Counter top Stuff

[museumguy]

Also, check several places. I work in a custom shop that sells 4 brands of factory made cabinets. Sometimes, the customer can get a better price for a granite or man made material than we can get from our supplier. Same material, same color, everything.

[branchacctg]

Also check out Habitat for Humanity Restore for materials, found some very good buys there.  Some Goodwill place have materials too.

[Phil S.]

An acquaintance put in concrete counter tops and I was amazed how good they looked.  Lots of info on the 'net, like -

http://www.addicted2decorating.com/finis...ughts.html

[museumguy]

Also check out Habitat for Humanity Restore for materials, found some very good buys there.  Some Goodwill place have materials too.

very true. A lot of times, when we do a tearout for a new kitchen install, the homeowner keeps everything for a scheduled donation. Usually, the cabinets and tops are in great shape. I totally forgot about this.

[JimReed@Tallahassee]

Granite prices can vary wildly between dealers and even within a shop. It depends on how much you need and how big the pieces have to be. Small jobs can be done from remnants and they are often bargain priced. Take your rough measurements to the granite place and see what they can do.

When we redid our kitchen in 2012 we budgeted a very low number for granite. They showed us meh looking stone for a long time. Finally we got to the odd lots pile and found something really nice. It was their last piece of that stone but was perfect for our little L top. Stone looked great and my wife matched everything else in the project to a little shard of that granite.

[Cooler]

I got butcher block from Ikea.  It only cost me about $400.00 for the two pieces.  I easily cut and finished it myself.  I think it looks good.  The finish is standing up well too.