Kevin and I have been discussing getting new countertops in the kitchen for several years now. Our motivation is the fact that water has a way of seeping under the edge of the sink and is causing damage to the laminate counter behind the sink. Kev has tried to fix it, cleaning with bleach and letting it thoroughly dry before caulking it, but it is a Band-Aid kind of fix. Over time, water is still getting down there with the end result being mold growing underneath the caulk where I can’t clean it. It is bad enough that we have been concerned that the wall behind the sink has water damage. In addition, the pressboard windowsill just above the sink is constantly getting wet. It is kind of unavoidable since the sill is in such close proximity to the faucet. The constant moisture is not only causing the paint to peel up (that gross brown color underneath is the color all the walls were painted when we bought the house) but was causing the wood to slowly disintegrate. We are at a point where we have the funds, so late last year we decided it was time to get serious.
We have a friend down the street who has his own business as a contractor, and he was happy to take on our counters as a small side job. He sent us to a countertop place that he works with often and we selected a first and second choice quartz. (We opted for quartz because natural stone like granite can’t be cleaned the ways we need to in order to keep things safe for our food allergy kiddos.) Our selections were given to our friend, Jake, and the waiting began. Within a week or so, we heard that the stone supplier couldn’t get our first-choice stone. They had our second choice in stock, so we agreed to going with that one. But then we heard that due to the thickness of the slab they had in stock, they couldn’t cut the edge of the stone the way we wanted. And then they told us that they couldn’t curve the overhanging edge the way we wanted. At that point, we felt like we were compromising on everything and decided we needed to look elsewhere. If we were going to spend that much money on an upgrade, we didn’t want to look at it with disappointment every day. So Jake jumped on our request and started making some phone calls. Luckily for us, he was able to find another supplier that could get our first-choice stone, so we started talking details with the new shop.
Unfortunately, communication from the second shop was not good. We had been told the install would be the week of February 7th, but that week came and went with no information. A week and many phone calls later, Jake finally got the information that one of our slabs had broken so they needed to get another one shipped. The new slab was supposed to be there in less than a week, so we waited some more. Several days after the stone was supposed to arrive, we got word that there had been a mix up and the slab was still sitting in the yard in Washington. Yippee. More waiting. Once the slab was finally in the state, we were told that they were in the middle of a big commercial job, and we would be waiting another month for our install. Needless to say, the whole process was slow. So…very…slow. Supply chain issues and transportation troubles contributed to that, but there was also some buffoonery from the shop.
Two weeks ago, the shop finally came to do the templating for our counters and today, a good four months after we began this whole process, they were finally installed. When our old counters were torn out yesterday, we held our breath the see how bad the damage to the wall would be. It would seem that Kev’s caulk Band-Aid worked though, because the wall was perfectly sound and needed no repair work. Kev and I both gave a big sigh of relief over that one. We were kitchenless for less than two days, another reason for gratitude. We can’t exactly take Matthew out to eat, so we had to do some serious advanced planning to make sure we would have meals for all of us without access to the kitchen. It was inconvenient, but my planning worked well and we managed just fine. I think we are all super excited to have the job done and pleased with how everything turned out.
I’m glad we held out for our first choice of material. Although the wait was long, it looks good and is exactly what we wanted. We raised the backsplash and replaced the windowsill with stone to alleviate the issues with water behind the sink, and with the bottom mounted sink, water won’t pool behind the rear edge like it used to. I’m really grateful that the actual install went so smoothly. I had visions of the install going the same way things had up to that point and was concerned that we would be without a working kitchen for much longer than estimated. But our contractor and the other workers made the whole thing move very efficiently. So yippee for real this time! The upgrade to our little eatery is finally complete!
