[puckschmuck95]

Very popular the Adel Med Brown, huh? I don't care. My wife and I love 'em.

I hope it's kosher just posting in the pics. The gallery upload feature is either not working or I'm doing something wrong. I don't think the pics are too large but anyway....

I've got some pics here of the installation of cabinets and my hybrid slab/tile countertop I MacGyvered to save some dough.

The countertop idea came about cuz:

1) my wife doesn't mind tile but despises grout
2) we wanted a solid surface or at least something that marginally passes for it
3) I can do tile, but for a one man job, slabs are tough - moving, seaming, etc.
4) we spent too much money on other stuff for the addition and wanted to keep the counter under $1000 for about 45 sq ft... tough one

So, in a nutshell, we got three low priced granite slabs (that included free backsplashes) and I set about figuring out how to slice them up so I could work with them but limit the number of joints. The final toll was about 18 feet of counter with 5 grout lines - about one every 3 feet - plus 2 lines on the island. The only outside work was $250 for the sink cutouts.

The grand total came to about $980... kinda like our own Kitchen Design on a Dime.

I'll post up the finished project in a week or so. Even the semi-finished pics are a bit of a mess. It's still a construction zone but we started using the kitchen before completion. 10 months with no kitchen makes one want a nice meat loaf.

The starting point:



In progress (stowaway not included):



Once the frames were in, I set about doing the MacGyver work with the SlabCutter2000:



It's not pretty but it worked. With a borrowed table top saw, it cost about $40 and took a couple of hours to assemble - worth it in my book. (I can't wait to have real grass again.)

No fancy polishing gear to do the beveling and exposed edges - just an old drill and some bugdet polishing pads:



The mostly done countertop:



You can see one of the lines running along the edge of the sink:





The island with the still incomplete raised bar. I'll be using trimmed down Perfekt round moulding strips to finish the edge and hide the plywood base. Also check out the countertop outlet boxes - a Perfekt panel, cut, screwed and epoxied to the countertop - to keep toddler hands at a distance:



And finally, the edging between the bottom of the counter and top of drawers and doors - it's more Perfekt round moulding strips trimmed to about 1 inch wide attached with Liquid Nails and finished of with silicone caulk to keep spills from seeping under the granite.

[Narf]

Love the saw! Prolly because it's something I would do myself, I guess.

Typically, for seams in granite, one would use epoxies of a few different colors. Fill with the base color (black), then dab on the other colors for some variances to make the seam blend in. In the current case, you might be able to pull it off using some acrylic paints on the grout line.

Anyways, it's all looking really good, with some real ingenuity in the details.

[drlith]

Wow, that's awesome!

We are considering doing something similar with the granite...in fact, it's beyond the "considering" point--I happened to spot 3 largish pieces of scrap granite at the salvage yard several weeks ago, in the EXACT granite color I'd been lusting after in my heart (chestnut tan brown...oh my, if granite were a man, I would marry that one) for $5/sq ft--we've got about 28 sq ft useable right now. I believe there's a tile shop within reasonable distance that carries granite tiles in that same color we could use to fill in if we don't come up with any more good scrap.

So, I'm very intrigued by your granite-cutting jig and your granite-polishing drill setup. If you don't mind dropping my a private message sometime, I'd really like to hear more of the details, especially of the "what not to do" variety. How thick was your granite slab?

(And for the adventuresome DIYers who shop at the DC-area IKEAs: Community Forklift in Hyattsville--they have literally tons of granite and are super-nice, non-scary people to boot)

[GardenOfDarwin]

Wow, what a great job! Love the Slabcutter 2000 - what ingenuity!

I wanted to apologize for the trouble with uploading to the galleries, but to also thank you for mentioning it. I went and took a look and found that we had an error in the permissions that was preventing some uploads (related to a recent issue) that might have gone undiscovered for some time if it hadn't been brought to my attention, so thanks!!

The galleries should be working fine now if you'd like to upload those great photos!

drlith - great info on the granite yard - make sure you post that over in sources so that folks who are actually looking (unlike me who will be planning, not looking for the rest of my life, I think...) know about it. It's great to know about those little undiscovered gems. And Community Forklift - what a name!

Susan

[stacylu]

Your kitchen is beautiful but I'm partial to Adel MB with that granite because it's so similar to ours! We did the exact same thing with our exposed plywood under the granite too!

Another thing - since your pictures are already on flickr, you should consider adding them to the ikeafans group there (Flickr: ikeafans.com Kitchen Remodels)

[puckschmuck95]

drlith,

The SlabCutter2000 is now a patented device and will require a small licensing fee... kidding!

If this is something you wanna tackle, here's the route I took

- The base I used was an old temporary "deck" that replaced our back porch during demolition. The platform can really just be a flat piece of plywood on a flat surface. It's something to screw into so I'd say 3/4 ply

- I used 16 stationary (or non-swiveling) casters - about $2 ea at Big Box.

- The casters are spaced evenly and screwed into the four running boards. For spacing, I went for:
one row 16" in front of the front edge of the saw blade
one row 6" from the blade front edge (or simply 10" in front of the 1st one)
one row 6" past the blade front edge (12" past the 2nd one)
one row 16" past the blade front edge (10" past the 3rd one)

.... this means you'll never have more than 10" of a slab hanging unsupported at any point

- Then the boards are built up using other boards so that the top of the casters which will support the slab is the same level as the saw table top. Careful measuring a must to keep all the casters level!

- After that, it's all about placement. That's also why the casters need to be the same height as the saw table top. I made that mistake with the first piece I cut, though that was nothing a little GOOP couldn't fix.

- Place the runners so that the slab won't collapse as it's being cut - two to the far outside edge; the other two go as close to the saw as possible.

- Attach a board vertically to the outside edge of the two outside runners. This should be 96" apart - assuming your cutting a 96" slab. This will help keep the slab on track as you slide it thru

- Each of the runners is screwed into the platform to keep it in place. If you need to move one, just unscrew, move, rescrew.

- The table saw is held is place with a piece of wood behind the saw screwed into place. For extra support, once the saw is placed where I needed it, I screwed two strips of wood into the platform on either side of the saw as well.


All very homemade, but you can see, it worked.

Oh, you will get wet. Goggles and a big sheet of plastic with a hole cut out for your head should keep most of the muck off though.

Good luck and let me know if you give it a try or have any other questions.

[puckschmuck95]

Almost done. Here's some of the updated pics.





In a nice bit of double duty for a couple of Perfekt moulding strips which I used for trim beneath the countertop - which wasn't bullnosed. I essentially cut two of the strips in half the long way. The more or less squared side was used to trim the island lower countertop. The rounded side was used to trim the island bar.


Hide-a-bin. The rubbish bin is a Rubbermaid "slim jim" inside a BPO12 minus the two top shelves.

[gt1]

This is absolutely amazing countertop job! I didn't imagine that DIY-er can do it- I can't!
I have questions about the breakfast bar.
Why did you have to use plywood underlayment?
Are those IKEA standoffs reliable? Did you have to use any tricks in securing them?
What overhang were you able to achieve?