Wood, rock, and ceramic (Day 864)

Yeap—wood, rock, and ceramic. (Sort of like paper, rock and scissors). That's what's involved in the upstairs bath. The wood is quarter-sawn white oak, the rock is honed Mesabi Black granite (?), and the ceramic is a porcelain coating on the Kohler steel sinks. This is all done for now, but we still need to set the mirror. It's ready, but we need to mount the light fixture first (ordered, due in a month). Not sure what we'll use on the back splash, but it will probably some variety of Ming Green Marble, which is the tile we're using for the tub and shower.

The best that I can tell, the Mesabi Black (granite) comes from a quarry in Babbitt, Minnesota. Its technically a 2.68-billion year old monzodiorite. Its a coarse-grained igneous rock consisting of essential plagioclase feldspar, orthoclase feldspar, hornblende, and biotite, with or without pyroxene. Plagioclase is the dominant feldspar making up 60–90% of the total feldspars and varying from oligocase to andesine in composition.

The presence of the orthoclase feldspar distinguishes this rock from a diorite. Conversely, granite contains significant quartz and there's nary a speck of it in our counter top. Case solved, but who gives a rat's ass but me and Ren Thompson.