Counter Culture

With the cabinets in place we wasted no time getting the counter tops installed.  We chose a 3cm thick quartz material in Pure White color.  The cooktop side will be standard install with a square edge finish.  For the island we are going for the waterfall style with the quartz running down each side.  We also decided to put a 16" deep counter directly beneath the large picture window.  This will be a great little niche for eating, a game of chess or just taking in the view.  Since we will not be using a typical kitchen table set the addition of this counter will allow us to have 8-9 people seated at once.  Not a formal arrangement, but formal is not the intent of this house.

Here is the crew about to get serious on a chilly day.  The island top and the waterfall sides meet in a 45 degree miter cut.  They made these cuts on site.

Here is counter with cook-top cutout.  Pretty simple on this side...nice and clean.  And below are some shots of the island and sink.  We had 3 holes cut at the sink.  The center is for a single hole industrial spray faucet, left side is for a soap dispenser and the right will be a punch switch for the disposal.

Above you can see the mitered corner finish.  The guys did a nice job.

In order to attach the counter on the back wall the crew used stainless steel L-brackets.  Each one is load rated to 250 pounds - and we used 7 of them!  We don't want to worry about someone sitting on the counter and ripping it out of the wall.  We really wanted to have a "floating" counter look so they cut the drywall away from each stud and mounted the bracket directly to the 2x4.  The drywall crew will return later to patch the holes and the end result will be totally hidden brackets.  Here are a few shots of the install.

With the last minute switch of the island cabinets and dishwasher we were able to get the sink directly aligned with the picture window.

Come back in a day or two and I'll have updates on septic (I know, boring) and trim carpentry upstairs.