The Big Reveal....

I had a fantastic Turkey Day!! I didn't eat too much and I had a great time with my family. I promised you lots of photos and I'll have them soon but not today. You see, I got so involved with everyone and everything that I completely forgot to take even one single photo!! Lucky for me, others took lots of photos and have promised to send some to me. So when I get them I'll tell you about my Thanksgiving.

Today I have lots of photos of something else. HB and I have been talking about getting granite counter tops and we finally decided to do it....right before Thanksgiving when we were having about 10 guests for dinner!! Can you say CRAZY?!!

We shopped around and finally decided on the place to buy the granite and they would also install it. They seemed very knowledgeable and professional. They sent a woman out to the house to measure everything and she talked with us for quite awhile....mostly about how important it was to have good customer service. We liked that because we think it's important, too.

HB did all the demolition and that took him a couple of weekends because he had to do the work when he had the time. Consequently my kitchen was a wreck for a few weeks....all the while I was cleaning the other parts of the house.


Kitchen before


This is what most of my kitchen looked like for a couple of weeks!!

We had an odd little breakfast bar area that separated the kitchen from the family room. It was nothing more than a clutter area. Everything that came in the door ended up on that counter area! We both did it....and I hated it!


Breakfast bar before

The woman who came to the house (Sue) suggested we just get rid of it....cut it down to regular counter height and make one big island area. Why didn't I think of that!!


Breakfast bar being demolished


HB taking down the last part of the old breakfast bar

So long story short, we scheduled the installation on the 16th. Remember, Thanksgiving was the 22nd so there was no time for any delay! Of course, it would be done as planned, said Sue and her boss. No problem.

Can you guess what happened?? Yep....problem....delay!! On the morning when they were supposed to be here we sat waiting patiently and no one showed up. Finally HB called and Sue informed him that the truck had broken down on the freeway and the crew would get here if and when they could! Remember this was the woman who stood in our kitchen and talked with us about customer service and how important it was!! She hadn't even bothered to call us to let us know what was going on! We had to call her!

After several more phone calls HB got really p----d off at her whole attitude and he began calling around to other places to find someone who could install the granite. After talking to several people he found a contractor who had a guy come out to the house and take a look. He said he could install the granite the next day....the 17th. So he and HB went over to the original place and picked up our granite and brought it to the house.

All night we worried about whether or not they would actually show up the next day and if they would be able to do the job. Our worries were for nothing. They arrived as planned and worked their butts off but they got the counter tops installed and everything looks beautiful.


The crew hard at work


Kitchen after


New island area

HB also hung some pendant lights over the new island area and installed a few more outlets and new switches. It was a hectic few weeks and I didn't mention it on the blog because we wanted it to be a surprise for Thanksgiving.

And remember when the truck broke down? That was the same weekend all this counter top stuff happened. Talk about overload!!

After all the granite was installed I still had to put the kitchen back together and clean the whole downstairs all over again! Do you see all that cloud of dust in the air in that last photo....well, most of it ended up in the house! Every surface was covered with a layer of very fine granite dust! But I made it. I got it all cleaned and ready and it looked beautiful for our big day. That was just one of the things I had to be thankful for!!