And Then There Were Countertops

Oo, did you notice the new countertops?
What? Did you not notice?

You might have seen this:
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They take pretty pictures indeed.

They are a vast improvement on what was there before. Let me refresh the memory.

At first, there was this:



Actually, there was much less than this.

See that strange grey board around the sink? That's the old countertop. With metal edging that you don't see around much any more. That slab was the only countertop in the entire kitchen for most of the years we've lived in this house. Yeah. I know. It's antique. Probably older than me.

At some point, we ripped out the old cabinets, of which there were very few.



And put in new shiny ones.



Okay, it took a while to rip out and install.
All that ugly stuff on the walls was from amazingly bad plastic tile that had not only been glued on but painted afterward. Yikes.

And afterwards, we were amazed.
Wow! We have storage space! And countertops!



But of course, we hadn't arranged for countertops at the same time, so for nearly a year after we installed new cabinets, there was this:



This is pieces of white board from the hardware store cut to size for temporary countertops. It wasn't bad - it was easy to clean (it was after all whiteboard), but it wasn't even fastened down. It was just an easy stop-gap measure.

And finally, there was this:



We still have the mangey walls (and the hole where the electrician moved a light switch), but that will be upgraded eventually.


The color, I lurv it. The price was right.
The installation, however, left much to be desired...

So the floor is kinda crooked, so the appliances and cabinets are crooked, so the countertops are... hmmm. How shall we say? Crooked.

And because I was measuring, they assumed some things, like I needed extra space here and there, but not over there where we really needed it. And the new dishwasher Oh! Did I mention we have a wonderful new dishwasher? sticks out a bit more and so the counter length is either too short or too long depending on which way you shove it, and of course it's shoved back so that I don't even have a freakin proper overhang on one side - gah! *ahem* And then on top of that, they affixed it with some kind of industrial strength adhesive that gave me headaches for days as it outgassed.

Oy. I'm kinda wishing I had been that picky customer, but this is just screwy.

But some of the strangeness of it is that this is an old house, and nothing is really square, much less level. So anytime one adds some new improvements to the place, you have to fit the new "semi-perfect" items with the existing structure, which is decidedly NOT. Having new countertops just draws your attention to the floor wonkiness.

But oh, well. We have new countertops!

They are otherwise attractive. They don't look boring. They look pricier than they are, which is a nice touch but not essential. (They are fancy Wils0nart laminate.) They have great texture and color. You can't even see any dirt or ants. On the other hand, you can't see the dirt or ants! Oops! hehe.

The best part is that they successfully bridge the gap between the new off white cabinets and the old dark wood paneling and let the door knobs be the dark punctuation, which is all just what I was aiming for. In other words, they look great! Nice enough for every day. Just don't look too closely, and we'll all be happier.


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