Tell you what, there’s nothing like global crisis after global crisis slamming through the news to make your house project seem like a ridiculous indulgence. Here we are though, trying to make something beautiful and frankly working pretty hard for it, so I will go ahead and share it with you.

When we had our quartz countertops put in we had planned for a natural stone piece on the peninsula bar. The contractor nixed our choice for not being solid enough for the task, so we pivoted.

We thought we might use a piece of live-edge cedar newly harvested from Chris and Carol’s place in Bellingham. Not wide enough. We tacked it on for temporary use and pivoted again.

We thought we might use the beautiful live-edge walnut bar from a friend’s old business. Also not wide enough but Morgan had a plan to use bronze to make it bigger. A really cool plan. But also a lot of work and time and ultimately not really less expensive than going back to the drawing board for stone.

If you have never chosen natural stone, it’s pretty fun. We went to Meta Marble and Granite (among other spots) in Georgetown on our contractor’s recommendation, and walked through the stacks, admiring the amazing things the earth has made. So many beautiful and wild things… I wanted something with dramatic seams, but my tastes were expensive.

In the end, I found a slab of granite that was reasonably priced and has more subtle flair. It looks pretty boring in the big photo, but when you get close there’s depth and glamour in it. It picks up the speckle of our ground concrete floor and the colors of the cabinets and the quartz. It’s pretty cool.

I then successfully lobbied Morgan to make that choice with me- perhaps the greatest feat of this particular project.

We got our new full strength counter complete with waterfall edge on Friday. We can now put our knees under the bar and eat. Hooray! Now to finish that wall underneath it…