countertops

So it turns out there IS one thing that can redeem a morning of mopping 5 gallons of rainwater out of your living room. New countertops! We just had a successful installation in both bathrooms and the kitchen!

All three are recycled countertops called ECO by Cosentino; we ordered through Lowe's as that was the most affordable source.

This is the downstairs bathroom; it's called "polar ice." We haven't chosen a backsplash or paint or anything like that yet.

Upstairs bathroom:

"Riverbed" is the color of this counter-- it's our favorite. In person you can see the colors better and it's pretty. Would have been too busy for the kitchen though, since we were trying to salvage the slate backsplash. So we just did it on the small counter upstairs. Again, no paint or backsplash picked out yet.
In the kitchen is "iron ore". Please excuse the painter's tape. The first picture is the most accurate color-wise. It goes with the slate quite well.

It shows up a bit green in the next photo, but I wanted to include a picture of the sink that came with the counters.

Obviously, I'm in the middle of working on the cabinets. The bottom ones are almost done, but the tops still need paint and the doors are far from done. Now that the counters are installed though, I can put things back into the bottom ones and start clearing the disaster zone.

Also need to disguise the gap between the counters and backsplash. In some places it's too big for only caulk, I think. But once the microwave and toaster are back in place you won't be able to see much anyway.

They did do an excellent job with the one seam-- you can hardly see it, even up close.

The walls also need paint, and then there's the longer term project of making that wooden bookshelf into a countertop hutch and putting a pot/pan bar between it and the cabinet top over the fridge. (But that's the sort of thing that isn't urgent and will actually be fun to do whenever I get to it).
So yeah, apparently we have a dire need for better landscaping to keep heavy rainfall from flooding our living room. But the misery of that information thankfully pales in comparison to what feels like a total eye-feast after looking at yellowed cultured marble bath vanities and overly busy, faux-granite laminate kitchen counters (see below).

I couldn't find a picture that showed the old counters against the slate-- it was all way too busy together. But you can probably imagine, just from seeing the above picture.

Ironically, our new apartment in Queens... guess what counters are in the kitchen? Yes. The very same faux-granite laminate.

God thinks he's pretty funny, doesn't he?