Wednesday, February 10, 2016

No Pictures Yet

I've heard that in any kitchen renovation, there is one thing that stymies you and makes you crazy.

For one friend, it was pendant lights. Another lost it over a faucet. For me, it was the counter tops. I know, you would think that with my life experience I would get a grip and not obsess about something as unimportant as counter tops. Plus, I had the happiest childhood in the world with white plastic counter tops that showed every Kool-Aid spill and often had words that bled off the daily Washington Post stuck to them.

But obsess I did.

I made multiple trips to the granite place. I scoured message boards, online conversations, Pinterest, and Houzz. I drove Tim and Margaret crazy. Around Christmas, Tim and I found something we both loved and the angels sang. Until I over-researched and discovered that  the material might not wear well. Then I contemplated going with a man-made and more expensive material, but could not see a large slab in person.

I even considered driving to a warehouse in New Jersey to see it. Yep, my pregnant self was sick and uncomfortable, but I wanted to see those counter tops! On Monday,  I found a place that had them closer, about an hour away in MD, and I rushed to get there and back before my big sonogram.

When I saw the material, I was like, "Meh. No love here." No angels sang. I liked the tiny sample better than the slabs. But after promising our contractor months ago that I was the most decisive and easiest to work with customer he'd ever meet, I needed to make a decision that day or risk throwing off the whole schedule.

I avoided his eager texts.

Then, at 11 o'clock at night, I did the unthinkable. I told Tim we had 2 choices: Luxurious and high maintenance or Meh and low maintenance, and I wanted HIM to decide. Lest you think I gave him this honor because he is a known for style, let me remind you that he brought only a rusty metal New England Patriots trash can and a pair of maroon parachute pants into our marriage. No, I let him choose because I was desperate. I even let him pick the paint color for the kitchen, living room, DR, and hallway.

Margaret, who would like to be an interior designer, preferred the one he didn't choose, but I knew I would have fewer resentment and blaming opportunities with her.

Hold me.

13 comments:

Shellie said...

Hard to make decisions on things you have to look at and use for a LONG time. No matter what you (or Tim) picked it will be nice and new and you will love it once it's in. Take turns picking things and then you will both have things in the kitchen that you like. :)

ingrid lapp said...

everything about this post is great!

Unknown said...

If you were looking at granite. I have had mine for more than 10 years and they are very easy to care for but I understand they are a splurge!

Jennifer said...

Love reading your blog!! Keep up the posts!

Anonymous said...

I'll just say that I let my husband pick the toilets when we remodeled and I have silently regretted that decision ever since. I HATE THE TOILETS HE PICKED. But I got sick of trying to decide and said You do it....eek! But hopefully the Great Counter Choice will be fine. Paint you can eventually re-do. : )

love,
jbhat

Anonymous said...

Oh, Anna! Well handled!

All the best to everyone. Keep well.

K x

Unknown said...

As I am in the process of selecting kitchen countertops, the suspense is killing me !! What did he choose?

Joyce Wan said...

We just renovated our kitchen and used Caesar Stone in Atlantic Salt which is a Quartz composite and a little more expensive than granite but requires no maintenance and we love it so far! The choices can be overwhelming but it's worth it in the end!

Catherine said...

Anna, I am a long time reader, but have not posted in awhile. My husband and I just redid our kitchen along with adding some square footage to the back of our house, and I will tell you - I nearly. lost. my. mind. Truly, I did. And I also told GC I'd be easy and wonderful - and typically was, but OMG THE DECISIONS. My hang up was the pendant lights and the cabinet hardware and the shape of our island (hmm, that's a lot of hang ups), which I changed about two hours before it was cut. I also punted a few decisions my husband's way out of the same desperation you described!! In the end, the kitchen is new, and the space is lovely. There are a few decisions I regret a bit, but it is . . . after all, a house, and seeing my family in it is what makes it home. The counters will be perfect. (And don't fret if you don't love them at first - I had moments of "this is weird and new" when new things came in, but after a month of living in it, it feels like ours and I don't even see the things I worried about any longer!)

Anonymous said...

Solidarity sister! We did a full kitchen remodel 6 years ago. I could not decide on the countertops either. I held the project back weeks because of this. After visiting granite places 8 times - and one multiple times - I cried for my husband to please step in and come with me to decide. Not more than 5 minutes of looking at slabs, he picks our one. I am still very happy with our (his) choice, but as a reader said above, yes it did look a little weird at first since everything was so different.

I would try to remind myself daily that no house here on earth is perfect- even the multimillion dollar ones. I am looking forward to seeing the end results - especially the countertops!
~ nicole

Laura said...

We did our own kitchen with the help of my dad, a retired carpenter. My husband is a firefighter and home two days out of three, but we did not count on life interrupting our grand plans. Three broken hips in our extended family, three out of state deaths, one local death, countless colds, stomach bugs,and field trips, and our kitchen was finally complete. Had it not been for those delays, we would have had a smaller pantry cabinet, a smaller cabinet over our fridge, different (and ugly) countertops, and we would have had to rip out at least two cabinets, a slab of granite, and our new drywall to expose the plumbing that a clogged bathroom sink revealed as faulty. We went luxurious and high maintenance for our countertops, but two years in, we haven't had to do any maintenance on them and they still look fantastic. No matter what Tim ended up choosing, you will love it.

Unknown said...

I'm giggling. And can't wait to see the pics!

Andrea Mowery said...

I'm sure you'll love it, because it frees you from this particular agony. Too many choices make me nervous, and I always choose unwisely. In my experience it's preferable to allow my husband make the decisions, because I end up hating myself for my own skewed decisions.