The dining room is visible because we opened up the doorway and took out the weird swinging door. There is a large pale gold orb style chandelier in dining room.
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I actually like number 3 
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Me too! I like number 3, but I agree that with the slobby slob in the house, it will be quickly covered with cobwebs, dust, and food splatters… with a kid like this, one needs a kitchen that can be hosed with soapy hot water at the end of each day (like what Costco butchers do 
).
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All three choices will be there by Monday so I can hold them up for her. But hard to decide without countertops because they are not getting installed until Wednesday.
Countertop selection was really tough. I took a drawer front of each color to three countertop places last week. I face timed her in and she really only liked one quartz selection Delicatos. Because the island is so large we need a 52” wide island piece. I could not find an island piece anywhere in San Diego
She really wanted quartzite so I brought a sample piece home and did a weekend test. I sealed it with 511 sealant, then dropped lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and wine on the sample. Left it overnight. Next day it all wiped off fine. The olive oil took off a bit of the sealant residue but it was OK
So back out to look at quartzite. Her favorite was Aquarella but I could not find any island pieces in stock. So she settled for White Macaubus which may not look perfect because it is a creamy grey background, darker than the perimeter cabinets. I had the perimeter cabinets sprayed in a custom Behr Silvery Ash color. Our island is Graphic Charcoal which matches the charcoal grey of the fancy oven
The range hood is black with gold straps
After selecting White Macaubus, went back to the store and discovered the island pieces were only 96” long!! Our island is 98” long!! Total crisis. Either we put on 2 pieces with a seam in middle of island behind the sink, or tear apart island cabinets to make island shorter. Back to square one. I spend hours trying to figure out how to shorten end cabinet. I suck it up to my error and order a new end cabinet
Next morning I decide to call every stone place in town and miraculously find the two last prefab pieces at 108” long. Crisis averted !! I rushed out and purchased those and then my truck broke down in their parking lot. That’s a story for another day!! I’m not sure any other contractors would go to all this trouble for a client. I guess someone trying to do this from out of town would hire an interior designer or something
Next is kitchen backsplash behind stove. She really wants major bling tile but I’m trying to recommend a slab piece of the Macaubus behind the stove. I’m afraid busy tile will fight with range hood and stripey countertops
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The countertops will look something like this, but I’m not exactly sure because stone yard wouldn’t let me go out and select pieces. You have to select at Pick Up. Who knows what I’m going to get, just as long as the pattern somewhat matches because we are having a waterfall on island. So I told my guy I would pay him extra to be very picky and select carefully at pickup
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She does NOT want any tile and any grout behind the stove top. She wants a solid surface… Or with a kid like this, she will not be able to find a cleaner willing to deal with the pigsty of a tiled back. Just saying…
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Gorgeous countertops! Man, this woman does not know how lucky she is!
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Wow… so many issues. You must be exhausted. Thanks for the photos - looks fantastic!
For your next project, you need somebody like me … “Do what you think best, within budget. I trust your judgement.” Ha, of course my husband might not be as easy.
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Actually, this client is a dream client. She is an extremely busy professional and trusts me with all kinds of daily decisions. But, I want to give her choices whenever possible. It’s rather streamlined. I send an email with about 10 choices and she replies back with two or three highlighted as her favorites. The kitchen pendants took the longest because she needed about 3 rounds of choices before we found some she loved.
Unfortunately, her husband has terrible terrible taste and sends links he finds to some real doozies. And, she loves ‘bling, bling, bling’. It takes careful explanations on why that choice ‘might be a little much’ in the room with all the other bling
I’m not really happy with the shower design in the bathroom, but hopefully she likes it. I’m counting on the fact that the beautiful bathtub with expensive inset tile below and Wow chandelier above will be the highlight of the bathroom and everything else will just blend in.
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I’m not really clear on why the owner wants gold in the kitchen with all the greys and silvery notes. That being said, seeing the countertop pattern, I better understand the third choice - especially the pendant’s description of “ cascade of water droplets trickling through ”. Minimizing the amount of gold in the pendants while creating a segue from the kitchen tones to the dining room fixture might work.
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I’ve never heard of a stone place that wouldn’t let you pick your slabs. There could be nothing but crap left by the time you pick up!
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Good question about slabs. I do not buy ‘slabs’ of stone unless we have a very unusual shaped countertop
I always purchase prefab countertop, whether quartz or natural stone. Prefab countertops are already cut to size for standard countertop and island sizes. Then a bullnose is added at the factory. They are shipped and sold in precut units. Several reasons for this.
If quartz (which most of my clients want for durability and a more modern look) , there is really no reason to buy a big slab because it is man made stone. As long as the pieces come from the same ‘container’ (their words for ‘lot’) they should have the same coloring. There are times when pieces don’t match because they came out of a different ‘lot’. That is why I make sure the fabricator selects carefully when they pick up.
For any countertop, the amount of labor required to cut and fabricate a countertop out of a slab is high. Anytime you can buy prefab it saves a lot of money
This doesn’t work if you want a really high end natural stone, you insist on a brand name such as Caesertone or Silestone or you want thicker countertop or bullnose from standard In my region there are tons of stores, at least 30 colors of quartz to choose from and you can get marble, granite or quartzite also
Price difference is significant. For our waterfall island I needed two big island pieces. Prefab were $650 each and it will be about $700 labor to cut one sink and install two waterfalls. I was about to have to go out and get two slabs. They were $2400 each for the quartzite. I needed two of them and at least $1300 labor to cut and fabricate the bullnose. So $2,000 vs $6,000
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I hope your client rips her son a new one. What a disrespectful twit!
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Regarding gold in the kitchen, there is already a lot of gold in there We’ve got the big stove with gold accents and the giant range hood with brass gold metal. So our cabinet handles are black/gold on the Silvery Ash cabinets and gold on the charcoal grey island.
Appliances are hilarious:
Matte charcoal grey / gold range
Black/gold range hood with a stainless motor insert
Stainless steel Viking refrigerator (existing)
Stainless steel Bosch dishwasher (existing)
Stainless and black Miele microwave (existing) This is getting built into the white cabinetry
Stainless fancy expresso machine - going in a cabinet shelf
Trash compactor with cabinet panel in island
Gold island pendant lights
Dark charcoal grey composite sink
Gold faucet / water dispenser / soap dispenser
and now I am going to have to put a black garbage disposal button because I cannot find the right gold button that is going to be in the middle of all the faucets. I have purchased three!!! and each one came in a different gold that doesn’t match
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Gold gives to the ugliest thing a certain charming air, for that without it were else a miserable affair. — Moliére
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Glad you took “before pix” of the laundry room. Just looks like nobody really knows how (or feels comfortable) to actually organize things in the existing cabinets. A few bags would clear it up pretty fast. Or are the cabinets already full?
Ever figure out how many kids are living there? Pretty sure the pink roller skates don’t belong to the son (although I shouldn’t assume anything
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Trash compactor? Oh my.
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With this kind of piggy in the house, a trash compactor will not do - she needs some sort of an industrial manure shoveler!! 
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Reason for the trash compactor is that the City trash can is way down at the bottom of the steep driveway. They are resigned to the fact that he is rarely going to take out the trash, so at least he can squash it all down. Personally they reek 80s to me and I don’t like them. At least I got it covered with a cabinet panel. They just seem gross and hard to clean
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And the reality is that by the time it’s been compacted and compacted, it weighs 30 pounds and is a PITA to remove from the container and carry.
Actually, the solution – if it’s feasible – is to keep the City trash can up by the house, fill it normally – with light bags of trash, frequently – and wheel the City trash can to the bottom of the driveway on trash pickup day. But, too late for that now.
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