Being Reborn

We are getting to a point in our world where we will start mining our landfills.  And I think I will see it in my lifetime.  Already companies are crushing down toilets and sinks to turn them into tiles, the "green movement" has gotten out of hand in my opinion, it's turned into a money maker instead of a environmental conscious effort. 

Part of me wants to salvage because I hate throwing things in the landfill, another part of me just loves old stuff.  We work so hard to make a product only to rip it out and "update it" when it still has so much life left in it.  What we should do is choose things that we can live with for longer periods of time that are durable, fairly priced and environmentally friendly. But most of the time price is our first deciding factor and throws out all other options giving us only short term solutions. My budget really could only afford laminate counter tops.  We would have installed them and then within the next 5 years riped them out to something we really liked.  I would have paid for a product that took lots of chemicals, time, and fuels to make only to throw it into the earth to rot and pollute.  Doesn't make a lot of sense.  I just cant do that.  So I put my out of the box thinker cap on and decided to wait for something that I could really like/live with long term.  I hadn't planned on tracking down chalk board slate as counter tops, but stumbled on them while searching for something else and realize that it had all the key factors that I was looking for.  Its extremely durable you can set a hot pot directly on it and it wont burn, its stone which is a huge upgrade from laminate and can probably outlast me and its recycled so its priced really well.  Plus its just so cool........

It had been used in a old school for many years and with technology black boards really aren't in use anymore.  I see why someone decided to nix it, it makes sense..... but nothing is wrong with it.  So, why not carefully rip it out and let it have another use?  It's already been mined from the earth the damage is done so why not keep using it? Very few people have used it as counter tops, but it's no different than any other stone.  Well except for the fact that you can write on it......and I think that puts it on a whole new level of cool.......

Its properties are a lot like marble, it was cut with a marble blade hand saw. (We decided to hire the cutting of the slate, the last thing we wanted to do was break a piece in half by not having the right equipment, we attempted to DIY but decided some things are best left to the pro's) We attached 3/4" plywood substrate down to the bottom cabinets, with a 1/4" hardy backer board and a layer of thin set the slate was installed. We still have some edging to do, but overall it was relatively easy.  My favorite piece is the island side.  It has original lines for practicing handwriting.  I attempted to write my ABC's..........

It's a great juxtaposition to the new and fresh environment, it feels used, but just enough......it's almost like graffiti, we can create and have people create, there's never going to be a dull moment in this kitchen!