I Got a Rock.

In the 1966 Halloween television special, It’s the GreatPumpkin, Charlie Brown, the gang collects trick-or-treat candy and compares notes. “I got a rock,” becomes Charlie Brown’s refrain.

The day after Halloween this year, we got a rock. Several of them, in fact. November 1st is the day that we went to pick out our granite.

While there are environmental concerns with granite – and I am not unaware of them – we decided to go with granite primarily because of its longevity and durability and because of our proximity to quarries of the stuff. We’re trying to be environmentally responsible, and in this choice, I feel some ambivalence. But only about the environmental concerns. And if we didn’t live in Massachusetts, I probably wouldn’t have even considered it. Not that everything we chose is from New England, but sometimes my ethics can be compromised.

Once I saw the pieces, though, I was taken. Our kitchen designer, Patty at Country Craftsmen, had suggested (and priced) honed Jet Mist for our kitchen. To be honest, I thought that she had chosen an “economical” granite that we would later have to resist upgrading for more money. I was completely wrong. What she had done, I think, was listen to our description of our flooring, looked at our choice of cabinet wood and style, and decided that this variety of granite would fit the style we are developing in the house.

Our style seems to be a combination of – or, perhaps more accurately, a kind of slip and slide between – old-fashioned and contemporary. We like wood that looks like wood, hence the choice of hickory for the floors and cabinets. But we also like the high ceilings and contemporary fans that we’re going to put up there (more on that in a future post). Honed granite has a matte finish. It’s prone to show oils and liquids more, but otherwise, it appears to be no more difficult to maintain than polished granite. But stylistically, it’s softer. And it looks more like the stone that it is.

Honed Jet Mist isn’t in the “affordable” range, which is what Terry at Discover Marble & Granite called the least expensive stone. In fact, it is actually more expensive than any of the others except the “exotics,” which neither Carl nor I found interesting. I think they look too much like modern art to belong in our house.

From Discover Marble & Granite's Website

In order to choose our counters, we had to make an appointment. I didn’t understand this until we arrived at Discover. Writing this now, I am struggling to determine what to call the place because “store” isn’t accurate, but I don’t think “showroom” is either. After we handed over copies of our kitchen and bathroom plans for our file there, we were led into an area with rows of granite stacked on edge so that the colors and patterns were visible. Terry told us that we would walk around to make some preliminary selections, and we would have the time we needed to narrow our choices.

Our slabs of honed Jet Mist

So we walked down about five aisles of granite. Carl and I followed our usually pattern of quickly narrowing down the choices. I was surprised to find that the one I immediately liked best was the honed Jet Mist. Really? Yes, really. It looks like dark gray sand in dunes or waves, but flat. I kept touching it to be sure there weren’t ridges. I found myself captivated – ok, only as much as I get captivated by anything that isn’t yarn. This was the right stuff. I was sure.

The same slab, up close. It's smooth! Really!

Carl actually had a different first choice, a black with more distinct marbling – I forget what it is called. However, when he visualized the piece cut down to countertop width, he decided it would lose precisely the qualities he liked best. The Jet Mist was his second choice. I have to wonder how much of that stone being his first choice was because the marbled colors were more distinct for him.

For our other counters – our bathroom and the upstairs bath – we decided to go with remnants if at all possible. Using leftovers is preferable to cutting new stone, presuming we could find usable pieces that we liked. We were shown into another area where the granite was stacked more haphazardly, and where machinery was required to pull pieces out for our inspection. Our measurements in Terry’s hand, we found two more pieces, each very different from the other.

Colonial White Remnant for
the Master Bathroom

Colonial White, up close. Yes, there's some purple there!

For our bathroom, we found a piece of granite called Colonial White. I wasn’t expecting to like a light colored stone, but our bathroom will have some blue in the flooring that (we think) will work with this stone well.

Hollinsbrook Quartz for the Upstairs Bathroom

For the upstairs bathroom, we chose a distinctive piece of man-made quartz from Cambria called Hollinsbrook, which stays within with the brown and black theme we have going (mostly).

Choosing the countertops was more fun than I thought it would be. I honestly expected something like flooring, where I would be trying to imagine the same material over a largish space based on a 2” x 2” square. Instead, I could see my choices and my real job was imagining them in our spaces.

So we got a rock. Three different kinds. And I’m smiling now as I think about them.

Revisiting Decisions

Taken August 30, 2014, from the front of the house.

First, an update. I plan to include at least one photo of the site each time we go out. Last week we had forms. Today, we have house-shaped concrete!

Taken August 30, 2014, from the back/
garage-side of the house

At the land today, I was looking at the trees and sky and thinking that the slate blue siding color we had chosen last year might not work as well as I thought. Carl shrugged and suggested that we drive down the road to look at another house that has blue siding to see what I think. We did, but the siding on the house he showed me was lighter than the one we had chosen. On the way out of our road, though, I noticed another house, and I said, “I think that’s closer to the color we chose.”

Without missing a beat, Carl says, “We? Who is this ‘we’?”

Color me confused. Last year, we went through a bit of effort to track down the color swatches for the siding. Samples in hand, we followed our usual routine: One of us (this time, me) narrowed down the choices to about three or four, and the other (in this case, Carl) chose from there. We ended up with slate blue. I even put a tab on it, so we wouldn’t forget.

I didn't know they made portable siding swatches.

See the tab? Been there a year.

So, honey, “we” is you and me.

Not that it matters really. I’m asking to revisit many of the decisions we made last year – some because I just want to check, some because we made a change to our plans that affects our original choice. So far, we have revisited three: flooring, lighting, and appliances.

Carpet choice for stairs, hallway, and guest bedroom

The flooring revisit was relatively easy because we were happy with our original choices. Luce Brothers no longer had our paperwork, but we had the photos that included the labels, so we recreated the order (see our earlier post for those choices). We needed to make an addition, though, because we reconsidered the hardwood stairs. As many of your know, we expect to have dogs, so we’re adding a carpet runner on the stairs – and carpeting the upstairs hallway and guest bedroom while we’re at it, since carpet is less expensive than hardwood flooring. We chose a nylon that will be tough enough for dogs. I’ll post another time on some of the specifics we are adding to accommodate our current dog and the critters we intend to foster. I don’t think we were in the store more than an hour this time.

The appliance update was easy, too, because Belcher’s Appliances still had our paperwork. We checked for updated models and changed our washer/dryer selection. We will probably have to check on those again closer to the actual date we’ll need them, but I suspect that our current list will be mostly fine.

Lighting is still a work in progress. We got partway through a list of our needs last time we were at Hansen Electric, and we got a bit further this time. Unfortunately, the line we had chosen for most of the interior of the house has been discontinued, so we need to choose all over again. I also need to remember to bring the kitchen layout when we go next time. Lighting will get its own post soon.

We’ll definitely be revisiting the siding choice, in part because of what I found out when I went to the Certainteed site today. They have some new colors of their MainStreet line, which is the line our builder uses – and one of the things we didn’t upgrade in the P&S. There’s a red now that I think Carl will like.* I’ll see if we can get an updated set of swatches.

*Perhaps I don't know my husband as well as I thought. When I showed him the color, his reaction was – and I quote – "Bleah." 

Color Calibration

Image from Home Makeover Diva

We’ve read enough about other people’s home-building adventures to know that we don’t want to end up rushing the choices – at least not any more than we have to. With so many decisions to make, some will have to be made in the moment, if only because we didn’t anticipate needing to choose between features like concealed, skirted, and exposed trapways (nope, we haven’t made that choice yet). However, we want to avoid too many snap decisions.

Both Carl and I are pretty good at anticipating. I do particularly well with things like scheduling and finances, but Carl is the real professional. Literally. His job pays him (in part) to anticipate trouble spots, plan ahead, and avoid as many problems as possible. And he’s really good at it.

So even though we don’t yet have an offer in hand, let alone a purchase-and-sale agreement, we’re getting started on the choices, particularly since once I’m back in the classroom in September, spending any significant time on choices will become much harder for me.

Yesterday, we headed for Lowe’s just to start the calibration process. We’re not buying anything yet, just looking. We looked at kitchen cabinets and countertops, flooring, and lighting fixtures. We agree in general on most things. We both like lighter stains on the woods and a defined wood grain – probably hickory, oak, or maple for the cabinets and wood floors.  We both like square tiles of different sizes to make up an interesting not-quite-random pattern for the bathroom and mudroom floors, and we’ll pick the color to complement the wood floors that will be adjacent. And we both like dark metal for lighting in the dining room, with a preference for simple geometric lines that aren’t too contemporary.

Countertops are a little more challenging. I need to do some more research, but I have a heavy leaning toward granite. We have granite counters in our current house, and I love being able to set hot pans and cut pizza directly on them. Carl is fine with stone, and we’ll consider quartz, too, but neither of us like soapstone much.

So we looked at color. I don’t want the countertops to be washed out since we’re already looking at light finish on the cabinets, so I want a little color or a slightly darker shade. Carl was pointing out some that were too light for my tastes, but we found a couple that might work for us both.

And then Carl said, “These two are almost the same color. This one is just a little busier.”

Um…no. Each had different reds and browns. Not miles apart, but they were clearly distinct.

Carl studied the samples for a moment, shrugged, and then pointed to one of the reddish blots. “Ok, these are a bit bigger and a little different, right?”

We have just provided additional support for the research that finds women see color better, while men see movement better. Since our countertops will not be moving, I need to be there when we make that choice. Carl agrees, and we hope we can meet with the kitchen designer before summer is out.