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.

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.