Granite installers are here, AMA UPDATE: DONE!

"shop-teacher" (shop-teacher) 10/09/2018 at 11:45 • Filed to: Dusty and loud in here.

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Sitting here drinking coffee, watching the granite countertops get installed. I wish I spoke Polish. AMA

Update: I think I’m a little high on epoxy fumes.

Update: They we re here almost exactly 2-hours. Here’s the results.

Yes, the faucet hole is off center, as requested.

We also had them do a matching hearth. This has been bare concrete, with the faint outlines of the broken crappy bathroom tile that we chiseled off eight years ago.

Ash78, voting early and often > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:25

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Do you speak Rubbing Compound or Stone Sealant? They’re pretty mutually intelligible.

/s

shop-teacher > Ash78, voting early and often 10/09/2018 at 10:25

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:P

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:26

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did they polish your rock?

that looks like my stove

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:26

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get em sealed!

MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:26

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Your wall appears to be leaking(oozing?)...you should probably get that fixed.

shop-teacher > MasterMario - Keeper of the V8s 10/09/2018 at 10:27

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That's a special extra cost wall!

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/09/2018 at 10:28

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Good and propa!

Is good stove.

shop-teacher > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever 10/09/2018 at 10:29

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Yep!

Cé hé sin > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:32

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You have Poles too?

functionoverfashion > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:34

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Which cost more: your last car or those countertops? Because I think ours cost more than my last (also current) car. It was close, anyway. I guess, to be fair, I’ll have the counters for longer.

Please excuse the awful potato photography.

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:34

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Zywiec or Okocim?

Looking good!!

shop-teacher > Cé hé sin 10/09/2018 at 10:36

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Yep. Chicagoland has the largest Polish population in the world, outside of Warsaw. Lots of them are in the trades. When you’re hiring stone guys or roofers, it’s a 50/50 coin toss if their first  language is Polish or Spanish.

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW 10/09/2018 at 10:37

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Blue Pearl granite.

shop-teacher > functionoverfashion 10/09/2018 at 10:39

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The last car I bought was the $140 RallyMetro, so that doesn’t count. The countertops we re more expensive than my Roadmaster wagon, and almost the exact same price as the last two scooters I bought combined.

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:39

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That was just a dumb joke on my part - those are Polish beers.

Is there a hint of blue in that?  Looks straight black in the photos - love it! 

kanadanmajava1 > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:39

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9 0 % o f t h e necessary skills to u s e P o l i s h l a n g u a g e c a n h a n d l e d b y t h e p r o p e r u s a g e o f k u r w a . The rest is extremely difficult.

random001 > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:42

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When we had ours installed, they had three people out. They all spoke a different language, and none of them were E nglish. . That was comical, at best, but they eventually did a good job.

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW 10/09/2018 at 10:48

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Gotcha! I was confused :)

Yeah, there’s a dark blue hue to it in person. It’s a hard color to photograph. We’ve had it in our master bathroom for six years now, and still love it.

We also had them put in a matching hearth in the living room. It’s been bare concrete with outlines of the bathroom tile we chiseled off for eight years now.

shop-teacher > kanadanmajava1 10/09/2018 at 10:49

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They speak English too, so we're communicating fine. It would just be interesting to hear what they're saying to each other :)

shop-teacher > random001 10/09/2018 at 10:51

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Ha! These guys all speak Polish, but luckily also English.

Monkey B > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:51

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I took this journey earlier this year. Backsplash still on hold for funding but the rest is done. That granite is similar except this one is green.

maybe I’ll share a post on my kitchen remodel.

shop-teacher > Monkey B 10/09/2018 at 10:54

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Yes, you should.

We've got a matching granite backsplash going in, then tile for the rest coming later this fall (hopefully).

Monkey B > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 10:56

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did they do they laser measurement? They did on mine and it’s cut to the curve of the wall. The fit is 100% perfect. I was impressed.

shop-teacher > Monkey B 10/09/2018 at 10:58

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Nope. Old school, a crapton of levels and squares and a tape measure. The stone backsplash hides the imperfections though.

functionoverfashion > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:03

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Haha, the RallyMetro! I think I’ve probably, at some point, bought a bottle of liquor that was more than that. Not often.

It’s a good game yes? I always think of that when I find out how much something like a new gas stove costs. “But I could get a whole running car for that much! A nice one, even!!” But I guess you can’t really cook dinner on the hood of a beater Impreza. Not well, anyway. 

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:05

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Polish? Where I live, it’s all Spanish. 

WilliamsSW > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:06

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I used to live right by the Polish Triangle.  There were TWO Catholic Churches within ONE block of my house.  You had your choice of languages at mass at both - Polish, Spanish, or English.

ttyymmnn > Monkey B 10/09/2018 at 11:07

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Instead of a backsplash, we went with a raised bit of countertop across the back. Not only was it cheaper, but it gave us flexibility on what decorations we wanted to put up there, and we weren’t locked into a particularly color scheme if we decided to repaint the kitchen.

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 11:08

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50/50 coin toss around here. We have the 3rd or 4th largest Hispanic population in the US, and we also have the largest Polish population in the world, outside of Warsaw.

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:08

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Where are you?

shop-teacher > functionoverfashion 10/09/2018 at 11:19

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I know I’ve bought dinners that were more expensive than the RallyMetro.

I play that game all the time! How many scooters/RallyMetros/Roadmasters could I buy . Or the other version, “I sold an entire Cadillac DeVille for less than that!”

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:22

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yea thats a different stove. I dont have the double over thing going on.

loki03xlh > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:29

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Chicago?

shop-teacher > WilliamsSW 10/09/2018 at 11:38

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That's Chicago in a nutshell.

Monkey B > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:39

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I was floored how perfectly that laser measurement was. T he wall on the sink side takes a mean dip and it is absolutely as tight as it could ever get

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 11:40

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I'm in the suburbs of Chicago.

shop-teacher > loki03xlh 10/09/2018 at 11:40

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Yep. 

shop-teacher > Monkey B 10/09/2018 at 11:40

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Nice!

loki03xlh > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:44

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Same state here. I a lways en joy taking a day off work every year to reflect on the life and times of Casimir Pulaski.

ttyymmnn > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:44

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That was my guess. I lived in Oak Park for a time back in the 70s.

$kaycog > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:48

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They look great!  I like!

Monkey B > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:50

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lookin good...it appears we  have similar taste. Is your floor tile or wood?

nerd_racing > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 11:57

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Those look amazing!

I’m a cheap bastard outside of food and car parts, so I’m going to attempt to make my own concrete counter tops.  Probably not for another year or two though. 

E92M3 > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 12:02

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Uba Tuba?

shop-teacher > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 12:08

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I’m a few ‘burbs west of there.

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/09/2018 at 12:10

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Mrs. Shop Teacher demanded it. She did manage to come in on budget with the appliances, despite the fact that she scoffed when I gave her the budget.

We went to a high end plumbing show room yesterday to buy a faucet.  We’re so fed-up with home center garbage, that I was willing to spend a fair chunk of change on a nice faucet.  She picked the cheapest version of the style faucet we wanted!

shop-teacher > loki03xlh 10/09/2018 at 12:12

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I’ve only gotten Casmir Pulaski day off once as a teacher.  The rural district outside of Peoria where I was teaching at the time, had forgotten to file their waiver with the state to be allowed to not take it off.

shop-teacher > nerd_racing 10/09/2018 at 12:13

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A friend of mine is really into that ... but I don’t love it, so I’d rather spend the money on this part.

shop-teacher > Monkey B 10/09/2018 at 12:13

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Engineered laminate.  It’s basically plastic.  The stuff is hard as heck, it murdered my saw blades!

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 12:13

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These cabinets and doors are in the kitchen of my niece in Taos. Clearly homemade. I really like them; rustic kitchen. The cabinets in my kitchen were built in place when the development was built in the 50s and the cabinet doors are all 3/4" plywood slabs with routed edges; everything Doug fir. I can make doors like these; they are squarely in my wheelhouse. I’m gonna do it, then paint them.

What I’m still trying to decide is what do use for plywood. These door panels are AC ply. One look that I really like is T1-11 rough sawn plywood, knocked down with 100-grit sand paper. I have a slice of each out in the shop...

My cabinets are painted a dark cranberry, burgundy, red.

Anyhow, I like these cabinets. Home made and very tidy. And 1/10th, or maybe even less, of what new cabinets would cost.

shop-teacher > $kaycog 10/09/2018 at 12:13

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Thanks :)

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 12:14

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My granite counters were installed by a Chinese guy who knew 13 words of English and didn’t want to hear any of them.

shop-teacher > E92M3 10/09/2018 at 12:14

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Blue Pearl.  Tough color to photograph, but looks great in person.  We’ve had it for six years in our master bath, and we still love it.  I honestly think it looks even better in the kitchen.

Tristan > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 12:15

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For me- my painter and roofers were Hispanic, and the crew that installed my hardwoods was Russian!

ttyymmnn > Tristan 10/09/2018 at 12:17

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Melting pot, yo.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/09/2018 at 12:17

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They do the job!

T1-11 isn’t a look I personally care for, but you do you :)

Thanks.  It was really the only way we could do this.  I wasn’t going to do all this work, and use crappy cabinets.  I can’t afford to buy nice cabinets, so I had to make them myself.  I’ve basically done the whole kitchen, for the price of buying the cabinets.

ttyymmnn > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/09/2018 at 12:20

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These are the guys who installed my cabinets, Pablo and Julio. There were here for three days, and d id fantastic work.

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 12:29

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whats the plan for the back splash? That tile was $1.30 / sq ft. I had to get a . When you factor in the adhesive, grout, new trowel and float, and renting the tile saw, I came in around $190 for about 18 sq ft of tiling.

Chariotoflove > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 12:30

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Nice. We had our crappy laminate replaced 15 years ago with black granite. It was a family owned business. T hey put in 3 cm slabs for what most companies charged for 2 cm. We chose one with mica flecks in it for interest, which ended up being the cheapest option because of said flecks. Granite all the way. I’ll never get anything else.

E92M3 > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 12:37

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It does look greenish in the pics. My house has some Uba Tuba and from the pics I thought that’s what you had. Cabinets look awesome btw! What style doors and drawer fronts are you going with ?

functionoverfashion > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 12:51

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The faucet is something you use soooo much it’s worth getting right. And it’s so irritating when it doesn’t work right, or leaks. So yeah, we spent more on our faucet than you spent on the RallyMetro. Not hard I guess.

functionoverfashion > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 12:53

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Also I love the sink. I LOVE the big sink we put in, and now I find myself getting really annoyed with anything much smaller. Like, being able to get a whole baking sheet in the sink is so underrated.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > nerd_racing 10/09/2018 at 12:57

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I considered that route and it really only saves you money if you do it yourself, from what I recall when I did my research.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 13:01

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Interesting, the guys that did mine did it with a wood template. They used long, thin boards and just laid them all out till it all made sense, screwed it together and took it to their shop.

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > functionoverfashion 10/09/2018 at 13:02

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I’d really like a stove like yours (without the back on it). Also, is that a microwave drawer? How do you like it?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 13:15

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You also have more skills and more tools. I think the cabinet doors in my niece’s kitchen look good; they’re very tidy. I think I’ve written about it before, that there’s a certain aesthetic that is appealing — and attainable — to me, that of tidy and neat . I think consistently tidy and neat stands up for itself as a look and beyond that, one gets into finish , which requires more controls, finer tools, et cetera. Neat and tidy are already a quantum level of skill above what many so-called professionals produce, so I’ve decided to settle for it. And I’ll have the backs of my cabinet doors looking neater than his...

Tristan > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 13:16

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I’ve been supremely impressed by all the immigrant workers... The average white guys who did my septic tank cracked a big chunk out of my driveway and did a half- assed job of fixing it, and the ones who delivered my new appliances yesterday left a couple of good-sized gouges in my 2-week-old hardwood floors.

The Russian fellas installed 1,100 SF of wood and built my stairs in a day and a half, and the Hispanic roofing crew was done in under a day.

Is industriousness a negative stereotype?

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 13:16

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And another thing: functionality . My niece’s cabinets are perfectly functional and robust.

Tristan > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 13:17

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Fantastic work! You should think of teaching a woodworking class of some sort... 

nerd_racing > Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs 10/09/2018 at 13:18

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Yep, I’m a DIY saver so I figured it would be cool to try out.  If not I’d have some really heavy garage counter tops or a small sidewalk! I would do molds and pour them separate.  Pour in place ones are too intense for the kind of tooling I have.  

Yowen - not necessarily not spaghetti and meatballs > nerd_racing 10/09/2018 at 13:22

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Good luck!

ttyymmnn > Tristan 10/09/2018 at 13:23

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Not to turn this thread into a referendum on the current politics of immigration,

“Americans don’t want to pick cotton at 105 degrees, but there are people who want to put food on their family’s tables and are willing to do that. We ought to say thank you and welcome them.”

– George W. Bush

Some of the hardest workers I’ve seen, some of the most clever with tools and machines, some of them most supportive of their families, both here and abroad.

Tristan > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 13:32

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White Americans aren’t reproducing like they were a couple generations ago, and they aren’t doing these skilled labor jobs like they once were, either. I’m all for people coming from all around the world to seek out the amazing opportunities this country affords. I just don’t understand how the issue of immigration has become so wildly partisan. There is a vast middle ground between “MS-13 members are beautiful, wonderful people- open the doors and let everyone in! ” and “SHUT DOWN THE BORDER! BUILD THE WALL!” There has to be a way to m ake the legal means of immigration more accessible to those who want to do good, but also filter out the chaff in a fair way.

ttyymmnn > Tristan 10/09/2018 at 13:35

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We live in an age of divide and conquer. There is no middle ground any more. I would argue that both parties are now run by the fringes of their ideologies. 

Tristan > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 13:51

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But if you get off the internet and talk to real people (not fringe wackos at rallies and protest, but normal everyday working Americans) from both sides of the isle, people are mostly still pretty moderate. It’s the loudest idiots on the fringes combined with internet bravado that infests even the most level-headed people that makes it all seem insane . America is filled with a level-headed silent majority, we’re just completely overshadowed by sensationalist media coverage of the fringes. 

ttyymmnn > Tristan 10/09/2018 at 14:45

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Agreed on all points. 

shop-teacher > Tristan 10/09/2018 at 14:46

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Nahhhh ... That could never work :)

Tristan > ttyymmnn 10/09/2018 at 14:51

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And that’s a perfect illustration of my point! ;)

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/09/2018 at 16:16

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I built my narrower panels the same way, more or less . The only thing I don’t like about them, is that the vertical rails should run all the way from top to bottom, hiding the end grain.

shop-teacher > functionoverfashion 10/09/2018 at 16:20

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Yeah, the big ass sink is way under-rated.

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/09/2018 at 16:30

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The walls are wildly out to lunch, so we want to hide how uneven they are with that rough irregular limestone.

We had initially planned to do exactly what you did, but these walls are jacked up. I'm pretty certain the plasterer was drunk as a skunk.

shop-teacher > functionoverfashion 10/09/2018 at 16:32

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Definitely. We could've bought three RallyMetros for the price of that faucet :)

shop-teacher > E92M3 10/09/2018 at 16:34

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Yeah, I can see that. It’s a hard color to photograph.

Thanks!  I’m making shaker style doors and drawers fronts.

OPPOsaurus WRX > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 16:35

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I put a later of cement board over the wall first. It is only 1/8 thick and added some sort of an edge cap thing to cover the top. That might work for you. We had a natural stone picked out too and the thought of cleaning spaghetti sauce or what ever else bubbles over out of the little natural crevasses in the stone made us go with the smooth shiny porcelain.

shop-teacher > Chariotoflove 10/09/2018 at 16:36

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A lot of people were pushing us to use quartz. I like the way it looks, but I remember how nuts people used to be for corrian and how much they paid for it, and now it's completely out of style. Natural products always stay in style, or come back in style.

shop-teacher > OPPOsaurus WRX 10/09/2018 at 16:38

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That’s a good point.

Hmmmmm ... The walls are really bad though ... Like 3/ 8" variation over 6'.

Cé hé sin > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 17:37

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I wonder if that’s still true? There are vast numbers in London as they can just go and live there without needing visas and so on. For the moment of course.

Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 18:31

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I had not thought of that. Thanks for the tip. I’d paint the backside of them as well. I personally think cabinets are overwrought as a concept for something that was just meant to store stuff. When and if I ever sell my house, the buyers will hardly be able to wait to rip out my cabinets and put in expensive ones that won’t last a fraction of the time that these have lasted.

fryguy > shop-teacher 10/09/2018 at 19:28

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Beautious

shop-teacher > Cé hé sin 10/09/2018 at 20:33

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I'd find it hard to believe that more than are in Chicago could have made their way to London already. The Polish community is deeply rooted here, and has been for generations.

shop-teacher > Rusty Vandura - www.tinyurl.com/keepoppo 10/09/2018 at 20:35

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No problem. Yeah , painting would be that extra step to make them that much better.

I’m sure an Ikea kitchen would be in its future ... Ugh.

shop-teacher > fryguy 10/09/2018 at 20:36

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Why thank you :)