Happy St Patricks Day

It's green day - my 2nd favorite color!!  The highlight of our day was receiving text pics of the grand kids, all decked out in green!!  They were cute as can be!!

 

Glenn and I ate out Friday evening at McGinty's, forgetting that we were getting close to St. Patricks Day, and the place serves Irish food!!!  It was ONE crazy place with packed tables inside and out (they have a new outdoor area with a fireplace and a nice bar/shelf area that Glenn put granite on) and several young kids that were doing a few river dance songs!!)  Since Glenn was coming from work and I had already went home, we just met there and the owner Tracy saw me and quickly herded me in the door as they just had a "two" table get up and she said we could have it!!

 

Friday night is fish night - they have the best fish around so that's what we ordered and it was delicious as usual - but it was SO LOUD inside that we basically had to shout to be heard!!  I usually order dessert but by the end of the meal, I was ready to get the heck out of the noise!!

 

The waitress brought our check, along with the largest pen I had ever seen!!!

 

Notice I put a table knife behind it so you could get an idea of the size!!

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It's been one of those truly stressful weeks at work - our part timer chose to NOT show up this week and we had one sick employee - add to the fact that we are super swamped and running behind which added to the stress!!  Once again, ads were placed on Craigs List but Monday is so packed with appointments that Glenn can't even interview until Tuesday!!  I know, I know - it's a nice problem to have, being so busy - so I won't complain - we'll just work extra hard again this week (along with Saturday) and hope that there are no major problems during fabrications!!

I made an appointment on Monday afternoon with a new massage therapist - I'm anxious to try her out and hopefully she will be a lot like my last one!!  It's been a month since I've had a massage and with the hot tub still broken, I'm missing that relaxation!!  Glenn is actually working on the hot tub today but the new part he ordered doesn't seem to be the problem - hmmmmmmm - if anybody can figure out the problem, he can!!

Since Glenn had to work Saturday, I decided to ride in with him and scrapbook!!  It felt GREAT to be scrapping again and I sure accomplished a lot!!

The (Almost) Finished Project

I LOVE LOVE LOVE my new granite!!  There are still a couple more things for Glenn to do but it's all things that no one else would notice so I decided to go ahead and take pics this last weekend of the finished project!

 

My new faucet is WONDERFUL!!!  The spout type handle pulls down so it's a breeze to go around the edges of the sink!

Remember the different edges I talked about on the fabrication blog?  This is the chiseled edge which is on the island.

This is the ogee edge which is on the countertop.

Because of the reflection from the window, I took this picture at night so disregard the "yellow" look to it from the flash - but I wanted to show the granite on the shelf - it really looks sharp!

I suppose now that I have new granite, I can't complain about cooking................

28 Years and Counting!!

Another fantastic year has come and gone!!  Happy Anniversary to my wonderful husband for 28 years of fun and laughter!!

 

Since our anniversary fell on on a Saturday, I thought it would be fun to go out for dinner at Cripple Creek to The Steak House - kind of a given for our anniversaries as we love the food there!!  I called and made reservations for Saturday evening - and then the next day realized a blizzard was to hit on Saturday and there would be NO way we would make it over to C. Crk.  So we both decided to shoot for Friday night after work and that's just what we did!!

 

Trying to get out of the shop early on a Friday is sometimes tough and this Friday was no exception - we raced home and changed clothes and headed on over!

 

Once again we had this great waiter (whom we usually always get) so he made the evening fun!

 

 

First up were margaritas - I opted for a raspberry one - I can't say it was as good as the ones in Mexico but it was still good!

 We shared a shrimp cocktail appetizer first and then ordered our butter fillet steaks which came with garlic cheese mashed potatoes and a vegetable medley which was excellent!  As always, the steak was outstanding and I brought over 1/2 of it home with me!!

The brownie sundae came next - oh my - it was delicious!!

We walked around the casino a little bit and played $5.00 on the slots but we were both so tired from the busy week that we just opted to come on home and watch a little TV - when we walked outside, the snowflakes were already starting to come down!!

Saturday turned out to be a full fledged blizzard - we probably got around 6" of snow - maybe more but who can tell when the wind is blowing the snow sideways?  We were both glad we had eaten out the night before and spent our anniversary evening all warm and cozy watching a couple of movies!

Fabrication and Installation

OK - so after the granite is cut, the pieces are carefully moved over to tables to fabricate!  Perry and Charles start by sanding the edges which is a long process, using different gauged sanding pads to get the required finish on the edges.

 

Because our edge was more detailed than the normal, this again took a longer time to do. Just as a sidenote, running water is used both for the cutting and the polishing of the granite!  This helps immensely with the flying dust problem but believe me, there is ALWAYS granite dust everywhere!  I could dust the showroom every day............

After all the sides are polished and edged, the sink hole must be cut out and then polished - most sinks that are put in are under mount sinks which means the edges of the sink cut out must be smooth.  If the sink is a drop in, the edges don't have to be polished.

Backsplash must also be cut and polished if you are using it - most people these days do tile backdrops but since we already had tile up, we knew we would be using backsplash once again - and yes, the color of our stone HAD to match the tile that we had!

Then it's time to load up the granite, properly secure it (as hard a stone as what granite is, you would be surprised how delicate it is until it is properly installed) and head to the homeowners home!

I wasn't able to be there when the guys installed the granite but took a few pictures that night when I got home as there was still quite a bit to do.

Cabinets must be very level in order for the granite to sit properly, otherwise shims are used underneath.  Once the sink piece is in, holes are drilled for the faucet and the sink must be glued to the granite.

Caulking is used to fill any open spaces and to "bead" around the sink and backsplash.

So the backsplash is yet to be installed and the faucet can't be properly installed until the shelf piece for the window sill is put in - I'm really hoping this project can be finished this weekend so I can post pictures by next week - but in the meantime, I'm already LOVING our new countertops!

How To Get New Granite Countertops!!

The EASIEST way to get new counter tops???  Have a husband that's in the business!!

 

Even though the granite in our home was only 4 years old, I really wanted something different - when we originally picked out the granite for the house, I didn't think about lightness and darkness, I just knew I LOVED the granite called Paradiso - and it was beautiful, don't get me wrong!!  But it's very dark and I didn't realize how dark it would make the kitchen.................sigh.................

 

So in the back of my head I dreamed of a lighter granite in our kitchen - and it became a reality this week!!

 

The first step is to pick out your granite!!  I found one online at Capco in Colorado Springs so we went to look at it quite a while back - it was amazing how different the picture looked on the computer compared to the actual slab!!  I DISLIKED IT ON SIGHT!!!  But of course I looked around and found the PERFECT slab - pricier of course because I have good taste!!! 

 

We put the slab on hold and the next day talked to the manager and he assured us that eventually the slab would be free!!  He was willing to give us a 5% discount on every slab we ordered for other clients and that 5% off would continue until OUR slab was all paid off - what a bargain!!  Capco is one of our main places we work with so we knew that 5% would add up quickly!

 

I picked out Aspen White!

 

 This part of the process always makes me nervous - putting it on the forklift and lifting it onto the cutting table - I always manage to NOT be in the shop when this happens!!

 The slab is carefully put on the cutting table.

 Templates are made at the house to have a "pattern" of all the different pieces and then the template is laid out on the slab.  Many times we have the client come in to see where they want a particular part of the granite to be on the counter top.  Because of all the patterns and colors, there may be a certain spot you want to highlight on an island or another part of the counter top!  I picked out the piece I wanted for the island and let Glenn decide on the rest!!

I also got to decide which edge I wanted - I chose the chiseled edge for the island and the ogee edge for the counter top - the ogee edge is a little fancier than the regular edge!!

After the pattern is laid out, the big saw cuts it into the appropriate pieces and then the fabrication starts!!!  To be cont'd...................

Rayna's Birthday

Denver bound again..........Our weekends just never seem to be dull as there's always something going on - and I've told everybody that NOTHING is going on next weekend - however, I failed to look at the calendar and when I did, I realized it's our anniversary!!!  And it falls on a Saturday night -  whoo hoo!!!  So we MUST celebrate!!

 

Anyway, Glenn was running late from an install so we were later getting out of W. Pk - traffic was horrible - but we eventually made it to Jaime's for the night!!

 

Glenn and Brad headed out early for an all day meeting while Jaime and I slept in a little bit and then headed to Caribou for coffee - the tough part about going mid-morning though is NOT being able to get a table to sit at - so it was back to the car to drink our coffee and somehow, that just isn't the same...........

 

And before we knew it, it was time to head to The Trails where Rayna was having her 11th birthday party - yes, our oldest granddaughter turned 11!!!  She invited her class for a swimming party and I was pretty impressed with the place!!!  Soon 17 kids were out in the pool doing the lazy river, slides and just having a great time!!!

 

I had to leave for a while and take Kylan to another birthday party which was at Monkey Business - Jaime gave me detailed instructions and I made it there just fine, but did take a wrong turn as I headed back to Rayna's party - did I remember that right beside the steering wheel was the GPS map that showed me exactly where I was going???  Of course not!!!

Back to the party and soon all the dripping wet kids came in for ice cream and presents!!!  I remembered then why I never wanted to be a teacher!!

Rayna's party was great and she really enjoyed it!!!  Back to pick up Kylan and then to the house to collapse for a while  before Jessi's headed over!!!  I had gifts for Evan too as all of his weren't in the last time we were in Denver - he was one happy kid!!!

Don't you just love it when kids have hair hanging in their eyes (or should I say nose) and it doesn't bother them???

Thanks Blogger for posting the pictures wrong again - will you EVER get them right????

The boys seemed to be REALLY intrigued with Jaime's phone - so much that they wouldn't even watch Rayna open her gifts!!!

Glenn was so tired after his all day meeting that we opted to stay another night and then drive home in the morning.............at least there was time to get the laundry done and visit a friend who had surgery on Friday before it was time to put the weekend to bed!!!