It's a BIG Island

The granite for the island was installed today! The island seemed large before...now it seems HUGE! That's a 10' x 5' piece of granite weighing in at about 1200 pounds! It took 4 guys to move it. The painter said he's seen a lot of nice kitchens, and he's never seen a single piece this large.

Here are three shots from various angles:

Lowered Hood

My exhaust hood was mounted 45" above the cooking surface. The cabinet maker designed the cabinets this way because that's what the Wolf website recommended. Problem was, I couldn't reach the hood controls unless I stood on tiptoe. So the cabinet maker designed an extension so the hood liner could be lowered. I couldn't be more pleased--it looks like the hood was designed this way.

 Some of the granite was also installed a couple of days ago. This is India Copper Brown. I love the color with the dark cherry cabinets.

 Hopefully the big piece of granite for the island will show up in the next few days. I'm holding my breath on that one....I had a hard time finding a piece large enough for the island. I had picked out Venetian Gold only to find out you typically can't get a slab this large (the island is 10' x 5'). The fabicator found one piece of Juperana Gold Dark Extra in our area....it's very close to Venetian Gold. But like I said....there was only one piece in our area! I'll breath easy once it's installed!

Dream Kitchen - Cabinets

The kitchen cabinet install was pretty much completed today!

Once again, here's the view standing by the fireplace.
That large opening on the left is where the fridge will go.

The "beverage center" is adjacent to the family room (left), and the kitchen table will be where I'm standing.
And here's a view of the island from the sink side. The opening on the closest end will hold the microwave. The opening on the left is for the dishwasher.
And now for one of the coolest features of the cabinets....the drawers fully extend AND they have soft close glides. The soft close glides prevent the drawers from being slammed. Check out this video:



The drawers are so cool that I spent about 10 minutes playing with them tonight!

Dream Kitchen - The Canvas and Cabinets

Here it is...the canvas for my dream kitchen. From this vantage point, I am standing at the family room fireplace looking toward the range--the range will be on the wall straight ahead.

The cabinets arrived today!
More in the days to come....

Warm Chocolate Chip Cookies

What's better than a warm chocolate chip cookie with a glass of ice cold milk? I just whipped these up using the Alton Brown Chewy recipe found here. This is my idea of the perfect chocolate chip cookie.