The Biography of a Counter Top

The kitchen now after several years of wear and tear. Granite was a good choice.

Since we both come from long lines of Do-It-Yourself people, there are extra stories to tell about lots of things. Kregg's parents have always done everything from plumbing to tiling to electrical to wallpaper to sewing. And my parents, mostly Dad, were the same way. Dad took it farther than most when he actually decided to add "Do-It-Yourself-Dentistry" to his list. He pulled one of his own teeth. I'm going to just let that soak in for a minute.

Anyway, as serious DIY people we can tell you a story about almost everything in our house. Kregg built lots of our furniture. Lots of stories there. We tiled our floors, textured ceilings and painted everything. More stories. He fixes most of our plumbing problems, or electrical problems, and handles the installation of everything from electronics to our double ovens. Lots and lots of stories. He even put in a fireplace where previously there was none. And when you aren't a "trained professional", the journey from start to finish on a project often has many interesting twists and turns. 

This is the kitchen before demolition

Take for example our kitchen counters. When we were in the middle of our major remodel, we were without a functioning kitchen for 6 months. There were only five children at this point, but you can imagine trying to feed a family of 7 from a makeshift kitchen we had set up in our den. This kitchen consisted of a toaster, a toaster oven and a microwave. We used disposable dishes because we had no sink in which to wash real ones. It was one of those "seasons" you simply live through.

We ripped out a wall and here is the beginning of the new kitchen.

If you have ever been through a kitchen remodel, you know how many thousands of decisions have to be made. You have to choose each and every appliance and fixture and plug cover and drawer pull. One of the biggest decisions we had to make was what counter tops to choose. In the middle of the process, my dad made a suggestion. We were in Fort Worth visiting my parents when dad said he had something to show us. He took us out back and there was a massive slab of granite. He told us we could have it if we wanted to use it for our counter tops. 

Granite was not in our budget at that time because it was much more expensive then. If we had been choosing granite from a showroom, this piece is definitely not the color we would have chosen. But the choice was not which granite. It was between this granite or a different material. We decided to take it back home with us and try to decide what to do. Kregg was building our cabinets and the kitchen, dining, and family rooms would all be open to one another, so the counter tops were a major decision. 

Taking this 5' by 5' slab home was going to be a trick, though. We were driving a full size van at that time. You know those old "conversion" vans that had the fancy upholstery and wood trim inside? Yup, that was us. Those vans had great "people space", but there sure wasn't much room for hauling stuff. And we always haul stuff. (Remind me sometime to tell you the story of how I hauled some goats home in the back of this same van.) The "cargo" area behind the back seat was extremely limited and, try as we might, the granite would not go in back there. The only other option was to slide it in behind the front two bucket seats. It just barely fit while still being able to shut the doors. 

This slab of granite now formed a formidable wall between the the front two seats and the rest of the van. There was a small opening at the very top that we could stick our hand through, but we couldn't see over it. These circumstances were somewhat concerning since our return trip was about 6 hours long. But then we decided that maybe this wasn't such a bad thing. The noise level was significantly reduced and Kregg and I actually were able to carry on conversations on the way home. My biggest concern was the stability of the granite. What if it shifted? What if it tipped over? It only weighed several hundred pounds. If it fell, it would squash flat everything behind it, including children. Kregg, however, assured me that the only way it would fall backward was if he accelerated from 0 to 300 mph in 5 seconds and popped a wheelie. And since a conversion van is not capable of such show stopping speeds, there was little danger. 

When we arrived home, he and I somehow wrestled it out of the van. To be able to use it for our kitchen, we had to do a lot of figurin'. Could we make the color work? That was the biggest question. And when we answered that question, the next one was could we get more? That one slab was not going to be enough if we wanted all of the counters to match. We called Dad. And this is where it gets interesting. That slab of granite was given to my dad by a man he had known for years. His name was David and Dad had met him while he was in prison. Dad taught Bible classes for over twenty years to inmates every Sunday morning. And the ones who wanted it were usually offered a job at Dad's company when they "got out." 

When David was released, he worked for Dad for several years. After a while, though, he decided to move down into the Texas Hill Country. One way he earned money was by working on boats for a man who owned a granite quarry. The man would pay him for the boat repairs by giving him slabs of granite that David could then resell. So to get enough granite that would match the piece we already had, Kregg contacted him. Sure enough, he had four more slabs we could buy from him. But it involved Kregg driving the six or seven hours and hauling them back himself. But we're do-it-yourself-ers, so of course he made the trip. 

After getting it all home, he called one of our good friends to come and help him unload. While they were getting the heaviest piece off the truck, it slipped and landed on Kregg's foot. Thankfully, his boots were steel-toed or it would have completely crushed his toe instead of just breaking it. 

This is the way you're supposed to haul granite, with lots of men to lift it.

We couldn't cut it to fit ourselves so we did have a granite guy come and haul it off to prepare it for installation. It was really fascinating to talk to him about it all. He said they would go through 5 circular saws a week, even using diamond bit blades. The saws simply didn't last more than a few days because the granite is so difficult to cut. He wanted to know where we had found our slabs and then he told us how much we had saved. Those five slabs of granite had cost us $200. The granite guy said his cost in that granite would have been $5000-$6000! 

The beginning of installation

We even had enough to do the backsplash 

It does pay to Do-It-Yourself. And then you always have a story.