To Granite or Not to Granite

As I wrote last week, the major project right now is finishing the kitchen. We have a rehab mortgage and the requirement is to have the house in livable condition 6 months after closing. This means that we only have until June 7 to get the kitchen functioning.

So this week we had the big countertop decision to make. Last week when we were at Lowe’s we were looking at laminate - $1800, no sink included, installing it ourselves, 3 weeks from template to delivery. This week we got estimates for granite from several companies in the area. We chose Paradise Stone in Elkridge - $2800, double bowl sink included, installed, 7 days from template to delivery. For an extra $1000 it is definitely a no-brainer decision. Plus it will add to the re-sale potential down the road. The difficult decision was the color – so many choices!


We went with Ubatuba – it’s a black granite with gold flecks. Below are the pictures of our two slabs (the kitchen requires two slabs because it’s almost 60 sq. ft. of material). They came to make the template on Friday and this coming Friday they will be installing them!



Thursday night we picked up a very old dresser and nightstand from a woman on Freecycle. They are in pretty bad shape but with some sanding and painting they will look great in one of our guest rooms.




When we went to pick up the furniture, we tried to pick up the dresser and it was too heavy. We started taking out the drawers and found a ton of stuff. She didn’t want any of it and told us to take what we wanted. We ended up with this pretty unique, very heavy chess set (it is missing one rook but with some cleaning the rest of the pieces will turn out pretty nice).


This weekend we were more social than we’ve been in a long time. Saturday afternoon our neighbors came over and chatted for quite awhile and we took them on the house tour. They also did us the favor of taking some of the mulch that is still in the front yard – it was a win-win situation! Unfortunately, they are putting their house on the market next month because his commute to Virginia is over 2 hours a day – quite long when you have a young family.

Saturday night Diane and Steve had us over to a wonderful dinner – it was great to spend time with friends and have a home cooked meal for a change! On Sunday, after church, we worked on the house a bit and in the afternoon we walked over to Wine in the Woods.

That's enough socializing for now…we have some serious work to accomplish by June 7!