Granite Overload

Things are moving along at the Shelly Project. Not as quickly as we had planned, but project houses seem to always have some unforeseen adventure that delays the schedule. In this case, it was the miserable multi-week heat wave that made conditions just this side of unbearable for the crew. There’s only so much relief you can get with ice pops and water bottles, so we had to have lots of rest breaks and even shut down some days entirely in order to limit heat illnesses. The guys have been pretty fantastic all around, and now that it is not quite as steamy, have been working extra long hours to try to catch up.

One of the things that reminds me of childhood summers in the city…a colorful, sticky icepop. Or six.

Painting is just about done, except for the never ending touch-ups. This week we’ll be swapping all the mismatched electrical devices for clean, new, white ones. That’s one of the touches that nobody really notices in particular, but if it’s not done, the house just seems dingy.

The cabinets have been delivered. We went with a contemporary maple design with a clove finish. The ceramic for the floor is actually called Vanilla, and it has textured variations that look like butter pecan ice cream. So could there be any doubt that when I came across a slab of granite called Chocolate Fiorito that I couldn’t resist?

Mmmmm. Chocolate Fiorito Granite. Photo courtesy of AU Granite and Marble in Annapolis

Actually, I didn’t jump on the Chocolate granite right away. I was wallowing in choices. We’ve used Giallo Ornamental in the last two houses, and I wanted to try something a little bolder with Shelly, since we have soaring ceilings and plenty of light. Here’s just a few more samples of what I was considering.

Key West Gold Granite. Photo courtesy of AU Granite and Marble in Annapolis.

The lighter slab in the middle is Giallo Napoleon. Photo courtesy of AU Granite and Marble in Annapolis

Sending thanks out to Guy at AU Granite and Marble in Annapolis for his patience with me.  I went back and forth between these three slabs over the course of a day. In the end, the dark drama of the Chocolate Fiorito, as well as the way that the pieces we needed could  best be cut out of the available slab, helped make my decision.