BruceHartman.net

While Mom was here yesterday afternoon we talked about the kitchen. Right now, the kitchen is serviceable, but far from what I want. I have a few ideas bouncing around in my head, but nothing concrete (oh, I slay myself sometimes).

The first thing to do will be to put in new cabinets. After visiting Home Emporium with Mom during my Labor Day visit, I feel like I’m going to do my best to find a source for the cabinetry and install them myself. As for the countertops… I’ve been dreaming about concrete countertops for a couple of years. There’s just something about them.

I love the finish on this:

This one is also interesting, but I don’t think it’ll work for me:

If I end up going with concrete countertops, I’ll most likely do it myself. Some prices I’ve seen are up around $75 or $100 per square foot to have the pros from Dover come in and do it. One account has a DIYer managing around $19 per square foot. I figure even if it costs me $30 or $40 by the time I figure it out I’ve saved some serious coin and taught myself yet another skill. Plus, whenever I get around to redoing the upstairs bathroom, the technique would come in handyfor the vanity.

So, here are some links I’ve found that will require further study.

• Flickr has a nice collection of pictures of what other people have done.
• This implementation is really cool
• Making concrete counter tops for our kitchen
• A nice example of prep work
• Do-It-Yourself Concrete Countertops
• Photos and Information on Concrete Countertops
• Cheng Concrete Countertops
• Design Ideas
• Graniterock Theater (video featuring Fu Tung Cheng of Cheng Design)
• Soupcan
• And finally, an article highlighting the pitfalls of concrete countertops

By no means have I decided for sure this is the way I’m going. I really like the appearance, but the maintenance factor seems pretty high and might be reason enough to pass on this idea.