Granite Countertops

The granite countertops are in and look great. I had planned on the countertops coming right up to the window ledge, but had the cabinets built just short of the ledge with a 3cm top on them because I thought it would look better to be just below the window ledge vs. higher that the window ledge. Well, for the first time this build, it worked out absolutely perfectly! The granite meets the window ledge EXACTLY!! The piece next to the range is a bit too wide and needs to be trimmed down, but other than that everything looks great! All counters are 3cm thick.

This is the second time I've used black granite. Besides the fact tht it shows every speck of dust, I really like black. Even though all black granite essentially looks the same, every piece is unique and different, this particular piece had a lot of mica, or small pieces of minerals in the granite that polish differently and look sometimes like water stains if you look at it from a certain angle. I really like the inconsistencies of having a natural stone but I wanted to lessen the water stain look so I used a black polish to take some of the glare away.

Below is the granite before the black polish. The bits of mica are  dull and  look like water spots.

After the polish.

I used kiwi black shoe polish. Rubbed it in everywhere and then buffed it off with a soft towel.

Window ledge and granite

The island has granite called Bianco Montahna. I really love the look of carrera marble, but I know how fragile it is and how easily it stains and this island will be used a lot and need to hold up to some abuse. Bianco Montahna is a close alternate to marble. Up close it has some reddish pink spots and greys and browns.

Here's a picture of it magnified where you can see the reddish spots:

Tile and Bathroom Progress

The drywall wizard, Luis, came out and repaired some of the hairline cracks in the drywall and fixed that area next to my bathtub that needed work. 

 After Luis's handy work

 Still need to attach the  marble plate in front of the bathtub and finish the baseboards.

Toilets are in.

Brackets that hold the Kohler Brockway sink in the boys' bathroom.

Lowe's allen + roth vanover vanity

Sealing Saltillo Tile

** I also have a tutorial on how to strip & seal saltillo tiles here :)

The tile is finished and was cleaned with vinegar to remove some of the hard water stains that the tiles had from being soaked in water to make cutting the tiles easier. Then I sealed with a Behr sealer. I have two coats in the kitchen to protect the floor from all the appliances being moved around and one coat on the rest of the house. It will probably need a total of 4 coats to get a good seal.

 Some of the lime and hard water that's on the tile after the wet cutting. I just wiped with undiluted vinegar a couple of times and it vanished.

An example of the excellent detail work from Leonardo, the tile installer.

This sealer is water based so it is really easy to work with and clean up.

It's from The Home Depot. I chose high gloss wet look, but they also have a flat matte look too.

For the first coat I use a microfiber cloth on the tile and a brush on the grout lines. The rough grout lines tear up a cloth pretty fast so I found it easier with the brush. Also because the tile is so porous, the first coat uses a lot of product and didn't go on nicely when I used a mop. So the first layer of sealer I applied using a rag and a brush for grout lines, then the tile is sealed enough for the second, third and fourth coats to go on nicely using a mop.

 Half the room with the sealer. This sealer darkens the tiles as if they were wet.

 Top tiles have the sealer, bottom tiles are how they look without

The outer ring with sealer

 The milky looking tiles are the tiles without the sealer

 The look after all the tiles have been sealed.

Appliances Arrived

A lot more has happened in the kitchen. Some appliances are in, countertops were installed, and cabinets are almost done. Here are some pictures of the appliances and how they look when packaged for shipping and some of the install.

 Back and front of wolf dual fuel range.

 Thermador dishwasher above.

The compressors for the refrigerator are packaged separately. They are in the two boxes below.

Above is the vent that sits on top of the refrigerator in front of the compressors. Below are the two compressors.

 The back and sides of the fridge/freezer

 This is the top of the two fridge/freezer units and where the compressors sit.

The compressors sit on the top of the units here. Installation wasn't that difficult, just attaching some wire harnesses. Some of the wires attached to the freezer unit were attached so that the compressor unit would sit on top of them (not good) so we ended up removing some of the wire holders toward the front and out of the way of where the compressor sits. It is a little bit like the people designing the top of the fridge/freezer units have never installed the compressors because they weren't perfectly lined up and some of the wires were too short and in danger of being pinched off by the compressor unit.

 Above you can see some of the red white and blue wires running under and in front of the compressor unit. That is after we moved them a bit forward and out from under the compressor. It is important that the compressor sits tight on the black foam you see on the picture above. The air is flowing from the compressor directly below through those two openings in the black foam and down into the fridge/freezer units.

 Below is a white panel that they include (it's attached to the side of the freezer), that you raise up to separate the two compressors so the freezer compressor isn't sucking up the warm exhaust air from the refrigerator compressor.

Putting the separation panel up.

Two compressors installed and running.

One thing that doesn't seem correct is the opening in the vent for the compressors. The opening in the middle doesn't line up with the exhaust of the right side compressor which could cause overheating. I'm going to send this picture to Marvel and see what they can do about it.....again something that seems like the designers never installed a complete unit.  ???

Fridge complete and installed in cabinet.

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