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Okay, I'm showing off. I just finished a couple photos for a potential customer so I figured I'd share them.

The picture I'm showing is my first concrete counter attempt and is installed in my own home - on my kitchen island bar. The other focus is the pole wrap technique I've used. I've never, ever seen it done elsewhere and all my internet searches has failed to turn up a picture like it. Finally you'll see the floor with the diamond mosaic inlays. I'm kinda partial to that.

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The floor looks great ... but, and maybe this is just my computer but I can't see the details of the counter ... When we get the funds we will redo our island counter top and I'm looking for ideas.

F00k Bob Villa.... you should have your own TV show.

I can probably email a larger picture. Do you still have my email address? I think it's probably your computer. Is your contrast too dark? There's a lot of detail to look at on the top. There's mosaic inlays, an ogee edge, exposed aggregate, and a patina in progress.

You can also probably see part of the distressed cabinet my wife did in that first photo. We did a lot of different techniques in our kitchen. All of it was labor intensive but materials cheap. Much of the material was surplus from other jobs or purchased at a heavy discount at auctions and surplus dealers.

Do you do work in the Pacific Northwest (as opposed to the Atlantic Northwest)?

That's quite generous of you. Don't think I haven't watched some of the home show hosts and daydreamed though.

ya that looks really good! You seem to be a master at your art

Design and consulting only. All my crews are based in the KC metro and I'm through traveling except under very rare circumstances under which I can add to my portfolio and/or make a lot of money. Heh.

Very nice. I like that column.

Yeah, soapstone is more of an east top style. It's too expensive to ship to the midwest - at least that's what I'm assuming because it's just not widely available here.

I love mixing cabinet colors and top styles within a kitchen. I'm glad it's become trendy because 5 years ago, it was almost unheard of.

Thanks. I don't care for the tile bar top I did though. I completed that portion months before I ever considered attempting concrete counters. The oak nose on it would preclude me from changing to concrete now though and I have a significant amount of time invested in perfecting that so I'll just live with it.

Heh. I don't know about "master". That pole is the first and only one of its kind. The top is my first try. Maybe I'll be a master one day. I guess the only part I have mastered is not being afraid of trying new and different stuff.

Define "a lot of money."

Heh. A lot more than what I'm able to make locally. When I'm away, my crews don't get as much done so there are more considerations than when I was a one-man shop.

One of my brothers lives up there and is remodeling. This isn't for me.

Fair enough.

Concrete counter? Is that the new slate or um granite?

We're spreading out, in order to make the assimilation easier, k?

Pole wrap technique? I've very curious, and I say that in the least gay possible way. You didn't inlay all those little pieces?

Whatever you did, it looks good.

:)

I'm not kidding. This has been planned for generations. But, that's a secret.

I'm kind of the black sheep, so please keep that a secret, too.

I'm not sure I follow the question.

Yeah, I put all those pieces on the pole and then grouted it. It's pretty challenging.

Funny story, I had incentive to have that done by last Thanksgiving. So I was up at 5:00 AM grouting the thing when my MIL comes down for coffee while I'm stroking the pole. Heh. She got a kick out that.

I love the look of concrete countertops. Looks like you have the process down. The inlays are a great touch.

I wish I could have you over for some (Texas style) ribs so we could share info.

Unless your brother is rolling in money and can afford to bring in designers and consultants from halfway across the country, he'd probably get much more value for his dollar hiring a talented contractor locally. If his tastes lean towards rustic/industrial then I'm a perfect match in the design department. But I'm sure he can find somebody there.

I don't have the process down yet but I'm sure learning fast. I'll probably look at this countertop in my kitchen in a year and laugh at my own incompetence.

I don't even understand the difference between Texas, Carolina, KC, and Memphis ribs. Isn't the difference in all these styles in the sauce? I don't even like sauce on my ribs. There's two reasons to put sauce on ribs:
1. They're too dry.
2. They taste like crap. Heh.

Donger, CP member most likely to be an alien.

He's loaded, but somewhat (how should I put this) different. He's been through about a dozen designers so far locally. He's the artistic one in th family, so he has expectations that far exceed normality. I mentioned it because what you showed looks exactly what his house in KC looked like.

Hey, I'm naturalized.

Please forgive me, we just got our new Harvest Gold appliances. I am very ignorant on this stuff.

But are you actually making countertops out of concrete? Seriously?

I thought Granite was what everyone was putting in now.

Granite is the new Formica. Concrete is the new high end. It just hasn't hit the midwest hard yet. It's really big on the coasts.

So, what's his complaint about those designers? I have a pretty unique design bent. I don't know of many who mix rustic with industrial. Of course, I don't pay much attention to other designers anyway because I'm busy developing my own style. FWIW, my leanings probably gravitate towards those choices because I feel I can repurpose materials and still make something look really eclectically delightful for less material investment.

I really should develop my website better so I can just show people to the site - if they like what they see then maybe it's a match. Unfortunately, it's still a cookie-cutter piece of crap.

Honestly, I don't think that even he knows. He's pretty much impossible, and that's saying quite a bit considering his lineage.

I agree. Use it and sell it.

Cool. I live for a challenge. Easy-to-please people are good for business but make for a pretty boring project. If I can make somebody who is impossible happy then I pad my pocketbook and my ego.

Yeah, I checked that website but only saw the sunroom pics.

Thanks for the info! So instead of dropping a few grand on granite, I can go buy a couple bags of quik-crete from Home Depot, make some forms and I am cool?

That website blows. I really gotta get on it. I have a pretty extensive portfolio but it's not on my site. Why? I'm not gonna throw my wife under the bus. I wouldn't dare.

Ed, had you considered Bondo?

Uh. Sure. Plus about 150 hours of your time working that quik-crete into something presentable.

ROFL

I could do magic with that.

In all seriousness, I would like to see one in person. For some reason visions of my driveway in the kitchen aren't working for me.

Get that vision out of your head. Concrete countertops are NOTHING like a driveway (unless you want it to look like your driveway). Every concrete specialist has their own closely guarded recipe but it all starts with portland, sand, and water.

Check out this gallery. You won't believe what they can do with concrete. http://www.concretenetwork.com/photo...rt=MostPopular

A few reasons concrete is gaining popularity:
1. You can make any shape you want.
2. You can span or cantilever greater distances.
3. The sky is the limit with regard to color, texture, graining, inlays, trivets, etc.
4. You can integrate concrete sinks into the actual counter.

Wow. It is gone, thanks. I had no clue.

This would be perfect for our bathroom. Hate to think of the cost though.

http://www.concretenetwork.com/photo...tudio_3184.jpg

Dude, if you're thinking about doing your bathroom with a double basin application I have the perfect vanity for you. I picked it up at an auction. The cabinet has minor shipping damage (that can be repaired) but the black veined marble top is intact and it has 2 undermount bowls included. I'm just waiting for the right client to snatch it up before I invest the time to repair and paint it.

We are a ways off from doing the bathrooms. We have a crappy looking double sink setup right now with a tile countertop and two inset bowl sinks. UGLY.

What is the length on it?

I'm unsure but I'll find out. It's probably between 60 and 72 inches.

Wow. I should go get 4 hours of sleep or something. Jeesh.

I think our setup is longer than that. I will have to measure it.

I'll bet I know a guy who could fix it.

nah 2 is good :D

84"

Hey Phob, nice job. That is neat stuff. I wish 1. I owned a house. 2. I could afford you for work. You do some cool stuff. Keep up the good work.

based on my own experience, phil is a professional and does a really good job no matter wht the project might be...

i recommend him to anybody looking for excellent work and/or innovative design (even though my job didn't involve any design, so to speak)...

seriously, if you are the kc area and need some professional repair/remodeling done, you won't find anybody better than phobes...

a+ work and aa++ results...

i'm go bowe and i approved this ad...

This one is 68".

Wow. It's almost like I paid you instead of the other way around. 'preciate the kind words, JMac.

Hmmm, 8" on both sides. Have to think on it.

Need to see it as well.

Here's a cool man-cave I just finished for Alphaman today. Ironically, I didn't even get the work from ChiefsPlanet even though I've known him on here forever, I found him seeking a basement contractor on Warpaint.

Here's the unique bar.

The front of the bar is actually made from weathered corrugated metal harvested off an old barn.

Here's the bartender's view.

Sorry, it looks like my camera lens had some water spots from the rain. :(

Please don't turn this into a poop thread.

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Great work throughout this thread.

Question: Why couldn't you use mosaic travertine sheets instead of doing it individually? That's what I've got on the bench in pic 1. Couldn't that be wrapped around a pole?

Here's the rest, in case anyone's interested

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That's what it is, but I had to cut them into individual strips.

Love your bathroom. I wish somebody would hire me for something like that. Unfortunately that's a pretty high end bathroom. I'll bet it cost triple what this basement did.

Do you have kids, Dane?

Okay, that makes sense. When we began remodeling our home four years ago, I wondered how they got the tiles straight. That was until I saw that they were on sheets. But I've seen bad mosaic jobs in spite of them being on sheets (we actually had to have a contractor completely redo a bathroom because it was so freakin' bad. I mean, awful!).

Thanks for the kind words. That bathroom was the toughest bathroom in the house to design. I drew up the plans and picked everything in there, every tile, every accent, every piece of hardware - absolutely everything. It was challenging because I was just hoping that all of the different tiles and designs would work together.

It took the guys about 8 weeks to complete it (it had already been demo'd two years prior) and I was in there every hour to make sure that they were doing it exactly as specified (especially the lighting - the contractors we've encountered never want to put enough light in these spaces. I learned my lesson the hard way in my kitchen).

Your work looks great and I wouldn't hesitate to hire you if you weren't 2000 miles away!

Not yet.

But here's the kid's bathroom:

My best understanding

Texas - Ketchup based brown sugar and chiles for heat, consistency almost like Ragu
Carolina - Mustard and tobasco
KC - Molasses/Tomato based, thicker, smokier with a more sharp heat, consistency more like syrup.
Memphis - Dry rub