't they?

Congratulations it's lovely!

Yep - beveled arabesques would be perfect!

I cannot wait to see the finished kitchen!

Btw, are those also Amerock pulls on your lowers? Looks great!!

Your kitchen is so stunning so far, I have looked at it over and over again. I hope you don't mind, but I am trying to live through you during this kitchen reno. I based my budget kitchen refresher after your last kitchen, and this one is even closer to what I would call my "ultimate dream kitchen" down to the grey island and beveled arabesque. Apparently, we have the same taste! Enjoy!!!! You are doing an absolutely beautiful job so far. I love your style!

(and as far as that carpet upstairs--it is so ugly. I am not sure what I am going to do. I think it is the cobination of it with my Gray Owl. I mean it looks hideous. Hopefully a different paint in the bedrooms can correct this problem. Of course I need to make sure they installed the right carpet. The color was not written on the sheet the installer had.)

Now, let me address the questions and comments:

rhome-I thought I might be bored too, but I am not sure now. I did love that tile. Now we know how to install it without "all the drama" associated with the first time.

laxsupermom-the installers could not believe they got it all on one slab either

eriepatch,rainwood, rosie--thanks!

lawjedi-my heart stopped as they came up the steps into the house. I will give it a little swipe for you. I am planning on going over and hugging it today. I did not want to do it in front of the installers. They already probably thought I was crazy.

kaijutokusatsu & linelle -thank you!

peonybush-that guy was in pain.

motherof3sons, mom23es, and deb---thanks!

home4all6--you scare me with that sequel analogy-they usually are a bit of a disappointment. :o And yes, there are three sinks. Clean up, prep, and beverage.

darbuka & tea4all-thank you!

remodelfla- I am not sure about that--your soapstone is just too gorgeous.

snbtwins--I cannot wait to see it completed either. Maybe someday.

AnnaA-I was holding my breath and running around to get photos. I thought I would kick myself if I missed that opportunity. Initially I thought I should hide in another room and just not watch.

susied-I was very relieved to see the island is the color in the veining. I picked the color based on a sample of SW that was not from this lot nor this fabricator.
bella & purplepansies-thanks so much

michelle-thanks, and the tile I was looking at were the ones with the water jet laser marble/mother of pearl. Not sure of the name. They looked like ribbons. But for me, there is no way. Perhaps I could stencil the pattern back there....

colorfast-you are funny. Thanks, that is too kind.

aokat--right back at ya ;)

slush--we need to form a club. We had one for BA..."welcome to the BA club"....so I think we need a SW club. If you have not decided on the back splash yet, keep your eye out for sales. You never know.

billy--thanks for the nice words

suzannes-yes they had the dolly but they did not use it. Not sure why. Perhaps the steps outside? Or they did not want to use it in the house? I never even asked why. They did put down 2 x 4 s along the way so they could put it down and rest.

hoboken-AnnMarie said you should come over and see it in person. Let me know if you want to do so. And you were right--I am very happy with it. She told me a lot of people saw it in the shop and really wanted it.

ayerg- thank you and thanks for your vote.

threapples--at first that island looked too blue, but I waited and now that the stone is in, I love it too.

oldbat2be--thanks! I will post some more pictures.

nini-thanks and thanks for the vote

kateskouros--oh great, can you send it to me? I have some vanities that could use your stone cast-offs on... Thanks, I am glad you like it.

sculb-I do not have drawings posted. If you want to email me, I can send them to you. I am at beekeeperswife at gmail dot com

dragonfly-- I took 2 advil pm to knock me out! Yes those are Amerock pulls--Highland Ridge.

lascatx-I know, I will have to think about this backsplash decision. I have time, we are not doing the tile until we move in.

cat mom-thanks. I knew when I saw it at the fabricators that it was "the one".
DJHinVA-thanks!

gigi--I had never thought of the stone as masculine. that is interesting. Perhaps "he" needs to be girlied up, and what better way than to add a backsplash that looks like a Chanel quilted patent leather purse??? :)

poohpup-I am over the moon with all the counterspace. I did not have enough in that last kitchen just due to its size.

outsideplaying-thank you!

makeithome-that is very kind of you. Just make sure in your ultimate dream kitchen you get a bigger window. sore subject for me

caminnc--no settlement date has been given other than the original promise date of 6/29. I believe we will be in sometime in early June.

hermajesty--thanks for that, you made me chuckle.

Bee

I would love to see your kitchen! Where are you located? I have a feeling you might be in the opposite direction to us though which would be tough. I don't know if Ann Marie mentioned it, but I'm really pregnant and quite uncomfortable so I'm trying to keep long trips to a minimum.
Just going to Stone Masters from Philly totally wiped me out for the rest of the day! Dealing with contractor issues all day is proving a challenge at the minute!!

As we discussed I think the Arabesque tiles would look amazing, as would the dream tile. Have you thought about a grey glass subway? Or not exciting enough for you?

I think the splash decision is going to be a tough one for us too, but you have some great options.

WOWOWOWOWOWOWEEEE!

I would love to see the beveled arabesque in homage to the old kitchen, but I know whatever you choose will be fabulous.

Which Sherwin William paint did you use on the cabinets since I read on another post that you used SW and not BM so could not use the BM Cloud White that you used last time. I love the style of your cabinets and everything about them also.

Thank you! I can't wait to see more pictures of your kitchen as it progresses to one day finished!

Lynne2006--sorry, I missed your question. The trim in the house is painted SW color. But the cabinets are a catalyzed lacquer from ML Campbell. I don't know the color. I only know that the island is "London Fog" and the perimeter is the lightest color on that strip. (an off white/very light gray) Hope that helps

I have a few questions though. Did you run into any negatives with the Super White? I have two places where there is a barely perceptible crack that doesn't actually go all the way through the counter that the fabricator swears are a natural occurrence in the stone and not a result of fabrication. They are going to "seal" those areas today I think, but was curious if you ran into similar issues. I actually went to one stone yard that said they stopped carrying Super White because it cracked too often during fabrication and ended up costing them too much. I'm honestly not sure if I believe my fabricator when he says it had nothing to do with his cutting/handling.

Second, can you post a picture of your seams? I know its going to be the part you like the least but I have one seam and would like to have something to compare it to. I've not been thrilled with my fabricator at all and want to make sure they do as good a job on this seam as they can. My seam is definitely visable, the movement in the stone makes hiding it nearly impossible. What i wasn't expecting though was to be able to feel it as much as I do. The guy said they weren't entirely finished with it and would be able to make it smother, but these guys have me worried.

I'll post lots of pics of mine once I get my camera back tomorrow though! Super White is very pretty stuff and thanks for sharing yours already!

I haven't actually touched every part of the stone yet, but I didn't notice any cracks like you are talking about.

I think I do have a photo of one of the seams. The only thing you can see is a slight pattern change. There are only 2 seams in this kitchen!

I'm going to try and post photos through the new GW direct posting..but I don't know how to preview the picture...so good luck! That didn't work...it was too big....back to Photobucket. And that didn't work either...so Flickr it is.

Love seeing the pictures. Can't wait to see more develop.

Gorgeous, Bee! Gorgeous! I love the edge on the island. I can't wait to see the rest.

The tiny cracks I've noticed aren't even noticeable to the eye unless I put my face down really close or catch it in reflected light as if you're trying to see some subtle etching. I can feel them with my hand/nail though. It does help to actually run your hand over everything. I've found imperfections I otherwise wouldn't have noticed by doing that.

Question: what finish did you others with SW end up getting?

Bee, yours looks polished. Slush, your closeup almost looks honed, but the farther out shot looks polished at the edges.

I was planning on using honed because of the chance of etching, but had them cut me off a chunk and polish half and hone the other half and we really liked the polished half much better. Each seems to have its advantages/disadvantages though.

We also went with polished. I was a bit afraid to because of the etching that I know will happen, but I really loved the polished look. It doesn't seem to etch anywhere near as severely as the marbles like carrera do, so I hope it will be mostly ok.

How have others' experiences with etching been? If I leave vinegar or wine for 30 minutes or so, I can see a faint etch mark if I look from the right angle. I think that same amount of time would leave a more substantial and noticeable etch mark on marbles.

That said, there are 2 or maybe 3 fissures that we found right after installation. 1 has probably turned into a crack because we can now feel it on the surface. It doesn't really bother us and our fabricator have offered several times that they can come out anytime and polish/finish it. We haven't done anything about it because it's really not noticeable. Overall, we're still in love and completely happy with our decision to go with the SW.

These photos and the discussion are really bringing back memories of our installation. I posted some photos from that day (they used a self-made dolly to bring in the pieces) which included the one seam we had -- centered behind the sink. You can see them in the link below. I thought they did a great job matching up the edges... Which is incredible because the two sides came from totally different parts of the slab. Here are 2 photos just taken of them today:

So far we do have a very small (size of a dime) etch from lemon juice left over night but not a single staining - and we pretty much drink red wine every night with dinner and there have been spills left overnight and they just wipe right up. There has also been tomato sauce left overnight and it did not stain either. I only clean it with dish soap and water.

I can post some more pictures in a new thread if anyone wants to see of both honed and polished at the stone yard as well as some of mine close-up where you can see all the veining because it's honed. It has great texture. But I don't want to take over Bee's thread.

35ftcabo--so excited for you. It is such a pretty stone. I tested the heck out of a piece. Never stained and it probably wasn't even sealed. I left a lime on it over night and it did etch, but...when I squirted lime juice on it and left it for a little bit (normal drink preparation time, etc.) It did not etch. The marble I tested did etch as soon as the lime juice hit it. We are not the type to leave a mess overnight and clean it up in the am so I think we will be fine. Well, if we ever thought about THAT, we won't now! :)

Can't wait to see your pictures.

My dh finally got to actually touch the slabs on Thursday. The loved how smooth they were compared to our Bianco Antico. The BA had gorgeous mica in it that you could feel and it felt a little rough in those spots. Never bothered us, but he is in love with the smoothness of this.

Have a great day all.

Bee

All of your choices are so beautiful! can't wait to see the finished pics.

Your kitchen is beautiful! It has such a serene feel already.

I used Dutch Wood for my kitchen, 2 bathrooms and laundry room and would use them again. I NEVER heard NO from them. Amazing construction, and installation crew. They are 1.5 hours from me, most of the communication was via e-mail.

Tom

The granite fabricator we used is Stone Masters in Kennett Square. They usually like to stick to a 50 mile radius. I think they will go outside of that if it is a big job.

You are welcome any time to come see my kitchen. (I'll have to give you the garage code to the old house if that's the one you want to go see though....lol)

Bee

And here is our almost complete kitchen. Just ordered the Beveled Arabesque (like Bee's last kitchen) for our backsplash and need crown moulding. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/load/kitchbath/msg0623233929457.html?2 0

Just thought I'd throw that out there. I tested a sample, it didn't etch. I have rings from a can. It's very faint, we are trying to be more careful. I now have trays everywhere, and crystal coasters in the middle of the island.

I'm considering covering it with plastic wrap for the house warming party. I mean, Costco does sell the wide rolls and all....

How disappointing after you tested a sample and it was fine. Was the sample from your slab or from another one?

marcolo--touche'