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From top-dollar residences in the San Francisco Bay Area to sprawling mountain homes in the Colorado Mountain ranges, differentiating home owners are requiring personalized styles and also surfaces in their cooking areas. Particularly, they are seeking to express their uniqueness and distinctive style choices with the quick expanding style material of choice-- concrete.

As a matter of fact, concrete counter tops have become somewhat of a status icon for kitchens, measuring up to granite and also various other premium kitchen counter surface alternatives. Customer Information Magazine (August 2004) placed concrete highest for its "personalization" as well as "exclusivity" amongst high-end cooking area counter tops.

As a customized product, the amount of time and also workmanship called for to generate concrete kitchen counters places them as the most labor-intensive and most costly among leading counter top materials.

Nonetheless, concrete counter tops are coming to be a lot more obtainable for those on a modest budget plan. The current diy (Do It Yourself) pattern to astound homeowners and also building contractors is constructing your own concrete countertop. This phenomenon has actually gotten popularity largely due to Cheng's very successful publication Concrete Countertops: Design, Forms, as well as Ends Up for the New Kitchen Area and also Bathroom (Taunton Press, 2002). According to Cheng, there is little financial financial investment in making concrete countertops, yet the imaginative gains of dealing with concrete abound.

THE SHOWSTOPPER

Progressively, home owners are relocating away from the dull, manufactured look of typical counter top surfaces as well as selecting concrete for its natural, ageless allure. And also, the alternatives for customizing concrete counter tops are limitless: one can color, polish, stamp and stain concrete or imbed personal things like stones, seashells as well as fossils into the counter top's surface, including sentiment as well as character. Useful features such as drainpipe boards, soap meals, and trivets can additionally be included to suit the homeowners' very own needs and also lifestyle.

Concrete is gradually ending up being debunked as characteristically chilly and also commercial. In contrary, this old-time material is cozy as well as remarkably tactile; individuals can not aid but touch their smooth, polished surfaces. Realty agent Joy Rasmussen, that has lately marketed her mountain residence-- a short-term investment property in Boat Springs, Carbon Monoxide-- states her visitors' experiences with concrete: "When I had open homes, site visitors was attracted to the concrete kitchen counters-- lots of people around here have never ever seen them".

Happiness's 2,265 sq. ft. hill home was personalized construct by her hubby, Ken Otterman, in addition to KJ Otterman, head of state of Standard Special Custom-made Houses. They constructed pour-in-place concrete counters for the residence's cooking area and also three bathrooms by using Concrete Countertops as their guide. The sand-colored concrete counter tops were polished smooth, after that coupled with all-natural slate of varying shades-- like charcoal, rust as well as gold tones-- that forms the backsplashes in the kitchen and baths. As a style accent, small rectangle-shaped slate ceramic tiles were added to the edge of the shower room sinks, which provided an unique detail to the customized vanities.

When Joy as well as Ken chose to market their residence, their financial investment in concrete kitchen counters proved its value. "We had the ability to list your home $20,000 over market price, as well as had no problems offering it," comments Happiness, while talking about the lengthy list of upgrades countertops denver nc throughout their home, including knotty yearn strong doors, natural slate wall accents and wood floors. "The concrete countertops were quickly the most distinct as well as outstanding of all the coatings. I believe they were a substantial component in adding worth to the home. Around right here, all you see in houses are granite kitchen counters-- and I actually assume homebuyers are getting rather numb with granite."

" Concrete counter tops are an unique offering to homebuyers that see the same finishes used in home after home they see," describes Happiness, providing her observation as a seasoned realtor. "Having concrete countertops virtually offers you boasting rights-- you have something various from your next-door neighbors."

BREAKING THE MOLD

One more benefit of concrete is its flexibility in either modern-day or conventional settings, particularly when coupled with various other products like diverse metals, timber or stone. "Concrete includes a lot of [opportunities] to stone, as well as the combination with slate, which is extremely popular here, provides the mountain residences a total warm, natural touch," says Pleasure.

Happiness and Ken have considering that developed a much larger residence (4,000 sq. ft.) that offers extensive views of the Boat Ski Hotel as well as is implied to serve as a long-lasting financial investment for the couple. They have actually also expanded their list of personalized coatings, including hand-troweled wall surfaces, elegant oil-rubbed bronze equipment, knotty want doors that arch at the top, cupboards in an all-natural, knotty alder, and also their preferred-- concrete kitchen counter tops.

Unlike in their previous residence, KJ and his specialty crew poured charcoal-colored kitchen counters using the pre-cast approach in the incomplete cellar of the new home. Before pouring the concrete, they sprinkled a selection of semi-precious stones in the mold and mildew including Leopardskin, Moonstone, Mother-of-Pearl and Turquoise. After the surface was ground and also lightly polished, the completed result was an impressive mix of colors, "By far, the Mother-of-Pearl was one of the most unbelievable," claims Pleasure.

The L-shaped concrete countertop has a harsh, rustic stone appearance, complementing its sturdy country environments. An indispensable drainpipe board as well as trivets offers feature and also included rate of interest to the concrete countertop. Natural slate backsplashes, distinctive wall accents, as well as a butcher block countertop at the cooking area island all reverberate with the standard heat and earthiness of the concrete kitchen counters.

Happiness and Ken's respective backgrounds in real estate as well as custom homebuilding, and as financial investment property buyers, have actually assisted them realize that concrete counter tops can add tremendous visual and financial value to a home. Concrete's personalization and "show-stopping" allure is like nothing else counter top surface area. Cheng is a supporter of emotional looks as well as developing homes that capture these feelings, as when it comes to Delight and Ken Otterman. Cheng wraps up: "Individuals truly desire distinction, something personal, something customized-- and concrete can do that for them.