Caesarstone Benchtops

Tuesday the Caesarstone benchtops were put in and Tuesday afternoon I went in for a sneak peek. The painters were hard at work on the first coat of Taubman’s ‘Beige Drop’ and clear varnishing the LIN1 maple doors.

I didn’t check out upstairs as there was a ladder on the stairs and I didn’t want to knock someone off their perch. I was pleased to see the benchtops well wrapped to protect them, less pleased to see lunch and tool boxes on them… especially as the stone mason’s had put stickers on them telling them not to.

So first up is:

Powder room: 40mm thick Caesarstone Night Sky, Laminex Oyster Linea vanity and Kado basin

Laundry: 20mm Caesarstone Night Sky and Laminex Chalky Teak cupboards

Kitchen: 70mm Caesarstone Emperadoro and 40mm Osprey, wall cabinets in Laminex Espresso Ligna Silk, base cabinets in Polyurethane ‘Laminex White’ Satin

When we put our deposit down Wisdom included 20mm Caesarstone from the standard range. There were three ranges available: Standard, Deluxe and Supernatural. They did us a deal to upgrade to 40mm Standard everywhere except the Laundry. So far so good then we added in the 70mm breakfast bar with waterfall ends as per the show home. Ker-ching! Then we went the whole hog for the breakfast bar and chose ‘Emperadoro’ from the Supernatural range Ker-ching! Ker-ching!!

The rest of the kitchen is in standard ‘Osprey’ and I hope like crazy they go well together in real life. I still haven’t seen the finished product as they are so well wrapped. We do have one join where the window benchtop is longer at 3180mm than the standard Caesarstone slab size, 3060mm by 1440mm.

Included as standard is one colour choice for all wet area benchtops so we plumped for ‘Nightsky’. I had chosen different colours for different rooms but when I found out it would cost extra then ‘Nightsky’ it was 🙂

Thursday the Di Lorenzo tiling supervisor called to confirm they would be using the correct tiles and would I like to meet him on site to discuss the layout today. Yes please!!

Now that we are locked out I will grab any opportunity to see inside. Also we bumped into our site supervisor on site so were able to get our weekly update in person which was great. Tiling plan agreed, benchtops checked out, photos taken – sorted!

Main bath:

En-suite:

Next up is the tilers finishing off the wet areas then the internal fit offs begin next week: electrical, air con, plumbing (baths, loos etc.), roof insulation.

Outside has seen some action too – a site clean up!

It was in dire need of it as well, shame it was the one time I was going to sift through the rubbish to reclaim something 🙂

I was after the box the kitchen sink came in to get the correct model number and dimensions for ordering accessories such as drainers and draining racks etc. My observation skills are sadly lacking as I hadn’t even noticed the tidy up as I went inside to have a look, I only realised when I came out to search for the Franke box.

Kitchen part 2

 

On Saturday we went to the Decoglaze showroom to double check our choice of glass splashback. At our colour appointment with Wisdom they suggested ‘Latte’ would go well with our choices of cupboards: Laminex Espresso Ligna silk and polyurethane white satin, against our Caesarstone benchtops of Emperadoro and Oyster. The sample in the Timpelle showroom looked good but I just wanted to make certain.

I’m nervous about all the colours, especially tiling etc because of getting it wrong previously. I chose the tiles in my last kitchen thinking they were a rich cream but in situ they became mushroom. It detracted from the overall look of the kitchen and has bugged me ever since, hence our little road trip.

I’m pleased to say that the latte looks great. The Maltese looked nice as well but then the sales lady said ‘it almost has a mushroom hue in some lights …’ and that was that – Latte it is!

Maltese on the left, Latte on the right with our samples:

Quite a few people make a bold statement with their glass splashback colour but not us I’m afraid, nice and neutral this time. I did like the one which was wine being sploshed around … you can have any photo put behind the glass.

 

We have signed off our kitchen plans from Timpelle. Lots and lots of pages but here is a sneak preview:

 

There will be a join in the cooktop benchtop unfortunately as the bench at 3.1m is longer than the piece of Caesarstone. There are bulkheads over the cupboards and the gaps are for the double oven, microwave and American fridge freezer. The overhead cupboards have been dropped for the vertically challenged – that’s me!

 

Butler’s Pantry looks good: 

 

So does the Laundry: