It's like Christmas!

The countertop installation crew came yesterday and stayed for a mere 45 minutes, but not before installing three lovely slabs of Azul Platino granite in our kitchen.

They placed the first slab to the right of the sink.  The countertop extends to the edge of the wall, which isn't quite as far from the cabinet as it looks - that blue tape is stuck to the cabinet, not the wall.  We also got a slab for the far side of the sink - don't worry.

The largest slab is in the sink area.  In our old apartment, we had granite countertops (which we loved) but there was a pesky seam that got crud caught in it ALL. THE. TIME. It was super gross and there was no amount of scrubbing that would make it truly clean.  No more of that, folks.  We're totally seamless now.

Sorry for the blurriness.  Again with the phone camera...  It's also worth noting that the granite isn't quite as dark as it appears in these photos.  It's pretty uniform, pattern-wise, and has little sparkly bits in it.  It makes a satisfying sound when you put a glass or a pot or something on it and it's my new favorite thing.

The crew also glued the sink to the underside of the countertop.  We went with an undermount sink so that we could sweep the crumbs from the work surface directly into the sink without needing to go up and over the edge of a drop in sink.  We had to do this in the previous iteration of the kitchen, which led to yet more crud that was virtually unscrubbable.  (Favor: Please say "unscrubbable." So fun.)

The installation process was super fast.  The guys hauled in the slabs, heave-ho'd them up onto the cabinets, grunted and groaned and pushed them all into place (perfect fit, btw, even in the tricky little area near the sink), put some caulk in the crack between the counter and the wall, and presumably did something from the underside as well (I missed that part).  They glued the sink in and were off on their merry way.

One funny thing happened.  I was standing in the living room and saw one of the crew members sort of lurking in the doorway between the dining room and the kitchen.  I looked up and he asked "can I have some water," and held up a glass.  I said, "Of course! Right in the bathroom" (Isn't that where you keep YOUR drinking water??) before realizing that the thing he was holding up looked suspiciously like one of our stemless wine glasses.  They were sitting on the shelf in the pantry, ripe for the taking, and it made me chuckle that the countertop guy was jonesing for some water in a crystal wineglass.  Also I was hoping that he wouldn't break it.

But then I realized he was holding up a particularly well-shaped water bottle whose top half had been cut off.  Then I laughed out loud and everyone looked at me like I was a lunatic.  Par for the course.

And then Drew cooked dinner on our countertops!  And it was delicious.  And then I washed the dishes in the bathroom FOR THE LAST TIME!  The plumber comes today to hook up the sink, the garbage disposal, and the dishwasher.  Hallelujah, I say.

The strange bottle of blue liquid, which was not in this spot yesterday, has made yet another appearance.  This time it was considerate enough to put down a paper towel.  We'll see whether the plumber takes it away or whether it's our "gift with purchase."  Only time will tell...