It’s been several weeks since the One Room Challenge started and, well, ended, and we are finally making some progress in the kitchen. Thanks for being patient and sticking around with me. Turns out there is a lot of planning happening behind the scenes and lots of traveling to source materials (small town problems!).

The good news is that we found a beautiful honed granite stone with veining on our first try and I didn’t need to look at anything else. The countertops were installed last Friday and to say I’m obsessed is an understatement. Without doing anything more to the kitchen, the countertops make our home feel anchored, elevated, and more modern. But we’re doing more, of course.

That’s a story for another day. I wanted to focus this post on the process of purchasing our honed granite countertops because purchasing countertops is not really something the average household does that often. So let’s dive in.

Here’s the before:

Why did you choose granite?

While I was exploring all stone options, like quartz and marble, I kept coming back to granite because of it’s durability. Granite is incredibly tough and resistant to scratches, chips, and heat. I didn’t really like the engineered patterns of the quartz and the marble was out of budget/practicality for me.

The previous countertops were also granite, but the finish was shiny and it had a bullnose profile that I wasn’t in love with. Having seen Danica from Nadine Stay put granite in her bathroom, I was determined to find a beautiful honed granite slab for our kitchen.

Pros/Cons of granite stone

As mentioned earlier, there are many pros to granite countertops. Granite is durable and ideal for busy kitchens/families that don’t want to baby their countertops. Each slab is unique with natural patterns and colors that add character and design to a space. I believe our slabs were sourced from Brazil! I love the speckled white with veining and the darker black contrast spots.

Other reasons homeowners like granite is that they’re low maintenance (when sealed), they’re heat-resistant (or so they say), versatile in design and can last a long time.

Some cons of granite countertops, though I don’t necessarily agree, is the heavy weight of the stone, the need to seal every 6 months . . . and that’s about it. Honestly, I think granite sometimes gets a bad rap because of the speckle-y, uniform pattern that a lot of the stone comes in.

How did you find your stone?

I did a lot of research on the look I was going for and took notes on the names of stone to search for:

• Virginia Mist Granite
• Nero Argento brushed granite
• Silver Mist Granite honed
• Misty Honed Granite
• Sky Fall Leathered (black granite)
• Negresso Honed Granite
• River Black Granite
• Black Wave
• Bianco Black
• Black Alps Honed
• American Black Honed

I met with and reached out to different fabricators throughout the state and asked who their suppliers were. Then I looked up a bunch of stone yards in Arizona and looked at their online inventory to see what was available. I specifically wanted honed stone, so that narrowed down the search a lot.

I found my stone online and went to see it in person (a nice 4-hour round trip drive) to make sure it’s what I wanted. A lot of them were much lighter in person than the photo online, so it’s important to see stones in person if you can. I fell in love at first sight and knew that’s the material we wanted. I didn’t look any further.

After finding the stone, I asked the stone yard for a list of fabricators that they recommend and work with. They provided a list of 5-8 companies. I called maybe half of the list and only one of them responded to me with an estimate! At this point, I had already reached out locally to three companies where I live so I had a variety of quotes and options.

I want to make a note here that I purchased my slabs separately from the fabricator. Some fabricators will source the stone for you, but I chose to do it separately because it was nearly $5k cheaper.

What were the specs you asked your fabricator for?

I have an L-shaped kitchen and an island that I needed countertops for, so I ended up getting 2 slabs, book-matched, meaning they were mirror opposites, so that the seam would line up nicely.

I asked for a square, mitered edge, 1.5″ overhang, no back splash, one sink cutout for an under mount sink, and two faucet holes.

How much did your countertops cost?

Slabs: $2,162* (includes 8.6% sales tax)

Fabrication: $3,700 (includes travel fee for measurements and install, $600, demo and removal of existing countertops, $400, picking up stone from stone yard, polishing, cleaning, sealing, installing under mount sink, drilling holes on site, new particle board underneath)

Total: $5,862

The other quotes I received ranged from $9,800-$10k (including slabs), and $6,100 (not including slabs) from other local fabricators.

*My slabs were originally $1,295 each, but when I went to purchase them, I simply asked “are there any discounts?” and they gave me a multiple slab discount ($300 off each slab!), saving me an additional $600

What was the process like?

If you have a good idea of what you want, that helps the process go a bit quicker. The first step is to visit some showrooms and look at the samples they have in store to narrow down what you like and most importantly, what you don’t like. It’s really helpful to talk to someone that does countertops all day long to learn the lingo and ask a bunch of questions. Stones are priced into different tiers, depending on what you’re looking for.

Get at least three quotes. My cousin always told me “get three quotes and go with the middle one”, but I went with the least expensive one this time and had a great experience.

This fabricator continued to communicate with me, answering all of my questions by email, phone, and text, whereas after receiving quotes from the other companies, they basically ghosted me with no follow up. So that made me not want to work with them.

After getting quotes, go see your slabs in person. Visit the stone yard, walk around, and spend a good hour or so scoping out your options. Stone yards will often pull slabs for you so you can see them side-by-side or in different lighting. Don’t be afraid to ask, they’re usually more than happy to do it.

The next step is to get measurements. I had rough numbers that I was able to send for quotes, but paid half of the travel fee for someone to drive up and take measurements in our kitchen. A few of you warned me to make sure that they use lasers to measure, and when he showed up and didn’t have a laser, I got a tiny bit nervous. I decided to trust the process since he has been doing this for 30+ years, was the nicest guy ever, and even offered to help cut my countertop for me so I could start building a cabinet — on a Saturday when he wasn’t working! That type of service goes a long way for me.

After measurements were taken, I received the final quote and paid 50% deposit to move forward. The quote was spot on and there were not any surprises, which was another green flag for me! I then purchased my slabs and the fabricator picked them up and delivered to the shop.

Over Thanksgiving break, I drove down to Phoenix for my layout appointment, which is where I met with the fabricator to determine the exact areas on the slab that I wanted to use for the perimeter pieces and island. I knew I wanted the big vein for the island, so the other parts were limited in option; however, a portion of it would be covered by a hutch I’m eventually going to build, so I was less concerned about it. The crew tapes it out on the slab so you can get a visual.

Then it was a matter of getting on the calendar and waiting for installation! In the meantime I needed to build a cabinet for the end of our island because I extended it by about 13″ and that was the best decision ever. I feel like I have so much more space to food prep and store all the junk on top. JK.

Finally, installation day arrived! They started with removing the old countertops and hauling those away for me, which was also 100% worth it. He joked with me that I could keep them in the garage for 10 years like everyone else does, and he’s not wrong, so I told him to take it!

Next they put down new particle board and then brought those beautiful slabs inside. They made some cuts on-site to make sure everything fit perfectly, and I was so impressed that it all fit so well, even without a laser measure. The crew was also so accommodating in terms of letting me observe, ask questions, and take photos and video, which I really appreciated.

Once the pieces were set, the seams from the countertop to the walls were caulked and the stones were cleaned and sealed. I plan to do a tile backsplash at some point, but I couldn’t choose a tile before seeing the countertops in person. Let me know if you have any suggestions on what would look good!

The company recommends 24 hours before setting anything on top of the countertops to allow the glues to dry and cure, but I tried to extend that timeframe since it was so nice to see a clean kitchen for once. It didn’t last long, sadly.

I’m obsessed.

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