Affinity Stoneworks

The first and second pictures are of the finished product. The third picture is a close-up shot of back splashes and granite. The forth picture is a great shot of my island. We love the beautiful knot center left of the island. The fifth picture is the kitchen before with the white laminate and no back splashes.

Note: Sorry that these pictures are not in order from before to after. I set them up that way but, that isn't the way the ended up.

And now...our story!
Wow! I have a new kitchen. After 8 years of living here and roughly 5 years, give or take, of trying to figure out what we wanted to do, the hubby and I finally got new granite counter tops and back splashes in our kitchen. We had white laminate and painted walls before. This is our first house so, we didn't really know how much the extras really enhance things until we saw it in other people's homes.

So, since practically the beginning, we talked about having new counter tops and back splashes done. We started thinking seriously about it 5 years, give or take, ago. But, we were stymied by what exactly we wanted. It was between Corian, Granite and Silestone. I spent lots of time reading up on all 3 materials but, if there are 10 good things about each, there are equally as many bad things about each. So, then we narrowed it down to Granite or Silestone. Again...the good and the bad were equal. In the end, Granite won out because I don't like the speckled patterns in Silestone. They can not duplicate the beautiful linear patterns of the Granite in Silestone. So, after a very long time of searches, culminating in frustration which always resulted in the project falling by the waist side, we finally got our acts together and made our granite decision.

It all started around a month ago when the hubby said that this is the year we do the kitchen. The biggest reason is because I am between jobs right now and have ample time to stay home for people to come and do work. So, I set out to figure out which we wanted. Granite versus Silestone. Once I made my decision, I set out to find the pattern. I looked online and found something I thought that I would like and got pricing from a popular home repair company. We were about to pull the trigger and have them come and do the job when the hubby suggested I go to Affinity Stoneworks to look at some of their granite to make sure that there wasn't another granite pattern that I liked better. I didn't see anything I fell in love with at Affinity so they sent me to their warehouse, G&L Marble. I walked through and they pointed out what they thought was comparable to the pattern I found online. It was completely different than what I thought it was. I wanted something rich chocolate brown and it was actually very pink or mauve. I was disheartened and annoyed and left not having found what I wanted. I was about to wash my hands of this project yet again, out of shear frustration. I told the hubby I wanted to be free of talking about and thinking about the project for 24 hours so I could start with a rested and cooler head. Then I asked him to come with me to the warehouse because I did see some slabs that I kind of liked but really wanted his opinion. We went on a Saturday and we finally fell head over heels for a slab. The name was Dunes and it is this perfect mixture of brown, charcoal, copper and tan and has these beautiful and unique charcoal knots throughout the slabs. We had them hold the slabs, which had previously been held by someone else. We also got an idea of what we wanted for our back splashes which was 6" x 6" tiles called Espresso and 2" x 2" inserts called Tantrum Earth. We then had them come out and tear up our white laminate and do the measurements and templates for the granite. I went and helped them place the templates on the granite where I wanted them so they could cut them the next day. The only drama was that we had to live without our kitchen for a week before they could come out and do the install. Of course, that included the sink because we picked out a new granite composite sink and new bronze faucet. That was hard to get used to because we didn't have counters or plumbing in our kitchen for a week. Really an inconvenience but well worth it.

They came and installed the counters and sink but, we still couldn't use the sink until the next day as the glue had to set. Then, the next day, they did the install of the back splash. Whew...that was a long day. They arrived around 9:15or 9:30 AM and weren't done until about 5 or 5:15 PM. We also had the same guys who did our back splashes come back the next day and do recessed lighting for us. Our original lighting was one hideous florescent light above our Island, one recessed light above our sink and one hanging light over our kitchen table. We had 8 can lights installed which really brightens the kitchen and they are so much more modern than the awful florescent light the contractor installed when they built my house 8 years ago. The last thing we need done is to repaint my ceiling. My kitchen is a celadon green and the ceiling is a lighter shade of that green. So light, in fact, that most people think that it is white until we point it out...or you see the difference from the white rectangle left behind from the florescent light.

So, if you live in Georgia and are considering getting granite and back splashes installed in your kitchen or bathroom, go with Affinity Stoneworks http://www.affinitystoneworks.com/ They are brilliant. They are so knowledgeable. Anything I had questions about were answered on the spot. They are all very friendly and really seem to love what they do. And, if their friendly professionalism isn't enough to snag you, their reasonable prices should. We got estimates from 2 other vendors, both chains and commonly known home repair companies, and Affinity's prices were about 70% less for everything: laminate removal and haul away, granite, install, sink and disposal removal and install, back splash material and install and lighting. The estimate we got from the one big chain store was just for the removal of our laminate counters and the granite and install. We can imagine that if we had also gotten an estimate for the back splash, the entire job might have been twice as much or pretty close.