Countertop Installation Begins

With painful slowness, there has been a tiny bit of additional progress. The solid surface installers were here yesterday and made a good start getting all the Corian installed. That will make up the worktops themselves, and also clad surfaces like the backsplash and underside of the upper cabinets.

It’s another one of those steps that’s gratifying in that the kitchen is finally beginning to feel complete. In theory, there really are only a few more days of work to go. Seeing the sink properly in place is really encouraging: I’m hoping I could have working plumbing again very soon.

But as seems to be the theme on this project, this step has not been without its challenges. The solid surface team had to demount the panels that started going up last Thursday in what was the kitchen. There were concerns with their installation anyway, so perhaps it’s not a huge loss. It’s hard not to feel the step backwards: something finished now looks incomplete again.

They also hit snags with some of the other details on the Corian install, which meant they weren’t able to get beyond the sheets over the base cabinets. There’s still a lot to do: the backsplash, waterfall pieces along the un-clad cabinet boxes, and the exposed sides of the upper cabinets.

There are a few weird details that made me raise my eyebrows as well. There’s a worrying amount of sag in the fronts of the cabinet boxes that will support the new cooktop and sink. And I’ve found a few more places where my beautiful new floor has been dinged in probably irreversible ways.

Here’s hoping they’re able to continue the momentum and get the bulk of the major steps done this week.