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Diary of my Berkeley kitchen remodel: Step 4, granite instillation.

It feels like my kitchen remodel has been going on forever, and it has, pushing two months now. Luckily, the cabinets and granite are in now and it is finally feeling like the end is in site. The granite instillation is more complicated and fun than I thought so I wanted I would share the process so you know all that is involved.

Once the cabinets arrived, it only took a day to have them in place. Once they were in place, the granite fabricator can come out and do their templating. I figured it would be a guy with a tape measure but I was sure wrong. Instead, the fabricator set up a tri-pod with a laser and outlined the entire countertops to perfection on his Ipad.

Once the template was done, we then headed to the fabrication shop and sat down to pick out the exact layout of each piece of granite. We were able to see each slab on a screen and could place the sizes of each piece we needed over the pictures so we could pick out the exact parts of each slab we wanted. Within 30 minutes we were set and they started using some pretty incredible equipment to begin cutting the granite.

About 10 days after the template was done, we were ready to have the granite installed. The actual instillation process took about 4 hours and it involved placing the slabs, which you can tell from the pictures aren't light, leveling them, glueing them down, filling the seams and then drilling the holes for the sink. One important thing to factor in, if you are doing an under mount sink, it has to be in place before they can template. Our template got held up by a week waiting for the sink to arrive.

Now that the counters are in, the finish work can take place. Today the backsplash was going in along with the appliances being installed. Electrical was finished up last weekend along with the plumbing. Vent hood is in place and all we are really needing now is some touch up paint and waiting on some pieces of cabinets to come in that were the wrong size at first. I have to say that picking out the granite was one of the hardest decisions we had to make. Fortunately, the rest of the process was one of the most fun parts of the remodel. And of all the different contractors we worked with along the way, Brehkus Tile and Stone was hands down the most professional and best to work with. For all counter needs, I can't recommend them highly enough. Give Diedra Collins a call at 303-494-9255 and you won't have to worry about a thing.

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