Happy Saturday! As promised, I'm spilling the beans about our new countertops! Andrew and I ventured out to Lowe's on Thursday night to order them and as usual our trip turned into a bit of a disaster....

It went a little something like this:

We gleefully show up with our drawing in hand, all ready to finally bite the bullet and get this show on the road, only to be told that we can't order without an appointment?!?!? An appointment, you say? The gentleman that we had worked with on Saturday completely neglected to mention that we needed an appointment to review our dimensions with a "kitchen specialist"  - MAJOR BUMMER!

Thankfully, after speaking with a manager we got everything all squared away and Lowe's ended up offering to take our drawing and have it all ready to be signed off on for the next morning. YAY!

I had to work yesterday, so Andrew ended up meeting with the Lowe's kitchen specialist and reviewing our specs. After much debate, we decided to go with LG Viatera Quartz. We had granite in our last home, and I never had any issues with staining; however the granite was dark and this time around we wanted to go with something very light. After speaking with many folks that specialize in kitchen design and maintenance I found myself becoming obsessed with the idea of spending thousands of dollars on a new (very light!) granite countertop and then leaving some olive oil on it and having an issue...

Furthermore, the color I was eyeing up, Absolute Cream was coming in at about $86.00 dollars per sq/ft - OUCH!!!! What can I say, clearly I've got designer taste on a regular folk budget....

The LG Viatera products range in price (they are priced via a grading system: grades A,B,C & D) with prices ranging from $54.00 sq/ft - $88.00 sq/ft. The color we selected ended up being a grade B, but as luck would have it, Lowe's was having a great sale on four promotional colors so we ended up getting a STEAL!

I was much more hesitant to go with quartz than Andrew was; however, after seeing how beautiful the countertop sample looks with our flooring sample - I'M SOLD! Saving a few dollar bills never hurt either!

This link will tell you all you'd ever want to know about LG Viatera products. Personally, I think they are a great option to get the look of a true natural stone, without the hassle and worry of sealing, staining, etc. Also, they tend to be a bit more wallet friendly, which is always a plus!

LG Viatera Quartz Information:
http://www.lghausys.com/us/product/surfaces/whylg_viatera.jsp

My only hope is that I don't end up longing for the look of a large scale grain pattern, because I do truly love that look.....I guess only time will tell!

In other reno news, as I write this, we've got our plumber making the necessary changes to the the kitchen gas and water lines so we can install our new appliances! I'm looking forward to our first dinner party :)

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

x0x0x0x

Sarah