Everybody Must Get Stoned

As we end the week with a rainy Friday in New York, it’s time to share our happenings over the last two weeks. Starting with the kitchen which is coming together nicely.

With our kitchen base cabinets installed last week, marble.com were able to come and template our granite counter tops and master vanity. A week later everything was installed and looking awesome. As previously discussed, we’d decided to go with Super White stone for the kitchen and now it’s installed we are very happy with our decision.

Kitchen

We used marble.com in our apartment renovation in 2011 and were happy to use them again despite requiring several visits to Jersey to find our elusive stone. There were a few mishaps this time, which I’m putting down to their recent expansion to 5+ locations, but they are righting their wrongs without too much trouble.

Waterstone prep faucet

The kitchen (and many other rooms) also saw their lights go in. Most are covered to protect from the dust but the lights won by brownstonegirl in a Niche Modern contest were on display for a night. The island ones look great as does the dining room light. The shared kitchen dining space made placing the dining light a little awkward but we are hoping once the dining room table goes in it’ll seem better placed.

(Dusty) Niche Modern Lights.

One light we were worried about was the parlor entry. Ordering 95% online has worked out pretty well so far but this light was much bigger than expected and we feared the entry door would hit it. Fortunately, it just cleared but does look a little cramped in there. We could ask our GC to move the light back but given all the finishing work done we’ll live with this position.

Parlor entry light.

We continued to be amazed by the amount of care and time the painters are putting in. I swear they have been here for more than a month and are still not done. First they tape the walls (i.e. cover the cracks between the sheetrock), then they prime (twice) then they paint (twice). After that it looks great to me but they then go over, find the imperfections, sand down, fill the gaps and paint again. Needless to say when they are done it’s looks amazing. Here’s a couple of pictures taken in the kids room. They are still painting the split window solution put in to handle the wall divider on the top floor but you can start to see how it will be finished (based on a suggestion from our architect).

Split window right side.

Split window left side.

Finally, the master vanity countertop also went in. The pictures don’t do this beautiful stone justice so you’ll just have to come over and see for yourself when we are all done. The only issue had to do with the wall mounted faucet (big surprise). We had requested that the marble guys cut the backsplash 3/4 inches thick (vs. the 1 1/4″ that’s more common) but they couldn’t do it because the stone is so fragile. The thicker stone meant that the plumbers needed an extension so that the faucet would go beyond the stone. Fortunately Grohe were able to provide a part (10 week ETA though) that we can use.

Master Vanity – white quartzite 

Master Vanity – 10 weeks before we can put in the trim.

Up next are the stairs, floor finishing (a post in itself – we are backtracking again), more painting and air conditioning units going up to the roof (just in time for Summer). Still hard to believe we are weeks away from taking over the whole house. It’s been quite the journey.