Santa Cecilia: Hall Bath

Welcome to installment #2 of granite talk. Last Friday, I posted about our kitchen granite and today its time for our hall bath, Santa Cecilia.

Our hall bath will be used mainly for guest but it will also function as the bathroom for baby. When we were selecting granite, my husband, fell in love with the granite but I was a little concerned about the possible yellow tone to it. I worried it would be just too yellow for my taste. I originally posted about the Santa Cecilia granite here, and mentioned in that post that through my research I had learned that this granite comes in varied tones. It can be almost white to very yellow.

Picture time! 

Hall bath mid-construction right after installation.As you can see in this photo, the granite appears to have a whiter look.

Hall bath a few days after move in. Here the granite shows its true color and you can clearly see the more yellow tone.

One more . .

Now it's close up granite time. I took a several photos of this granite because I wanted to really showcase the different elements.

One element of this granite that surprised me where the almost purple spots that we have throughout. They add a really interesting element but if I hadn't seen them previously I might have been a little put off by them. If you are thinking of selecting Santa Cecilia granite for your home, I would be sure to see the exact slab that will be installed. Some of the slabs we saw had these purple specs and others did not or didn't have as many.

As shown here, the granite also has some very dark black variations.

 A little larger look at the "purple" specs.

My overall thoughts on this granite are mixed. I like it in our hall bath but I don't personally know how I would feel about it on a larger scale. My only concern about a larger slab would be that the yellow-ish tones would really play out and I would say it is one of my least favorite things about the stone. However, if that's the look you are going for and its not a terrible look by any means then Santa Cecilia might be the granite for you. Compared to the darker granite we have in our kitchen this granite doesn't show water markers or dust nearly as much which is a big plus for it!

Next up . . Vicenza Brown and our master bath.

Sapphire Blue: Kitchen granite

While writing my granite post I realized I had way too much to say about each room to make one post. So I'm going to break down the granite into 3 separate blog post. Now on to the post . .

We were very lucky that granite countertops came standard with our builder. We had large amount of choice when it came to the color and style of our granite even though we were limited to those granites that were on the "cheaper" end. If you do any research on granite prices, you'll quickly realize how widely the price vary based of the type, color, and veins.

We selected three seperate colors of granite. 

Kitchen - Sapphire Blue

Master Bath - Vicenza Brown

Hall Bath - Santa Cecilia

I wrote about our voyage to the granite yard here.

I'll start with the heart of our home, the kitchen. We originally had selected Tan Brown granite at the recommendation of the sales person, our relator and my husbands parents. However, once we got home and started to think about it, I just didn't love the color. I quickly, like the next day, returned to the showroom and ask for granite options in the same "family" as Tan Brown and the sales person recommend Sapphire blue. I loved it immediately.

Picture time! 

First, a few overall shots of the kitchen. 

Now, its granite time.

My favorite thing about the photo above is that you can really see the blue specs in the granite. It's a wonderful light blue color and when far away isn't visible but makes for a stunning color scheme when close.  We were originally a little concerned that the blue would be too predominant and would overtake the kitchen but its a very small but beautiful aspect of the Sapphire Blue granite.

Complaints about this granite are minimum other than to say it does have the tendency to show water marks left from cups and bowls. However, it's a kitchen! I ensure every night after cleaning up from dinner I wipe down the countertops with warm soupy water then clean again with just water and then towel dry. It actually doesn't take near as long as you might think it would. We also purchased some granite cleaner and will probably use it once every week or two to help maintain shine. I don't believe this a problem of just this granite, its a problem with darker granites in general. My husbands parents have Tan Brown granite in their kitchen and they fight the same battle.

Overall rating for style and look has to be an A+. Additionally, if you are living in a home you plan to sell in the years to come I believe this color granite will appeal to many buyers.

Stay tuned for more granite related post! 

It's been too long!

It's been months since I posted and our house has been completed and we have moved in. It's been a crazy few months and I feel bad that I haven't updated. Big thanks to Sue for sending me a comment and getting me back into this blog! Thanks Sue!!

A quick update and more to come tomorrow . . our house is done, we closed, we found out we are expecting = life is crazy! 

I believe this is the most updated photo of the front I have. It was taken right before closing so a few minor details changes. For example, we do have a mailbox and not just a pole and the post was painted to match the other trim. However, we had gotten so used to the white door that we kept it. I think its a nice splash of light to an otherwise dark exterior.

Blog updates to come: 

Granite - My thoughts on our selections and additional information

Kitchen backsplash - can I say I love a backsplash? 

The Insider - An update on the final look of the interior 

And of course I'm sure I'll think of others too! If you are reading and would like additional information on any post, picture or any aspect of the house. Please comment and I'm happy to share!