In-Law Suite Vanity In!

My writing energy wilted after writing about the marble mishap, but I've had a nap and am ready to share more good news: the River White granite vanity has been installed in the in-law bathroom!

I saw the slab when I was by in the morning. This is my favorite of the granites we chose. If a slab had been available, or if this was big enough for our vanity, we would have had it installed in our bathroom. (but the Kasmir White is very nice, too)

River White Granite, surrounded by many boxes and our new bedding.

Close up of the River White. I love the gray lines.

Installation complete.

Our Kraus sink arrived, too, so I placed it on the vanity for a quick peek.

Side view. After the Delta touch faucet is installed, we'll make the pipes under the sink prettier.

The vanity is a little non-traditional, but the idea is that if I (or someone else in our family) is suddenly in a wheelchair, renovating the bathroom for accessibility is one less thing we need to think about. The height and shape of the vanity allows someone to comfortably use the sink from a wheelchair. The touch-activated faucet will be easy for someone with arthritis to us. There's still space for storage, and room for a chair to navigate to all the important bathroom fixtures. Hopefully, we won't ever need all these features, but the peace of mind that goes with knowing it's ready definitely puts my mind to rest.

Prepping for Counters and Sinks

We had a busy morning at the house today. We met with Cody from Canton Cut Stone to get the measurements for our countertops. We wrote about our choices here.

We did a bit of research last night so we were aware of the decisions we'd need to make today. Things like:

Edge Profile:
In our previous house, we a dupont edge. We did not choose this profile. We thought it was pretty when we purchased the house, but the love affair quickly ended when I realized how easily gunk got caught in the corner. I cleaned it with an electric toothbrush.

Profile options

Since we have a more modern/transitional approach in our new house, we selected an eased (straight) profile. The edge is just very slightly rounded to keep the corner from being a hip jabber.

Eased Edge

Radius of Corners:

We also had to decide what kind of corners we wanted to have. A 90 degree angle is a 0 radius. A very round corner is a 1 radius. Ours will be 1/8", which is basically the radius equivalent of an eased edge, like the photo above.

Honed or Polished Finish:
When stone is polished, it's shiny and reflective. When it's honed, it is buffed to a matte finish. Most experts agree that etching doesn't show up as much on honed, but a polished finish protects against stains. Sine we don't cut directly on our counters, we chose polished for our quartz. Our marble slab was already polished, so we'll have the same finish, although I might have chose a honed finish if I had had a choice.

Honed Marble

Polished Marble

Sink Detail:

As much as we like the Silgranit sinks, which are made of composite material, we decided to save a little money by going with stainless steel. We close Blanco Stellar sinks for our kitchen. We knew we wanted single bowls. Scratch that, Niels, as the sweet pot-scrubbing hubby that he is, strongly campaigned for a single bowl sink. It came with a promise to continue scrubbing pots and pans, so how could I argue? The steel is 18 gauge, which is on the strong side of the scale. 

Blanco Stellar 441024

Matching grid to protect the base of the sink from scratches.

Blanco Stellar 441026

Reveal:

Reveal refers to how much of an undermount sink shows. Another way to think of it is to consider the overhang. A positive reveal means that the counter does not hang over the sink (aka, the sink is revealed). You'll see a little bit of sink and the silicone caulking. Some people don't like this because gunk can collect on the revealed part. A negative reveal means that there is a little bit of overhang, which means that you won't see the top of the sink.

Negative reveal: you can't see the top edge of the sink.

Positive Reveal: you can see the top edge of the sink. It is "revealed."

We will be getting the negative overhang. To be honest, before last night, despite being consumed with all things construction, the reveal of a sink never crossed my mind. Since our fabricator does a negative as standard, that was fine with us.

Bath and Laundry Sinks:

While most of the time was spent in the kitchen, Cody did also measure all the other counters as well. Most of the bathroom sinks will be standard white sinks, the in-law suite will have a vessel sink. We aren't big fans of vessel sinks in general, because the bowls can be quite difficult to clean, but this one is square so it should be a lot easier. We chose the vessel to raise the sink above the vanity to allow more leg room under the accessible vanity.

Kraus KCV-150

CorStone White Self-Rimming Acrylic Laundry Sink

Faucets:

As part of our accessibility goals, we chose Delta's Touch 2.0 faucets for the kitchen and in-law bath. In the kitchen, we have the Pilar 3-hole in brilliance stainless. We'll also use the bar version for the prep sink.

In the in-law bath, we chose the Lahara style in chrome because the Pilar wasn't available:

For the bathrooms, we are using Charis' standard, the elegant Eva line from Moen.

So, armed with all the selections, Cody started measuring. First he wrote everything down:

Then he set up these little doo dads and used a camera like tool with a laser beam to get exact measurements.

Cody took the measurements back to the shop and the crew there will start measuring the template. Since we chose quartz and mostly remnants, we don't really need to come in to the shop to decide where on the slab the template will be placed. They'll just take that angle that fits. However, they will call me to come in for placing the master bath vanity template so I can make sure the veins are where we want them.

The next few weeks will be interesting as all the subs dance around each other. The counters will be one of the last things, with installation scheduled for January 24 and 25.

As I left, I took a nice picture of our house with the first snow of the season.

Universally Designed Bathroom

One of the primary reasons why we are building a home rather than taking advantage of one of the real estate bargains flooding the market is that we wanted a home where I could "age in place." Since I live with a brain injury, I am keenly aware that I can't take my health for granted. In addition to building around my current needs for sound proofing, trip-proof flooring and extra light, we also considered universal design elements on the entire first floor. In a broad stroke, this includes things like wide hallways, 36" doors, levers and pulls instead of knobs, rockers instead of switches, etc. But a big consideration was having a master suite on the first floor and  the second floor. 

For the time being, we'll be upstairs, next to our toddler son. When family and friends visit, they have a full suite to enjoy. As our parents age, we want our house to be a welcoming place for them. If something happens to me (or, God forbid, Niels or our son), having this suite ready is one less thing to worry about during that stressful time.

The bedroom and closet are ample, but it's really the bathroom where universal design comes to play. We had our vanity custom made because we wanted it open under the sink, but with drawers and storage easily accessible. We're really happy with how it's looking so far:

In order keep the clearance we needed under the sink, we opted for a vessel sink. We aren't fans in general of vessel sinks because they can be a bear to keep clean, but we settled on this square vessel sink from Kraus. We liked the shape (no curves for gunk to get caught under) and the fact that the faucet fits on the fixture, not behind it or on the wall. 

The faucet we're planning to use is the Delta Touch 2.0 hands free faucet. Especially since my mom has arthritis, anything hands free is an extra help.

Most standard ADA bathrooms include a wheel-in shower. Since we don't need a wheelchair ready shower at this point, we chose the low entry Sterling surround with removable bench. A fixed bench can be more of a hazard, so this bench will better meet our needs. I know I would have loved this shower set up after my last surgery. From a practical stand point, we love the storage niches and wish we would have put this in our shower as well.

Lastly, we wanted to install a few grab bars that went along with our "more modern than nursing home" aesthetic. The Moen At Home collection fits the bill by making dual purpose grab bars::

Toilet Paper Holder/Grab  Bar

Towel Holder/Grab Bar

Shower Shelf/Grab Bar

The only other consideration we made with the layout is that we allowed lots of space for a chair to maneuver, so the finished room may look a little sparse compared to other suites, but the function fits the form.