Your kitchen is beautiful! Love your countertops! They are "purty!" I love your floors...where did you find those? I wanted something like that in my utility room...gosh, I'd love to have that in my kitchen! I know you can't wait until it's finished. Very pretty.."good" job!

Looks awesome!!! I like the granite backsplash. I plan to do the same in my kitchen. Oh and I love your slate floors!

It's ALL "purty"! I love the rustic look and I love your granite! DH and I were our own contractors too and had the same setup you guys do...he did all the work and I *designed* (if you can call it that),clean up and kept a steady flow of iced tea :)
Please post again when you're 100% done :)
Monica

Love all that swirly movement in your stone... especially around the sink!

Love the slate floors and all your selections.

Great! I love the mix of sap wood and heart wood for that rustic feeling.

Your GC's sure did a great job and they look cute doing it too. Your granite is amazing. I need to go look at it for me! Congratulations on a job well done.

Love your granite -- beautiful! Cabinets are lovely, too! Great job! Congrats!!

As I started scrolling through your pictures, I was saying, "I love the wood in those cabinets!" Then it was, "Oh, I love that granite, too!" And finally, "Wow! I also love that floor!" It looks fantastic! Great job!

Very different and I'll bet it's perfect for your setting! Love your granite and your slate floors look fun, too!

Your granite reminds me of the grand canyon. beautiful!

Thanks for sharing.

(and I'm in love with that dog!)

annie, you said it best "grand canyon." I was looking for the words to describe the counter and those are it. It is beautiful. The entire kitchen is looking great. Congratulations to you and DH. Love those little helpers sitting so proudly in front of the cabinets. So cute.

First of all, thanks to everyone for your kind words and encouragement. I was worried if there would be people out there that would appreciate my style and being on a limited budget, my selections. When I first started lurking on this site, I was a rustic kitchen snob! I didn't appreciate white kitchens as I live in the woods and didn't particularly like painted wood. Then I started really looking at all the different kitchens and everyone's designs and ideas and have come to appreciate every kitchen: white, natural, stained, whatever. There are so many ideas and styles. I have converted! Now I scroll through them all! Thanks for all the eye candy and the wonderful ideas. I have to admit that I stole some of them! This site is a wealth of info and others go out of their way to help us "design challenged" folks. Thanks for that!

nc cowgirl: we bought the slate at a stone auction in Cleveland and got a great deal on it. Keep your eye out for home improvment auctions, they are the greatest!

cat mom: I told DH that you said that the slate looks "fun" and he just grunted, lol. He had just gotten done cutting the edge tiles and it was 98 degrees here (no air conditioning). Due to the fact that these are natural tiles, they are very uneven, so grout lines have to be readjusted, tiles leveled and of course I have to put my 2 cents in as to what color goes where or letting him know that one tile appears higher than the other (toe jammer). He is glad to be done laying them, to say the least. Yesterday, he said to me, "isn't there somewhere else that you need to be?" haha
I will post again with the finish since now I know how to do it and will show the before and after shots! Thanks again!

Love the tile.

Is there cement board or a membrane under the tile and do you have 2 layers of plywood over the floor joists and did you follow the proper fastening (screw) schedule for both layers before installing the slate on top of it?

Thanks antss! DH is a contractor and was familiar with the extra needed plywood. It was already in place when we took up the other floor, but I did see him adding more screws though. He also has added additional supports in the basement due to the weight of the tiles, joist spans and the defection calculations. These tiles are very heavy. That being said, he hated it when I questioned him several times about it! lol

Oh no! Didn't mean to make light of your DH's tough time with the floor tile install!

I really do think it looks fun (despite NOT being fun to install!), but I have to let you in on a little secret. I hated the slate flooring that was by our front door and garage door entryways when we purchased our house. They were random sizes of slate tile (stone shaped?), in ugly colors, and the grout was practically non-existent between the tiles ("ouch!" if you stepped on the edges of the tiles or even worse, between them!). I never thought I'd like any slate tile after living with ours.

Yours is very pretty (I just love the colors!) and I'm sure will be well worth the hard work! :-)

Wonderful kitchen. It's not rusticy rustic--kind of more "sophisticated rustic" or something. I like the fixture over your sink--unexpected but perfect.

So, why did you decide to match it to the big dog instead of the little one? :)

I love your choices! The granite and backsplash is awesome and I think your wood cabinets are unique in a very good way! The floor is gorgeous and you picked a great light fixture for over the sink. I can't wait til you post more pictures. Keep the eye candy coming and give DH a hug and a great meal for all the hard work.

Beautiful! I love to see rooms with unique styles. So much of the time people worry about resale value and what the next owner will like. Well, after spending all of you hard-earned money, I think it's nice to worry about what the current owner likes! I totally love it! And the furry friends too. :)

Very nice - you and DH did a great job. I love your rustic look - turned out great. And I especially like your furry subcontractors - I hope they got extra treats for their work!