Master Bathroom Granite Countertops

Granite is pretty expensive, and it is pretty tough to find it cheap anywhere. There is a tremendous amount of labor involved, to get that rock out of the earth, transport it multiple times, cut it, polish it, etc. Like anything else, granite slab prices are based on supply and demand. The cheapest granite is the most abundant and least wanted (greys and green-blacks). The most expensive granite is the more rare neutral colors, especially the beiges.

The guy that did my kitchen countertops did not return my phone calls, so I hunted around. First I tried a highly recommended top quality company in my area, Terra Tile. My wife and I looked at their slabs and picked a New Venetian Gold, their estimate was $2500 for around 35 square feet of granite, backsplashes, 2 oval 17x14 sinks, the 2 sink and faucet cutouts, separate makeup table, all with an ogee edge, delivered/installed with tax. Then I tried other companies like marble.com, plus some granite ads I saw on craigslist. The cheapest I could find was $1920, a company called Innovate Stones, aka tsstone. They also have an eBay store as well as a bricks and mortar store.

These guys were awesome. I talked to a guy named Dante on a Friday, and got my price quote the same day. Dante was a really nice guy and easy to work with. I went down to his slabyard on Monday, picked what I wanted, they fabricated it immediately and installed it on Thursday.

I love the granite, it is a Santa Cecelia dark. We wanted something tan/brown/black/white, not grey. We made a mistake with our kitchen countertops (also a Santa Cecelia), they are white/grey/tan/brown/black also, but the overriding color is greyish. This granite is much nicer, just the color we were looking for.

If you are in the New York metro area, I would definitely recommend them.

Central Vacuum

The Central Vacuum system is one of my favorite things in the house. It was installed by The Alarm Consultant, Brewster NY, owned by Paul Burdick. Paul's primary business is security systems, but he does central vacuum systems also.

I priced out all of the components, checked every vacuum website on the internet, and came up with a price of roughly $1500+ for my house. Paul did my system for $1300 installed, absolutely incredible, I don't know how he did it. Paul is a great guy to work with, very nice, reliable, easy to work with, shows up and does the work when he says will. What more could you ask for?

My unit is an AirVac AVR7500, which can handle a house up to 7500 square feet. I only have 3300. Possibly I could expand it to 5000 sq ft, if I finish the basement and space above the garage, but I'll never get to 7500 sq ft. He included 9 vacuum outlets - 3 on the first floor, 3 on the second floor, 1 in the garage, 1 in the basement, 1 in the space above the garage, plus 1 is built into the main unit. Also I got the deluxe tool package with the wand, 30 ft hose, etc.

See my gallery of photos

I love the central vacuum system, because it is really easy to keep the house clean. I always hated dragging that annoying cannister vac around the house and up the stairs, and changing the bag all the time. The central vac 30 foot hose is long and annoying too, but much less so than that whole cannister vacuum.

The suction on the central vac is slightly less than the top of the line Sears Kenmore cannister, but it is not an issue.

I noticed our new house has almost no dust compared to our old house. I attribute that to 2 things: The central vac exhausting outside, compared with the cannister vac exhausting all over the house. And also our forced air heating/cooling system which filter the air nicely. After 1 year in the house, if you wipe your finger across the top molding above any window, there's no dust on your finger. This is great since we have a kid in the house with dust/pollen/peanut butter allergies.

guo9001

I didn't want to spend a fortune on outdoor lighting, and I found these really nice lights on eBay. I bought 7 for $150 including shipping. Similar lights in Lowes would have been over $50 each. Home Depot was even more expensize. They are good size, like 19 inches high. I put one on each side of my front door, one above each garage door, and one on each side of the back door. What do you think?

More photos here