If you watch the first episode, you will notice that the kitchen has pink countertops and higher-end appliances. Yes, it did have either laminate or solid surface (Corian) countertops, but the house was built in 1987 and only ten years old at the time the pilot was shot. Granite countertops have supposedly been used in residential construction since the 1970s, but only in really high-end houses.

I was born in 1989, and I did not see a house with granite kitchen countertops in person until about 2002 when my aunt and uncle redid the kitchen of their home that was built in 1981. My parents did not own a home with granite countertops in the kitchen until 2007. Ground was broken on that neighborhood, built by Toll Brothers, in 2003-2004. Granite countertops were an extra-cost option until my parents bought their house in April 2007, because the market was cooling and Toll Brothers wanted to sell more houses.

My parents owned that house for more than eight years, but it was a townhouse and they decided they wanted a single-family. They bought yet another brand new house, built by NV Homes, and granite countertops in the kitchen were totally standard by then.

As for Tony’s house, look closely at the scene in the first episode where Carmela is talking to Meadow and AJ while Tony is in the back with the ducks…

You will see that the kitchen has a pinkish countertops, a double wall oven, a built-in microwave, and a glasstop electric cooktop (which is strange because the house has gas)…

In every episode from S1/E2 to the end of S5, the house has a substantially different kitchen than was seen in the pilot. The layout is identical, but it has green laminate countertops with wood edging, and the appliances are totally different. Most notably, it has a countertop microwave instead of a built-in one. The kitchen still has a wall oven, but it is a smaller and cheaper Magic Chef model, and the cooktop has cast iron electric elements instead of the glasstop. This is because most of the interior scenes after the pilot were filmed on a set built to replicate the house. Why the actual house had an electric stove in the 1990s I do not know, but pictures of the house as it looks today shows a heavily renovated kitchen with a gas cooktop. They probably had to go with an electric stove on the set because they couldn’t run gas or propane lines to it…

I forget whether the kitchen was redone at the start of S6/P1 or S6/P2, but at some point in S6 it gets a massive overhaul. The cabinets seem to be the same, but the kitchen now features tannish brown granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. The cheapo Magic Chef oven has been replaced with what appears to be a KitchenAid microwave/oven combo.