New Counters

New Counters


2021-04-17

For a person who lives for planning and breathes happier when I’m contemplating event minutiae months in advance…I can be alarmingly impulsive. I blame my spouse. He talks fancy to me and validates my hair-brained schemes and works magic to make them happen. Expressing interest in things I want is a treacherous, slippery slope around these parts. Case in point: our floors that we put in last fall. The reason my husband always wins is because he knows me very well. He knows that if we just jump in and do it, (and if he reassures me that we can totally afford it and I’m allowed to have beautiful things that make me happy) I will be thrilled with the end result and will wonder what took us so long. The man has yet to be wrong.

One day I was scrubbing at pink jello stain on my ugly contractor grade laminate counter top. For funsies, I scrolled through the Lowes website to look at counters. Well, butcherblock was right out, because that mess is high-maintenance. But even if money was no object (which is not the case) I didn’t love granite. Too flashing and busy for my small kitchen. Soap Stone is pretty but super heavy and we have wimpy cabinets. And on it went…not to mention all of the above require professional installation. To cut a long story short, we re-visited butcherblock and realized that I was so wrong. I was also wrong when I figured we could keep the drop-in steel sink we already had. The kitchen was demanding a single basin farmhouse sink. Who am I to argue with a determined kitchen who knows its mind? We got a piece of butcherblock to test how we liked it on the short counter sections on either side of the stove and I fell in love. We found a perfect sink that wouldn’t break the bank and I was hoping I’d fall in love when we got it put in. The weekend before Easter we got the last counter piece so we could have it sealed and ready for install Easter weekend. That was a crazy-go-nuts kind of Saturday with Easter Shenanigans happening with a torn up kitchen plus watching Conference. Oy. However, the man was right and because of his hard and excellent work that whole long weekend, I was left wondering why it took us so long. Also, how in the world have I lived as a married woman for almost 16 years without this sink in my life? I don’t know either.

Here are pictures we snapped of the process. Neil is amazing and can I just say I’m so grateful I’m married to a guy who’s outlook on life is, “Yeah, I can totally do that!” He rocks my socks off.

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The fact that I can soak pots and pans actually all the way inside the sink…not to mention lay an ENTIRE cookie sheet inside the sink (Squee!!!)…makes me so very happy (and I hate doing the dishes). The fact that it looks amazing ups the happiness quotient by an order of 18! I will now cheerfully wash the grossest of dishes for the rest of forever.