Beagles- you must be so happy. Looks great!

Beagles- It's beautiful! The island is amazing and I can just picture looking across it and seeing the mural, behind the range. Also, the fireplace is so pretty. Just love it with the blue :)

WOW! Stunning!! Not only is the island a masterpiece but the way the hearth veining flows up and conintues up the fireplace is increadible. Now cover those babies up ;-)and protect till the end.

So beautiful... you made a fantastic choice for your island.

That is one fantastic looking island! And the rest of your kitchen is not too shabby either! I love the blue and like how you used it on the fireplace too. You must feel like your dreaming when you look at it that amazing granite. I've never seen anything like it at any of the granite yards I've ever been to.
I can't wait to see your final reveal.

Spectacular!

unbelievable stone!!

the bookmatched slabs are gorgeous and the installation looks perfect.

I hope those chandeliers are sapphire blue crystal :)

Stunning everything..

That granite is simply stunning and the seam was almost impossible to see even with the extreme closeup. How happy you must be.

Fantastic!
You have worked so hard on this with research, searching,
learning, planning, investigation, analysis, consideration,
judgement, design, creative reviews... I think it is worth
all the effort. You must be so proud of the results.
Fantastic.
Truly fantastic.
~boxerpups

Even my husband said "wow"

Then he said, "that's not an island, that's the ocean around an island".

The markings in your granite are stunning.

Wow! Great stone, great seam, great installers. You must feel relieved to have finally found an establishment capable of handling that special rock. Huge sigh of relief! What a huge step towards moving in....

Just amazing!! Congrats!

That is the most striking counter I have ever seen. Beautiful!

STUNNING!!!! That stone is gorgeous!!! ENJOY ;)

jody

Looks great what size Island is that?

BEAUTIFUL! I've been MIA for a bit, so a nice treat to have this at the top of the page on my return!

Holy cow! Absolutely stunning! The stone itself is a marvel and the installation looks absolutely perfect. Your home is coming together beautifully. Thanks for sharing.

haha macybaby, I like that.

The island is around 13 feet long and 4 1/2 feet deep (a little deeper at the bow-out area).

That's a continent ...not an island! It's breathtaking, beyond beautiful. I am so happy for you beagles. I know how much thought you put into this and it's gorgeous. It's so wonderful when things turn out even more spectacular then you pictured in your head. It's a testament to the awesomeness of nature right there in your very own kitchen. Now... since you don't plan on really cooking in there...can I please come over and I'd be more then delighted to prepare you several feasts in that glorious space. That is... after I recovered from my breathlessness over your flowing stone.

Stunning. Beautiful stone and excellent workmanship. Really breathtaking!

It is so nice to hear a happy story about installing a large element. Too often it is not as good an outcome.
I hope your kitchen is done soon and equally well for everything still to come!

Simply stunning! I have never seen stone like that before!

Gorgeous showstopper granite! I absolutely love it and I'm pretty sure you'll be getting plenty of oohs and ahhs over it! How exciting this must all be! Cannot wait to see everything finished!!

Stunning!! Really beautiful job showcasing that stone.

Remodelfla come on over any time! No tomato based sauces for the cooking though ;)

What everyone else said but triple on the wow wow wow beautiful.

Awesome. You go, girl.

Beagles

Stunning - Blue Bahia is one of my favorite granites - always wanted to see a large expanse of it in a kitchen (instead of on a bathroom vanity... simply awesome

You will enjoy it every day

Somewhere, beyond the sea....

I don't know why--that song just popped into my head when I saw your gorgeous island granite! Stunning!

WOW beagles talking about blue!!! It looks amazing-all of it. And I'm loving the blue color on the walls!

Hon, you really must learn how to cook. :) Y'know, if you know how to make five things, you can make just about anything.

Do tomatoes affect your stone? I thought it was one of the true granites?

Oh. Need I say? It's totally gorgeous!!!

I didn't even see the seam in the close-up, had to go back up and read what you were talking about! What a gorgeous color. I want to just dive into that island. LOVE the island and its size, so grand.

Oh my goodness! How beautiful! What are you going to use on the perimeter?

I love the sink, too. Could you please tell me about it?

Thanks, and I cannot wait to see the finale!

Just a beautiful as we all imagined!
It is fun seeing your kitchen emerge.
I love your sink with the integrated draining board.
The stone is stunning. Congrats!

talk about wow. WOW! It is gorgeeeeoso. And about that sink. What is it? Holy shmoly.

You done good.

I wanted to jump through the monitor and swim in that sea of blue!!!!!!!!!! What beautiful beautiful blue!!!!!

Those are some fantastic slabs of blue bahia that you got, even relative to other slabs that I've seen. What a fantastic installation too. Congratulations!

plllog tomatoes and acids do affect the bahia. I think it's a serpentine or something like that, so I know they said we need to be careful of etching.

The sink is a custom-made concrete sink that was matched to the tans in the bahia. It was made by Paco Originals in Carlisle PA (http://www.mrconcretecountertops.com/aboutus.html) They did an amazing job, they made it exactly the way that I drew it. It is 36 inches long in total including the drain board. If anyone is interested, I thought we got a great deal on it ($800) and it is really a beautiful sink and you could have it made in any color you want.

oh and springroz, the perimeter counters are done, they are marble:

More kitchen pics here

Wow, that is a stunning slab of granite. Enjoy your new kitchen!

Great job! It is a wonderful thing when you find the perfect material and you get a flawless installation. So glad to see this all coming together. Enjoy!

Beautiful granite and amazing install job. You'll love working in that area when it's all done.

It is a true gift to know how to take something so spectacular from nature, and craft it into something even more spectacular yet functional.

It's perfection, spectacular. What a wonderful island. I love the blue. Well done.

amazing vision you have to pull this all together! congrats and enjoy!!

Thanks on all the positive comments. I really do love how the kitchen is coming out. I know it is not everyone's style, but it is exactly what I planned and envisioned. I also could not have done it w/o the education from GW. Everyone in the real world told me to make my island short enough that I wouldn't need a seam, and that was my original plan until I learned about the idea of butterfly seams on here. I had also planned to maybe try to get the sink painted blue until GW talked me out of it :)

Simply gorgeous! And what a great job! How did you find the vendor? Am planning for a similar island, although not quite as large as yours and think there will be a seam too. I was not happy when my contractor told me but am relieved and hopeful that it can be done if you find the person to install it.

I'm with the others who see your island as a beautiful ocean pool to dive into and leisurely float across. Spectacular!

lexington3716 I googled "invisible granite seams" and went through the Google results until I found a company that was (reasonably) close to us. These people came all the way from Baltimore, which was around 2 1/2 - 3 hrs. from us.

We went to see them before committing and they created a sample seam right in front of us, spending over an hour to seam 2 pieces of granite together just as a sample to show us what they can do.

The key is a multi-stop process including top polishing. Special tools are required both for polishing and to get the granite pulled together tightly enough to create the seamless effect. (Gorilla grips maybe?) We tried at least 5-6 places before a company who was able to achieve what we were looking for.

A good place to start looking might be the Stone Fabricator's Alliance, who have links to members in different areas. You might also want to contact NSI Solutions (http://www.nsisolutions.com/testimonials.asp) as they have special seam phantom technology and might be able to refer you to vendors in your area who have it.

Here's a good article on the Pursuit of the Invisible Seam http://www.stoneworld.com/articles/in-pursuit-of-the-invisible-seam
which explains how some fabricators are able to do it.