Missing the sink >>> missing the slate

The mudder/taper has been here all week patching up the drywall (yes we finished patching all the holes Monday- it only cost one trip to the ER!) and we're crossing our fingers he'll finish things up before the weekend so we can get our paint on! Since I have no major updates to share yet (we're tackling the vent work for our range hood tonight), I thought I'd share some of our most recent purchases for the kitchen:

We spent quite a bit of time discussing what type of sink we wanted (right now I think we'd take just about anything compared to the one we've been using to wash all of our dishes!). Initially I had high hopes for a farmhouse sink, but after some research on cost (both the sink and the base cabinet) that got ruled out. We both knew we wanted an undermount sink at that point for a more seamless look but couldn't decide whether we wanted a single or double basin sink. Our old sink was a double basin sink, but I wasn't so sure it was necessary and thought we might get "more" out of a single basin. Mike wanted a double-basin sink and since he's the primary dish-washer his vote ultimately won out. So we went with this nifty sink from Overstock:

 It got delivered a week or two ago and although we kept it in the box to minimize damage in our "construction zone," we did take a sneak peek. We both love it and are glad with the decision we made! Our plumber also took a peak and thought we'd made a good decision as well. We can't wait to have this installed (or anything installed in the kitchen for that matter!)

We also spent about a half a day meeting with our kitchen guy choosing tile. We toyed with the idea of extending the hardwood floors thru the kitchen, but worried that with that being our main entrance to the house they'd get ruined quick. So we scratched that off the list. We thought a bit about cork as we'd heard some good things about it but worried it would like funny next to similarly toned wood floors. So that got scratched off the list too. In the end we settled on tile floor and knew we did not want a natural stone like the slate we had removed- like that narrowed things down! Ha! Thank goodness for our kitchen guy to help us figure things out because there are so many options when it comes to ceramic or porcelain tile it could be a nightmare to sift through. After a few specifications (darkish, but not too dark- our kitchen doesn't get a lot of light!, and large square or rectangle shape, and of course a budget x), he narrowed it down quite a bit. In the end we picked this tile from Daltile:

It's called Misty Rain. We love the blend of light and dark colors and know it will hide a lot of dirt AND Puppy hair which was our main goal. We're looking forward to having it laid in the next 7-10 days! We opted to go on a diagonal pattern and plan to have a border around the island to give a bit more interest. Because there's a bit more going on with the pattern than the simple square straight lines, we are going to pay to have it installed. Since the simple pattern took the better part of a 3-day weekend to prep and lay the tile, our sanity, backs, and time line are better off with this being contracted out! :) Looking forward to hopefully having pics of some more progress soon!


p.s. If you're curious about the ER comment - Mike had a close encounter with some drywall (it fell in his eye)! It resulted in a corneal abrasion and the need for antibiotic eye ointment. Ultimately a relatively common injury and nothing to be too worried about, but there was some bleeding in his eye (not bloodshot) that totally freaked me out! Good thing everything is ok and no vision lost!