Soapstone!

Here, Kees Shadley, the soapstone guy and his lovely wife (off to his left behind the ornamental grass) are preparing the soapstone slabs for installation into the kitchen. All of the cutting is done onsite - I don't know how. I also don't know how one guy can move and place such giant honking boulder-pancakes of rock without a small army. (I had to leave to teach Jazzercise while the first slab went in, and then we left for the weekend before the second was placed.) It may involve magic. But, for me, everything about soapstone is kind of magical.


On the way home from a trip to see Grandpa Joe in Tacoma, we stopped and picked up a bottle of mineral oil so we could continue the whole soapstone magic thing when we got home. Here is how the stone looks without oil.


Here we are beginning the decidedly low-tech magical finishing process - rubbing mineral oil onto the slab to darken it and bring out the fabulous contrast of the veins and blobs of color.


Here you can see the oiled counter between the dining room and kitchen behind the still unoiled island slab.


Here's the fully oiled counter. The texture and look is all that we had hoped for. I want to go rub it right now.